by Ruby

...cos you've got an unquenchable thirst for NEW YORK!


New York. Madison Square Garden. U2. All ya need.

I've decided that the location of our so-called "fan club" tickets for MSG indicate we've for some reason been put on the you-suck list. Are we being punished in some way? :) There was a big ticket drop before Saturday's show. Mostly Golden Circle-type seats. Not the shatty seats we got through the FAN CLUB. And I talked to dozens of people around where we were sitting, and they mostly all had fan club tickets too. I'm sorry, but someone in U2's management organization really deserves a violent kick in the shins. We were in the topmost section, the last row of that section too. In other words, we were barely in the arena. Any higher and we'd have been bats in the attic. Or in New Jersey. Oh, and there's this bulkhead above the last 4 rows of those sections, so if you're taller than a smurf, you're screwed. You can't stand up to watch the show because then your eyes are dead level with the CEILING. However, if you pretend you're in the Cirque de Soleil you can contort your body in such fashion that you can see everything happening on stage quite perfectly. I chose to sit down, not bother watching so much, and just absorb the show through my ears.

When you're on the floor, particularly if in the ellipse, you share the band's oxygen. They breathe in, you breathe out. Heady stuff. So the show from the stands (particularly waaaaay up in the stands) is obviously a different one. Not as distracted by physical proximity to the band, I just let my ears feast. And it was good feeding. I was sooo content. This band still kicks the arse off any band on the planet. These are guys now in their mid-forties, for pete's sake. They shouldn't still be this good! They shouldn't still be able to whip 20,000+ people into mindless frenzy, show after show. But they do. God, they do.

As I was saying, New York. I just don't think U2 can play a bad show here. New York crowds are unlike any other, anywhere. They give attitude and the band gives it right back. It's a jacked-up vibe with everyone hangin' on to the power cord to go along for the ride. Even with a standard setlist with no surprises, the show jammed. Best crowd I've been a part of out of the 8 shows I've been to on this leg. They sang along to the old *and* new songs. I was really surprised at the crowd participation during Original of the Species and Yahweh. They were insanely loud.

As an opening song, I think I really do prefer City of Blinding Lights as the opener. It gives the show from the start a sense of a child's wonder and awe (I can go back/I can stay awhile...), of "what next?" anticipation. Love And Peace is the highlight, and as such is better toward the middle of the show. (For me, in my more fanciful moments, it's also becoming the central theme to the album and their philosophy at the core.) That song makes people RESTLESS, it's got so much underlying urgency and menace to it. It's ridiculous any band can write songs like this!

Sunday Bloody Sunday really got to me. Memories from 9/11 were invading my mind from the moment I walked into the building. But they really hit me during SBS. Took me back to 2001, sitting in the same building and hearing the same song, but knowing that there was this smoldering, reeking giant hole in the ground in lower Manhattan. So yeah, this show had layers to it, and especially this song. I knew it wouldn't be as intense. No way would there be that same intensity and grief that permeated the post-September tour. (I wonder if that is influencing people's opinions (including my own at times) about the perceived lack of 'something' some of us feel, so far anyway?) Anyway, I'm really enjoying the 'heart of darkness' part of the set, though I think Bullet ends too awkwardly still, and I just am not fond of this tour's version of Running. I even like Vertigo being played twice. That song is just raunchy sex :) I wish it was the opening song, actually... I *love* the imagery for the "ZooTV" segment. Zoo Baby returneth! It's fabulous. The imagery & lighting for the show itself is really cool too. Anyone not enjoying this show as a whole, or hugely disappointed in it, I really think you must be off your head :)

I'm destined NOT to hear Gloria on this leg, sigh. And am still surprised they didn't pull out SOMETHING new for this particular show...

But while I still think this tour's pacing is a touch off, and they should swap in/out certain songs, overall it's a GREAT show. The moodiness of U2's music, the way they captivate a crowd, is still so inspiring. More so for me, now, than when I was younger because now I'm old enough to appreciate how rare an experience this is. So put me anywhere in the building, really. Just so I'm in the same airspace as U2, it's all right, it's all right...

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