by David

Wow, my second U2 show in less than a week and I was amazed once again. Much to my pleasant surprise, the band completely rearranged the setlist, which was great because they kept everyone guessing as to what they were going to play next, in contrast to the Tuesday show where they essentially played the new stuff (All That You Can't Leave Behind, Achtung Baby, Zooropa, and Pop) early on and finished the rest of the night off with the old stuff and their signature anthems.

"Elevation" kicked off the show once again, and now that I could see it from my seat on the second balcony on the opposite end of the arena, it was pretty amazing watching everybody down on the floor (especially the heart) going off like somebody had just poured sugar on an anthill. I didn't have any luck getting in the heart that night (as I had on Tuesday), so I had to stick with my original seats, but I'm not complaining… there wasn't a bad seat in the house for any of these shows.

The band followed that up with "Pride" which was a pleasant surprise, although I feel that because it's one of their biggest hits (especially an older song) that they should have saved it for later and played a different old song, but that's just me. They kept me guessing the rest of the night as to what would come next.

Next came the "Achtung Baby" section of the set, where they played four straight songs from that album. "Until the End of the World" was the third song (as it had been on Tuesday) and Bono and Edge came out to the tip of the heart and did their jousting / bullfighting routine. Edge kicked Bono's ass with his killer guitar playing. This time (I don't know if they did this on Tuesday because I couldn't see any of the giant monitors from inside the heart) I noticed that Bono had some sort of miniature camera attached to his eyeglasses so we got an interesting first hand view of the crowd and Edge on the giant screens during this little routine. Very cool… They followed that one up with "The Fly" and its new intro, a song which had originally been in the encore the last time I saw. Bono ran his lap around the heart during the coda and sprawled himself all over the monitor like a fly on the wall, which was pretty amusing to watch.

Then much to my surprise, the band starts playing "Even Better than the Real Thing", which is one of my favorite tracks off of this album but hadn't played on Tuesday night. Damn, this song live was awesome. The last time I'd seen them perform this live was via satellite on the MTV Video Music Awards about 10 years ago, and the host Dana Carvey (dressed up as his then-popular alter ego Garth from Wayne's World) played along to the song on drums live from the show and went to live feed on the huge monitor at the U2 show. Ahhhh, the wonders of technology… Then they played "Mysterious Ways" with screens flashing images of belly dancers.

Bono did his solo a cappella version of the Beatles' "In My Life" again. Damn, that guy can sing… Then the rest of the band kicked into "Stuck in a Moment That You Can't Get Out Of". Edge surprised me again with his falsetto vocal part towards the end of the song. They did a superb performance of "Kite" which Bono dedicated to all those people who had marched in the Boston gay pride parade earlier in the day. "Gone" followed that up. This sequence was pretty much identical as Tuesday night.

Then the banners came down as the band launched into a strobe-light heavy visual performance of "New York". The crowd on the floor started bouncing around again during the chorus of the song and cheered when Bono sang his lyric referring to the Irish. Bono threw in a cool little surprise towards the end of the song when he began singing the melody for Frank Sinatra's "New York, New York" (if you've heard it, you know exactly what I'm talking about).

Then the boys reached deep into their bag of tricks and pulled out "Out of Control", one of the best songs from the "Boy" album for those of you who aren't familiar with it. This, in conjunction with the fact that they rarely perform it, sent the crowd into a frenzy. This song got one of the biggest responses of the night and it certainly deserved it. While still recovering from the excitement of hearing "Out of Control" as it was ending, Larry went straight into the familiar marching beat of "Sunday Bloody Sunday" and everybody stood up and clapped to the rhythm and/or sang the chant at the beginning of the song.

