by Hank Rowell

Once you come to grips with the fact that you are in fact in the same stadium as the legendary U2, you find yourself compelled to sing along and dance to each and every tune that the biggest and best band in the world throws at you.

I never thought that "Hold Me Thrill Me Kiss Me Kill Me" could ever be the spectacular show-stopper that it proved to be, but the song ended up being the definite highlight of the show. Despite what most assumed was a disastrous rendition of "Staring at the Sun," I honestly thought that once Bono picked up his guitar, the song became quite a well-pieced-together bit of material. "One" was the biggie, though, and is definitely deserving to be the closing song. It was also nice to hear "Can't Help Falling in Love," which was played for the first time this tour, and a small portion of "MLK," which also appeared for the first time on "PopMart."

Much of the crowd seemed to drift off when U2 began their Pop songs, which bugged me alot, but everyone seemed totally into all of "The Joshua Tree" and "Achtung Baby" material played. I personally was disappointed in the performances of "Gone" and "If God Will Send His Angels," which are, in my opinion, the two best songs off of the new album. My eyes were on Bono for about ninety percent of the show, and the world's greatest showman delivered. The sound of the show was pretty blistery at the top of the show, but all of the problems seemed to be tended to about halfway through the show, and U2 in turn gave a performance far more deserving of a better audience than the weak one that attended the Liberty Bowl that night.

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