by Steve

The two most obvious things about the Vertigo tour became apparent within the first 15 minutes on opening night...first, that the staging of this tour is essentially an extension of the Elevation tour. Same stage, just with a few visual enhancements. Secondly, the setlist would attempt to cover U2's history more thouroughly than any previous tour. While U2 has continually claimed they didn't want to become a nostalgia act, it's hard to ignore the overdose of nostalgia in this setlist. More than just playing a bunch of old songs, U2 has brought back remnants of past tours...the ressurection of the Joshua Tree tour version of "Running To Stand Still" coming out of "Bullet The Blue Sky," the opening two songs from ZooTV (complete with some of the original graphics on the screen during "The Fly"), and three songs in a row from the "Boy" album that hadn't been played since the mid 80's. This seemed a bit of a departure from past tours, where older songs were played and sequenced in a way as to try to present them differently, such as the Stay/Bad/Streets sequence from Elevation, or the placement of With Or Without You and Love is Blindness in the Zoo TV encore. Vertigo has marked the first time U2 has consciously gone back and taken cues from past tours.

However, on the flipside, this seems like less of a greatest hits set than many of the Elevation dates. While there were the usual culprits ("Sunday Bloody Sunday," "One," and of course "Streets"), what is notable is what wasn't played. "I Will Follow," "Still Haven't Found," "Until The End Of The World," "With Or Without You," "Bad" or anything from Rattle & Hum, Zooropa, or Pop were all absent.

Others will go song-by-song in their reviews, instead I'd just like to offer my thoughts, both positive and negative, of the show:

* The opening was supurb...great song, somewhat dramatic and exciting, but not over the top or Spinal Tap-esque in any way. The "City"/"Vertigo" start is every bit as good as the beginning of the Elevation shows, and the curtain screen adds quite a bit visually to these first songs.

* Bono's voice was alarmingly weak in certain parts...the chorus of "Streets," for instance, Bono didn't even attempt the "burning down love" note, and there were several other times when you could tell he was struggling...oddly enough, the songs he sounded the best on were the new songs, which have higher notes than much of the old stuff. The high notes on "Vertigo" sounded great, as did "the note" on "Sometimes," but some of the older songs found him struggling. The audience definitely carried some of the weight on stuff like "Pride," and interestingly enough Edge covered the chorus of "Running To Stand Still."

* Not to pick on the man, but he had a rough night with the lyrics...it's the first show and we'll cut him some slack, but there were several small instances of lyrical flubs, and "The Fly" was completely botched lyrically, to the point where Bono just started making lines up. He was a little more timid on his entrances than I remember him being on the last tour, but I think that will go away once they settle into the vibe of this tour.

* On the floor at least, it was an opening night crowd. I met people from dozens of states, and several different countries while socializing all day in the GA line, and so the show really felt like a celebration...the first chords of "Running To Stand Still" and "Zoo Station" brought emotional cheers from those on the floor, and through good and bad, they kept the energy level of the show high. The band never appeared to be struggling, but not surprisingly they were a bit hesitant and cautious.

* My one major complaint..."Streets" has been completely reworked visually, and it's a disaster that really killed the mood of the show. They changed the red lighting, which felt weird, but what killed it was the removal of the blinding white lights that come in just after the drums, arguably the single greatest moment in any U2 show, at least from an adrenaline standpoint. (it wasn't used in the dress rehearsal either, so it wasn't an accident) Hopefully they'll realize that the lighting is an essential part of the song and restore it to it's former glory.

* It was one of the least "active" shows I've seen, Bono and Edge didn't really move around much, but reportedly they didn't move around a lot during the first Elevation shows either.

All in all, a solid tour opener. Musically I don't think it was that strong, but emotions, excitment, and anticipation was running so high that the experience of being there far outweighed any forgotten lyrics or missed cues. It was the kind of show someone might listen to on a bootleg and wonder what the big deal is, and one of the lucky 12,000 or so in attendance would just say "you had to be there." (this was the smallest venue of the entire tour, supposedly) A hesitant start, but this has the makings of an amazing tour.

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