by j Wilkinson

What can I say? This was my third show in four days, and 4th on the tour. I got to within four feet of the tip of the heart for the fourth time. I live in Nashville, and grew up in St. Petersburg so I planned on going to this show with my sister. The St. Louis and Atlanta shows just sort of happened to fall in my lap so I went. Lucky me as I got to play piano with the band in St. Louis. This is an Tampa review, so here it comes.

ELEVATION - Balls to the wall rocker. I know that the lights are going to go off when they kick in after the bridge, but it rocks every time
BEAUTIFUL DAY - “See the world in green and blue / Shirley Manson, right in front of you” The goal is soul
UNTIL THE END OF THE WORLD - Bono plays Judas, and Jesus. “except me, I was talking about the end of the world” The Bono vs. Edge at the tip of the heart ends with Bono kicking the Edges Les Paul and breaking a few strings
NEW YEARS DAY - The Yamaha CP-80 sounds as beautiful as ever. The song ends with “I will be with you again, Begin again... begin again... begin again”
I WILL FOLLOW - Adam and The Edge close in on either side of Bono and it feels like they are playing the number in a small club setting. The performance of the song is with the passion that one could have expected back on the Boy tour
SUNDAY BLOODY SUNDAY - Bono was given a flag from and audience member, one side the Irish flag, the other side, an American flag. He holds it in his arms as if holding baby, keeping it close and protecting it from any danger. As he gave the flag back to the audience member, he sang “Wipe those tears away” Truly passionate. There was a complaint from the Rocky Mountain News about Bono doing this several times, therefore making it “as calculated as Britney Spears' dance moves.” Get a clue. He first did this in Austin, TX on Nov. 5 and has done it several times since (including the 3 show that I saw this week) So what! It was a great moment and 18,000 people would probably agree with me
STUCK IN A MOMENT - The Edge’s falsetto vocal at the end of the song was perfect
KITE / MY SWEET LORD - One of my favorite songs on ATYCLB, when they play it live, they slow it down about 3 or 4 bpm (Beats per Minute). The change in the feel is unreal. Bono’s acoustic guitar drives the song along with Larry and Adam. The Edge’s slide solo before “I’m a man... I’m not a child” makes the hair on the back of your neck stand up. They ending with Bono singing by himself and an acoustic guitar ‘My Sweet Lord’ after losing George Harrison yesterday
Angel of Harlem - A spirited version with Bono and the Edge singing into the same mic at the tip of the heart
PLEASE (B & E acoustic) - “We wrote this song about what was going on at home. We had to grow up suffering, religious nuts, political fanatics. People who valued ideas rather than people. But this could have been written 3 minutes ago, 3 weeks ago, or even 3 months ago. When people try to create God in their own image, it is tiny, pathetic, and insignificant" A stirring and haunting version. Bono dedicates 'Please' to Elvis Costello, who is in attendance tonight.
BAD/ WHO'S GONNA RIDE YOUR WILD HORSES - The keyboard sequence was beautiful and the Edge’s delay guitar was second to none. I think that ‘Bad” and ‘Streets’ together has to be the most amazing 12 minutes of live music ever, from any band. Wild Horses verse and chorus are tagged on the end to the delight of the crowd
WHERE THE STREETS HAVE NO NAME - “What can I give back to God, for the blessings that he has given to me. What can I give back to God....” What can I say. The most amazing thing was that everyone in the house know that it was ‘Streets’ when the red glow started to emanate from the stage. Most certainly the loudest moment of the night when Bono did his pose at the tip like on the Boston DVD. UNREAL! The lighting trusses descended and the white VariLites were spinning out of control as he took a lap like a track star. Adams bass line was so on, and the Edges mutes and Larry’s snare couldn’t have been any tighter on the breakdown.
I STILL HAVEN'T FOUND WHAT I'M LOOKING FOR - Time to go to church
PRIDE - Segued in from ISHFWILF. The video of Dr. King was a nice touch.

Encore:
BULLET THE BLUE SKY - AMAZING. The solo from the Edge was off the charts. This arrangement would have made Hendrix and Led Zepplin proud. Bono smashes his light at the end of the song
WHAT'S GOING ON - Great cover of the Marvin Gaye classic
NEW YORK- The scrimms dropping in for huge shadows is very artistic. This song has turned into quite a rocker. “Irish, Italians / Jews, Blacks, Hispanics / but religious nuts and political fanatics don’t belong / In New York, because they’re singing a different kind of song. Bono stands in front of one of the scrimms and holds his mic up in the air like a torck. He then uses his other hand to simulate the Statue of Libertly. Bono gets an “I Love NY” T-shirt from a fan inside the heart and places is on his mic stand before leaving stage.
ONE - Upon returning for the second encore, Bono puts on the “I Love NY” T-shirt, much to the delight of the crowd and finished the show wearing it. Even though I knew is was coming, having seen it twice already, the names of all the people murdered on September 11 is so powerful. The crowd went through the roof when they got to the NYPD and FDNY. So many lost.
PEACE ON EARTH / WALK ON / HALLELUJAH - Bono sang the “They’re reading the names out...” verse as the names continued to scroll. “All the folks the rest of us, won’t get to know.... their lives are bigger than any idea” The song ends with “Hallelujah” and Bono shouting “Thank you to almighty God” Just prior to leaving the stage, he takes off the NY T-shirt and throws it back to the fan saying “Thank you for your shirt.”

BONO - The all-time greatest front man, PERIOD. Sincere, genuine, passionate and most of the time, in his own world; yet amazingly aware of everything going on around him.
THE EDGE - What a wall of guitar tone
ADAM CLAYTON - Solid, solid, solid
LARRY MULLEN JNR - The musical backbone of the band
DALLAS SCHOO - Real nice move to give some guitar picks away to a girl with a sign before the show.
The Ice Palace Staff - My first event there. Well organized and courteous. They passed out the General Admission wrist bands starting about one hour before doors, so when 6:00 rolled around, everyone was able to enter very quickly.
Only complaint - Where there are concert-goers, there is beer. Where there is beer, there will be some drunk people. If you want to get drunk, fine. If you want to get drunk and behave like an ass, not fine. Stay home and get drunk there and save yourself the hassle of a $50 cover charge.
Only other complaint - Ticketmaster sucks. Can you say ‘monopoly?’ The face value of my pair-o-tickets was $93.50. My total bill was $129. A 27% surcharge on tickets? Go screw yourself. I’d rather my money go to the artist. At least they work for a living

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