by Andrew

The Providence show was my 2nd of the tour, with the first being an impressive Philadelphia show on June 11th. The Dunkin Donuts Arena was a great place to see a show. The arena is smaller the most of the large ones on the East Coast and even my 2nd level seats were great ones. It was much like a packed college venue with everyone in tight. Maybe not the most beautiful arena but a goo done to see a concert. The first show I attendeded in Philadelphia four months before seemed to have a more predictable set list. Not so in Providence on this Halloween night. There was a lot of Halloween energy with much of the crowd decked out in appropriate attire.The concert seemed to be an all out 40th birthday celebration for Larry and I wonder if he had any input to some of the unique choices on the set list on this night. U2 started off predictably with Elevation, Beautiful Day, etc. It was nice to hear New Year's Day which was not played in Philadelphia. After "Stuck in a Moment" a cake and eventually champagne were brought out for Larry and he go out from behind the drums and took the mic to talk to the crowd. Larry cracked a joke about never talking or getting to the front of the stage until now. At the same time Bono went and sat behind the drum set and Larry let us know that Bono could not play the drums. I was thrilled when U2 went into a seemingly unprepared "Party Girl" which sounded unbelievable and then I was shocked when they played "Slow Dancing" a song they haven't played since the PopMart tour and only 11 times ever in the 12 years since they have started playing it. Hearing those two songs back to back was certainly icing on the cake of an already top-notch show. They then played a soaring rendition of "Kite" which Bono said he wrote for his children but he thought his father really wrote for him, or something to that extent. Another small surprise took place nxt when "Wild Honey" was played for only the 3rd time all tour and the 1st time on the 3rd leg of the tour. I guess they were really trying to switch it up on this night but the crowd was loving it. I thought "I Still Haven't Found" sounded great as did of course "Where The Streets Have No Name" and "Pride". During Pride, a recorded segment of MLK came up on the big screens and Bono told everyone to listen to him speak. I am guessing this has happened at other shows however, but it was a nice touch. "What's going on" was a highlight of the encore along with a song that always sounds great live; "One". "When will I see you again" followed and surprised me a little bit before concluding with "Walk On". Afterwards Bono led the crowd in singing Happy Birthday to Larry for the 2nd time in the show. Really a great show because U2 played their regular set list to a T and then added a bunch of surprises that I am sure were a huge bonus for those who usually know what they will play and especially for some people who I am sure go to dozens of their shows on tour and wait for a night like this. Having only gone to two shows on the tour I felt extremely lucky to have stumbled into this particular show, and it was a perfect contrast to the first one I had seen in Philadelphia. If you can get a tape of this show I highly recommend it for its quality for its set list in general.

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