by Brian Parsons

I drove all the way from Ottawa Canada for Sunday's show at Madison Square Gardens. The NYC show was fantastic. It was very different from the Montreal show, but we enjoyed it all the same.

I think the hightlight for me was Bullet. Holy shit was it the most intense Bullet ever? During the speaking part Bono goes on about the 200,000 some Americans who have been killed by the gun in the last 20 years, and he repeats it again. Then he says in an angry voice, "Haven't ya heard? The war is over!! Americans have declared war on themselves!!!" At the end as he walked around with the spot light he started SCREAMING into the crowd in front of him "PULL THE TRIGGER....DO YOU THINK YOUR BIGGER THAN JESUS ON A BUMPER STICKER? PULL THE TRIGGER!! PULL THE TRIGGER!!! DO YOU THINK YOU ARE BIGGER THAN JESUS ON A BUMPER STICKER? MARK CHAPMAN!... MARK CHAPMAN -MARKCHAPMAN, MARKCHAPMAN, MARKCHAPMAN, MARKCHAPMAN, MARKCHAPMAN, MARKCHAPMAN" It was quite a shock, really, but whoa, very intense moment, I was blown away!!

Of course Chapman was the loser that shot Lennon.

I also think that it was the best "Sunday Bloody Sunday" I have heard so far. I don't know why but it really rocked. They didnt play Sweetest Thing, or Discothque, but they did play "In a Little While" and he talked about how he will never think of that song the same way after hearing that it was one of the last songs that Joey Ramone listened to.

The did a cool thing to Mysterious Ways, taking out the solo image of the belly dancer and replacing it with what I can only describe as a James Bond kind of imagery, using a belly dancer outlined in black with colours and neat effects behind her like they do at the begining of Bond movies, and they played it across the whole back drop, so there was like 30 belly dancers.

No Bonovision that night. They played StuckIAM(TYCGOO)but didn't make any mention to Micheal Hutchens. Bono mentioned that it was Paul McGinness' birthday the night before, so he wished him a happy birthday, and said they had all got together for a celebration (would have been cool to be at that bash).

Before One, Bono said that he met a guy 6 months ago that marched with Martin Luther King, and he said that he could not feel free until his brothers and sisters in Africa were free too. So Bono said that he is picking up the call and has been working to take the civil rights movement and turn it into a human rights movement! Free the debt, and open the medical bag and treat Africans to cure them and heal them, give them the basic essentials that they require to live, to be free of the bonds. That was pretty powerful too. The crowd responded to it all.

Bono toward the end - did say that they are not sure if they are going to be coming back, that they have been talking about coming around again for a repeat in North America, but that if they didn't come back to New York, that they really love to play New York, and the people here were special. It was that "parting is such sweet sorrow" kind of comment. But it was interesting that they mentioned that they are considering another pass in the Fall. And he did specifically mention "in the Fall."

Hope to see them in Ottawa in the Fall!!

Brian

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