by Michael Krystek

Vertigo Tour 3/30/05

Overall this show was excellent. It was great to hear some oldies i.e. Electric co. and Gloria. The set was fantastic for the main part of the concert with the exception of Zoo Station-this song was great as an opening for the Zoo TV tour but Until the End of World or Even Better Than the Real Thing are much stronger live songs and should replace Zoo Station right away. The first encore was fantistic--Pride, Where the Streets have no name and One...but the 2nd encore? What the heck was that! All Because of YOu is possibly the most boring, straight forward song that U2 has put out in years. At the very least it should moved into the middle of the set but quite frankly I'd drop it completely and replace it with another song, especially as a lead into the 2nd encore. The acoustic version of Yahweh is nice but Bono needs to bring it down an octive as he seemed to really be strechting to sing it as high as it was (I would have preferred to hear a rendition of the album version since it is so dynamic.) Of course, they botched 40 which was really a great moment. But overall they lost the crowd with All Because of YOu.
The sound mix was typical for the San Diego Sports Arena...loud guitar, muffled drums and bass and adequate vocals. San Diego needs a new arena!
One idea...with the death of Johnny CAsh this past year U2 should play a version of the Wanderer with a vocal track of JOhnny singing and Bono harmonising in some sort of a duet. As far as I know this song has never been played live (in fact U2 should do an entire tour where they play nothing but songs never performed live, but that's another subject)I think that would make for an incredible moment.

Overall rating 8 out of 10. It was a better concert than the Elevation tour.

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