by Valentino Assenza

Last night's concert was appropriate, and touching in the sense that Bono explained to the packed crowd how 25 years ago to the date he was playing in Buffalo when he found out about John Lennon's murder, and in amazing and humble form he dazzled the crowd with some amazing tribute in that respect.

The show was insane with consistent energy right from the get go. They lit a firecracker with their first three songs of, City Of Blinding Lights, Vertigo, and Elevation. Bono always the showman, in between songs made some amazing statements. Obviously he plugged his ONE cause, but besides that he always referenced the whole anti-war credos and all, but he is always profound, and one word from his inter-song speeches stuck out at least for me, and should have stuck out for everyone else "co-exist!"

Moments for me that stuck out big time were when he performed "Love, And Peace Or Else." A song from the Vertigo album that sounds okay in it's studio recording, but Bono, and Larry Mullen Jr. gave it some sincere life as they brought a huge bass drum to the front of the ramp, and Larry Beats on it through an intense rendition of the tune, and at the end of it Bono ties a bandana round his head, and bangs on it like an ancient tyco drum. Old favourites of course like, I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For" and "Sunday Bloody Sunday" where he brought out a little kid representing a "Son Of Abraham,"did not disappoint, and never will. Bono always likes abiding by the technological evolution, and in his current usual fashion, the lights went down for "One," but instead of lighters, you had a sparkling twilight of cell phone light all over the building. I hate cellphones, and it was unbelievable how many people have cell phones, but it did look cool, and it was a nice ambiance to the song.

What had everyone talking of course were the covers that he threw in there. He did "Rock The Casbah," "Sgt.Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band," "Help," and a wondrously cool version of "Instant Karma." I guess everyone was paying some tribute to John Lennon in their own way. He died, but watching a band like U2 perform the way they did, through influence alone, it's amazing to see just how much of John Lennon is still alive, not only in them, but in all of us that were inspired by him, and U2 on this night did him some immense poetic justice. Two and a half ours, with two encores, gave me my money's worth and then some, it gave me perspective as does every U2 show.

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