Bono then introduced Adam, Larry, and Edge as they all came down to the tip of the heart to perform "Desire" looking like some street band at Harvard Square. This song was great as always. Adam and Larry took off after the song was finished so Edge and Bono could do their unplugged mini-set. Bono exchanged words with somebody down by the barricade and mentioned the guy who had gotten up onstage with them on Wednesday to play "People Get Ready". I don't know if the guy Bono was talking to made a request for a song or something, but they then pulled out another rare song and performed a great acoustic version of "Party Girl", which I had previously only heard live on the "Under a Blood Red Sky" EP. Yes, Bono messed up the lyrics but give the guy a break, especially if it's a song that they haven't performed since 1993 [at least that's what u2tours.com says… : ) ]. They followed that up with "Stay", which was excellent as well. Although this doesn't show up on the u2tours.com setlist for the show, I could swear that I remember hearing either "Running to Stand Still" or "All I Want Is You" at some point, more specifically during the acoustic set. Anybody else remember this?

Bono and Edge regrouped with Larry and Adam for a rousing performance of "Bad". At the end, Bono injected lyrics from Elvis Costello's "Alison" as a shoutout to the artist whom I later found out was in attendance at the show that night. Then a reddish-orange colored monitor came up behind the band and a familiar keyboard melody played over the PA. The crowd cheered when they realized it was "Where the Streets Have No Name". Visually, it looked exactly like the performance of the song in the "Rattle and Hum" movie. The floor erupted when the entire band kicked into the main riff after Edge's intro guitar part. In my opinion, of all the songs on the set Saturday night, "Sunday" got the biggest response, with "Streets" in a close second, and then "Out of Control". Then they did "Beautiful Day", which after the adrenaline rush of "Where the Streets Have No Name" seemed to be just a mere afterthought.

They took a brief break before coming back out to do the encore. Edge won over the crowd by changing into a Ray Bourque hockey jersey to finish off the rest of the set. "Bullet the Blue Sky" kicked things off and featured the same Charlton Heston / NRA / gun control multimedia element as I mentioned in my previous review for the Tuesday show. The banners came down and the stellar constellation projections went up again for an inspiring performance of "With or Without You". Bono strapped on his guitar and played along on "One" and "Walk On". As I'm sure you've read, some fan climbed onto the stage and was about to get tackled by some security guard but Bono saw what was happening, and stopped the guard to let the guy come up onstage. He stood next to Bono, bearhugged/picked him up and waved to the audience, who was actually cheering for him. Then (what appeared to me as being at Bono's suggestion) the fan ran a triumphant lap around the heart to the crowd's applause while the band finished the song before walking off the stage with venue security. The band said their thank yous, Bono mentioned he wasn't sure when they would be back but they were seeing if they can get something worked out for the fall, then they called it a night.

RANDOM NOTES AND OBSERVATIONS:

Before one of the songs in the encore, Bono told the audience "Free Ray Bourque". For those who don't know who he is, he played for the Boston Bruins hockey team for many years before he was traded earlier this season to the Colorado Avalanche. The Avalanche (and Bourque) won the Stanley Cup that same night and Bruins fans were very supportive of Bourque finally winning a championship, which he hadn't been able to get while he played for Boston… I forgot which song, but Bono gave a brief speech on the AIDS epidemic in Africa. He mentioned the head of USAID (I forgot his name, but the acronym stands for United States Agency of International Development) and his comment on how the Africans would never solve the AIDS problem because they had no sense of time or something along those lines. Bono then sarcastically suggested that everyone send the guy swatches… Bono almost went into the crowd a few times (I don't know if this is what people have referred to as crowdsurfing in the reviews I've read and word of mouth), including a few times where it appeared to me as though he got on the crowd and they pushed him back up onto the catwalk… My cousin thought she heard Bono singing lyrics from "Dude Looks Like a Lady" by Aerosmith during one of the songs. It doesn't show up on the u2tours.com setlist, but it wouldn't surprise me since Aerosmith are from Boston… As I said earlier, I was sitting up in the second balcony on the opposite side from where the stage was. However, my cousin had seats in the first row of the golden circle on Edge's side, which was pretty much at eye level with the stage and catwalk. I lent him my camera for the show and it was him who took all the pictures you see with this review, not me… Oh yeah, I met Edge before the show. He seemed pretty shy, but he was a very cool guy, and got out of his car to talk, shake hands, and pose for pictures with the 10-12 fans or so that were there. Another amazing show from everyone,s favorite band, if you haven't seen them yet on this tour, DO IT!!!

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