by Stephen Demmer

I was a little wired from last nights show at the Garden when I got home last night and I feel I missed a few things in my review.First of all, it was my first show since they played "Yankee Stadium" on 8/30/92...The bands energy level has not gone down one bit since then....In fact, it seemed like they had more to prove this time around and extended themselves in a way that made for a very special evening...I guess you know a band is huge when you can get 25-30 thousand people together at a show and call it a small,intimate gathering.Now Compared to the "Yankee Stadium" show it was much smaller {of course}, but wow,there were a lot of people at the Garden last night and it seemed that every one "got it"...We all realized how special "Out of control" was and all 25-30 thousand of us literally went out of control when the band played it back to back with "Eleven 'O'clock tic-tock.
I've read on this site reviews from people who say they don't think the band plays enough old songs...or that the shows are stale because they don't mix up the setlists enough...Well, there's somthing about knowing what the evening has in store for me that I kind of enjoy.I go in expecting to hear certain songs and I hear them...period. Anything else they decide to throw in only enhances the show by pleasantly catching me of gaurd {"Out of control",for instance...As for the not enough old songs thing...they can't play their whole catalog,and I kind of think that "Sunday bloody Sunday","Pride-In the name of love","New years day","Bad", "40", "out of control" ,"Eleven 'O'cock tick-tock{both rare-but played none-the-less} make this a silly arguement...Even "Where the Streets have no name, "Bullet the blue sky",and "With or without you" are almost fifteen years old. If you choose to call yourself a fan, don't come down on the band for having such an extensive setlist to select from. They can't please everyone,but in playing the sure-fire hits they really do try.
On Friday,my girlfriend and I are going to see their final show on this U.S. leg of the tour. I hope the band sticks with the U2 tradition of "mixing things up" and "altering the atmosphere of the room"{as Bono so often puts it} and perhaps gives us a surprise or two...If not though, I do know what's in store and for me that's plenty good enough.
Oh yeah, my opologies to "Carrot Top"...You have great taste in music.

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