by Brett

Four years ago I saw U2 for the first time at their second Giants Stadium POPmart show. Truth be told, I found myself leaving with a sense of disappointment given the lack of energy displayed by the band. This was not the same group that I had seen in my well worn copy of Rattle and Hum and frankly I was glad that I had not purchased tickets to any other shows for that tour.
Now, flash forward to earlier this year...on the strength of ATYCLB and the articles in which the band pledged to strip down the set and just let the music speak for itself...I took a chance and bought tix for 3 shows, the first of which was tonight's in Hartford. Needless to say, I left wishing I could get my hands on even more performances. The show was absolutely STUNNING!!! The emotion, the energy, the passion were all back!!! The new material sounds excellent and the older stuff has been injected with new life!!
I was great to hear Bad and Sunday Bloody Sunday and Bono and Edge's rendition of Stay only made me wonder why they waited so long to play it! There was no "Miami"(perhpas my least favorite U2 song of all time) in the set tonight, both literally and figuratively!! My only "complaints" are that I still have yet to hear New Years Day, which was not yet on the POPmart setlist when I saw them and appears to have been dropped from recent shows and that I would have liked to hear a different "early days" tune other than I Will Follow, which did sound great regardless, there is so much more out there. Oh well, can't wait for Boston on Sat! I have Sox tickets for the afternoon and will then be moving on to Fleet Center. With it being the 4th show in the city maybe they'll be inclined to bring out some classics...both Into the Heart and A Sort of Homecoming would be appropriate! Oh well...it will give me something to think about as I make my way through another work week....

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