by Gloria

Yesterday at 10.00 am I arrived in Arnhem. There were two entrances and luckily enough we were at the right one. We got a stamp and at 11.00 am the security "locked" all the people with stamps in a separate space. This were the people who would get into the heart!
There was no pushing in this space and because of the stamp we could easily walk in and out.
And than: at 5.30 pm the doors opened. We ran to the heart and got in. Everybody in there was so happy and cheered.

At 9.00 pm the concert started with of course Elevation. Bono's voice was very good, and because we had such good places the sound was great! After Elevation came Beautiful Day, Until the End of the World and New Year's Day. All well performed and the crowd really got into the concert after New Years Day.

Then Bono told us about his sick father and how he taught him some lyrics for good songs. He dedicated Kite to his father and got so emotional. It looked like he was really trying not to cry. He didn't want us to sing along because it was for his father. It was the best moment in the concert. Did I already tell you that Bono's voice was GREAT?

Well, then came Gone my personal favourate song from Pop and then New York. Because the concert was in the Netherlands and New York was once called New Amsterdam (a couple of centuries ago:-)) Bono sang a few times New Amsterdam in stead of New York. I think I've told you that Bono's voice was really great...

Then came I Will Follow with a really long inbetween song "It was twenty years ago when we started, it was twenty years ago....", after a couple of minutes they continued with
"Your eyes make a circle...".

Sunday Bloody Sunday was the next song and this was truly amazing. It lasted for about 15 minutes (maybe a little lie but it felt like 15 minutes). It was the full band version. Bono got an Irish flag from a guy in the heart en draped it on the catwalk. During the "No war" part he told us about Genua and about the man who was shot during the G8-summit. He was so angry. He told us about the Irish peace proces and it went on and on. Great and so was Bono's voice. And then, when the song was ended, the played an encore (just like on Blood red Sky).

Then, for us Dutch fans there was a special moment because Bono on his own sang "When I Get Home", a song from Herman Brood, a Dutch artist/rockstar who committed suicide a few weeks ago. It was truly magnificent. He then dedicated Stuck In a Moment to Herman and again it was great.

He announced a love song and Bono and Edge went to the tip of the heart and played In A Little While with a few extra lines in it. All the bandmembers came to the tip of the heart to play Desire and the audience went wild.

After that Bono announced their most beautiful song, Stay, that was given to them (according to Bono they write good songs, the Great songs are given to them). Stay was performed by Bono and Edge and was (sorry if I repeat myself) so good.

Than came a very extended version of Bad. During the song he pulled a 9-year old girl on stage and took her on his shoulders. After a while she went back in the crowd. But a minute later she was back on stage, running laps with Bono on stage. Everybody liked it and the crowd went wild. There were a few lines from 40 and than Bono started running laps during Where the Streets Have No Name which was another great performance. After Mysterious Ways came The Fly in the new style, which I enjoy so much more than the version on Achtung Baby.

After the boys left for 1 minute there was a video about guns in the USA. During Bullet the Blue Sky Bono was very angry while talking about guns, about John Lennon, about the War that is (NOT) over. It was so touching.

They didn't even bother to leave the stage before the encores (too much trouble, said Bono) so they started With or Without You, excellent version. Than came One with the stars shine part and it was soooo good. There was a little improvised Wake Up Dead Man but it was still good. They dedicated Walk On to Anton Corbijn (who is Dutch and was there) and than, after 2.5 (!!!!) hours of playing, they finally left, leaving me behind overwhelmed. It was truly the best concert I've ever seen. I realize that the setlist was very standar, but they played all the songs a lot longer than normal, I think that's the reason why the concert lasted 2.5 hours.

It was a great concert. I hope you like this review

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