by hosive tsang

new york is not dublin. but u2 treated it like it was home. and we welcomed them as our own.

the set list was a standard set list for a first night(despite being the only new york appearance in the spring) with the extra ramones and bowie clips(i looked those up). but the difference was the garden. bono was stunned and achieved lift off early by new york. in the middle of elevation, with the crowd cooing and singing along robustly through the first three songs, bono declared his love for msg:" i love the garden!" earlier the kings of leon played to their best response so far. they also noted..."so...this is f-n msg? i like it i like it." The edge reciprocated his love during the encore where he pumped his fist, screamed and played with vigor.

what was amazing about the night was that new york knew the songs. all of them. both old and new. they embraced the new tunes. they were treated more like old favorites taken out of the vault. instead of the beer break that miracle drug has been at other places, here it was cheered and welcomed. during original of the species, which bono told us was not on the set list but added as a reward...and "its a family thing", the crowd sang. they knew the words as well as they would know bad. often bono thrust his mike out in confidence that the audience would finish his thoughts. and they did not fail. i'll assume that this was not the case throughout the audience but the diehards clearly made it tough for the casual fan to snore through the new album: "should i know these songs? everyone else does.." Not as surprising was the reaction to older songs: the audience almost drowned bono out on running to stand still and sunday bloody sunday. But how do you explain the sing along during yahweh. Not LA, Not Chicago, Not insert town. New York City. Madison Square Garden.

Bono gave his objective stamp of approval with a second go of vertigo and original as an extra.

NYC/MSG is starting to feel like a birthright but its not. It’s a privilege and a rare ticket. because every seat is a good seat. very few bad seats as in nosebleeds. though the temperature was incredible. i was in a corner trapped by body heat and weed.

the first msg show after the 911 trauma and the brooklyn bridge debut was an appetizer and teaser for the seven shows in the fall. it was great to hear city of blinding lights in the place it was written for.

a final funny moment that reminded me of the last of the post 911 elevation nyc shows...adam was already walking off after mysterious ways unaware that bono was adding to the set list. bono had to chase adam down like he did that night they came out for out of control as the third encore.

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