by Jimbo in CT

Well, the setlist was EXACTLY the same as the Hartford show...but if the crowd was great for that concert, the crowd was simply unbelievable last night in Boston. I mean, as wonderful as it was to see U2 in my home state, I think most of us realize that Boston is one of those cities with which U2 has always had a unique relationship. A U2 concert in Boston is something very special.
I was wondering if the band might pull something crazy (Out Of Control?) out of their bag of tricks, but you've got to figure they will at one of the other Boston shows coming up.
In general, I felt like the Boston crowd was more familiar with some of the new songs than in Hartford. I think I said in that review how everybody sang Elevation & Beautiful Day like they were U2 classics--well in Boston, Stuck In A Moment and Kite got the same treatment. Everybody was really, really into all four of those songs.
Until The End Of The World & Mysterious Ways were great. Bono kneeling before the belly dancer on the screen...I don't remember him kneeling in '97. Gone was good again, leading into New York which received a huge pop from the audience at the "Irish been coming here for years" line.
I Will Follow and Sunday Bloody Sunday were just about perfect. Bono's changed some of the words to IWF (again), but I haven't yet been able to make them out. And no long, political rant in the middle of SBS this time.
In A Little While was strong...the audience seemed really into this one too. I'm convinced a higher rate of Bostonians bought copies of All That You Can't Leave Behind than people in any other U.S. city. No extended tribute to Joey Ramone tonight either--did Bono cut back on the spoken word because the cameras were in the house?
Desire is such a great highlight with the whole band out at the tip of the heart. Again, a little bit of Gloria (by Van the Man, not U2) at the end of Desire. Bono & Edge stayed for Stay...I was disappointed because the people in Hartford didn't seem to know the song. No such complaints in Boston. Also no girl brought out of the audience to dance on this night.
Bad was unbelievably powerful, "40" again a nice touch at the end and a great way to lead into Streets. Streets and Pride were as wonderful as one would expect.
Again Chuck Heston got some cheers with his pro-gun rhetoric, but not as many this time and I also heard some booing. Anyway, Bullet The Blue Sky was great...Bono's words when he's waving the spotlight at the audience are chilling, and the "WATCH THAT MAN!" bit is quite powerful. At the end of the song, a vision flashed on the screens: John Lennon's bloody glasses worn the day he was killed, with a graphic saying how many people (676,000?) had been killed by guns in America since that day in 1980. Maybe this is something new? I don't remember seeing that at all in Hartford...maybe it was there, but I don't think I'd have totally missed it.
With Or Without You was nice...one thing I forgot to say last time is that they seem to have brought back the Brian Eno Love Is Blindness constellations for WOWY on this tour. I liked The Fly better this time too; the new version has grown on me, already. One was wonderful...some comments at the beginning of this one by Bono about our brothers and sisters in Africa, shackled in chains of money. No snippet of She's A Mystery To Me this time, so we headed right into Walk On. Excellent again...lyrics projected on the ceiling and everything!
All in all, don't get me wrong, Hartford was an AMAZING night...I just thought this topped it. Till next time...fly the crimson sky.

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