by Robert

Firstly, having read all the previous reviews it is obvious to me, that the interpritation you had of this concert depended hugely on where you were situated in the arena.

Unfortunately for me I was in along the side in the lower teir at the back. This is despite having a £45 for the ticket. I can only assume that the £37.50 tickets are comparable to Wembley stadiums restricted view tickets. To my horror I found that there was about 90 square feet of vacant space in front of me on the floor (only half the floor level was used I can only presume for safety reasons). I can't beigin to describe how detatched this made you feel from what was going on on the stage. The sound quality was one of the worst I have experineced at a concert (again I would compare this to Wembley but this time the arena not the stadium). By the time the sound got to us it had bounced off all the walls and the incredibly high roof and was at times destorted. We did not remain in our seats and managed to stand in an aisle a liitle neaer the stage, which made thigs slightly better.

This was my fifth U2 concert and my first of this tour. The first time I saw them was back 1987 for the Joshua Tree tour. Without doubt this was the worst audience I have ever experienced. People wondering what the hell was happening when Out of Control and Sunday Bloody Sunday were being performed, spending far too much time going to and from the bar during the concert, constantly looking at their mobile phones and sending text messages! (truly unbelivebale I think you will have to agree) and talking when Bono was dedicating Kite to his father, which was made more moving by the fact he delivered it with some humour (something along the lines of "my father had a great tenor voice and he said to me if your voice was half as good as mine you could have made something of yourself!").

Can I please make it clear at this point that I desperately wanted to enjoy this show. As I said before I have been a fan since the eighties and the latest album is such a return to form I was really looking forwrad to hering the new songs live. Having seen the set lists of other gigs on this tour I knew that the choice of songs was going to be brilliant and in that respect I was not disaoppointed.

All of my previous U2 concerts have been outside in 70-80,000 venues. At all of these the sound quality has been superb and becuase everyone seemed to want to be there for right reasons I never felt as far away as I did on Sunday night.

Unfortunately for me this was the only ticket I could get for this tour, so Elavation has been and gone and left me rather deflated. I am sure Slane will be absolutely incredible and I send very envoius best wishes to everyone who has a ticket! Hopefully this isn't their last tour because I will be scrapping for tickets like everyone else should they tour again. Only next time I just hope I get a standing ticket or they revert back to outdoor shows.

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