by Lard

This was my 7th U2 show, all from different tours going back to Joshua Tree. I bought a $100 ticket in section 308. I had heard so much about the shows in Europe that I expected it to be the best show I'd ever seen. I was disappointed. One of the legs of the Claw was directly blocking my view of the front of the stage, right where Bono stood most of the time!! I could only see him (and Adam for that matter) if they moved around the stage. So that bummed me out right away but I tried not to let it bother me too much and relied on the screen and the music to enjoy to show. That worked for awhile, the trio of Mysterious Ways, Still Haven't Found and Elevation had me up singing and dancing!! Then boom..they played Your Blue Room!? It completely took all the air out of the balloon. The show never really recovered. Vertigo, Blinding Lights and Streets got the crowd pumped again but only briefly. My favorite part of the show was when Bono brought a girl on stage and they ended up on seperate bridges that moved slowly toward each other as Bono and the girl reached out to each other. That was cool!
But there were too many songs that fell flat... Unknown Caller...that horrible version of Go Crazy(the current single which they rendered nearly unrecognizable!???) and even my favorite Walk On, which reduced me to tears in '01, failed to grab my heart.
I love U2 and don't want to be negative but the Claw didn't overly impress me. I think their use of video screen was better on past tours...Zoo TV, POPmart, Elevation. The sound wasn't nearly as bad as some people have reported here, except that there was a horrible echo whenever Bono talked. The biggest problem with being in the 300 teir was that it was just simply too far away. I felt very little connection with the band or the people who were sitting in my section. And normally that's the best part of a U2 show.
Overall, it was still good, not great and nowhere near the best U2 concert I've seen.
But that doesn't mean I wouldn't give them another shot.

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