by H. Badalamenti

So I'm back of what was the greatest Tuesday ever and a close to 24h marathon. But man, was it worth it. The show was more laid back than monday (as expected).

They opened without any surprises (COBL / Vertigo / Elevation). And then comes Until The End Of The World, which was amazing. After this one I could almost forgive them for not playing a single song out of Boy (not even the Stories For Boys snippet during Vertigo). Then comes New Year's Day / Beautiful Day, and an acoustic version of The First Time.

There were some nice dialogue with the audience during that first part. Bono started to talk in portuguese (he was reading a sign glued to the stage floor). He said "yesterday we played live for the whole country. Tonight is our private little party!". Of course his 80.000 guests went crazy when he said that. During Elevation, he asked, "do you know who started this band? Was it Adam? Was it Edge? Then was it me? That's right, that was Larry Mullen, and he's gonna sing for you". Then comes that "a mole, digging in a hole" part.

After The First Time, Bono went towards a girl holding a sign that said DESIRE. He asked her if she played guitar and she said she didn't. Actually, her name was Desire (she even showed him her ID) and so, she just wanted to hear it. Bono and Edge played it kinda out of improvise and when they almost screwed up, Bono said they were not a really good wedding band.

From then on it was preety much your typical Vertigo show (which you already know, probably the greatest show on Earth, but I don't need to get into the details, so...) until the first encore. Zoo Station was amazing (too bad I was at the right side of the stage, inside the ellipse, and Edge NEVER goes there. He's the only band member I couldn't get a close look at). And then Bono picks a girl out of the audience... during The Fly. He took her by the hand to the main stage and after she tried to kiss him on the lips, he "grounded" her in front of Larry's drums. It was funny, 'cause she'd get up and play air guitar right next to Edge or dance to the song like it was Mysterious Ways. Speaking of which, he took her back to the crowd when this one started. Go figure! And he didn't pick up any girls during WOWY, though he climbed down the stage towards the end of the song and I couldn't see what happened then 'cause I was moving around the ellipse and I ended up seeing this final part of the show in the middle of it.

The second encore was not like monday's, so they only played Yahweh (beautiful, beautiful, beautiful art at the huge screen) and All I Want Is You with a snippet of Love Rescue Me. And then, each one of the 4 came to the main mic and said goodbye, and they left the stage for good. I ain't gonna complain, but I kinda missed ABOY and Original (which they played on monday, and don't get me started on 40!)

Franz Ferdinand was the opening act, and not only they did a good show but they did the soundcheck themselves. So we kinda had one show and a half. I thought this was really really cool of theirs.

Anyway, I feel great. I finally got to see my fav band live, and they didn't let me down. I wish it wouldn't be so long until I get to see them live again. But that's not even worth mentioning, as much as you'd expect that from any fan, right? And now I don't have to be jealous at everybody here, either. Just kidding. Wait, I'm not.

I don't know if this was a really good review, but I'm still a bit dizzy. Hope you enjoyed reading, if you had the patience. CHEERS

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