by birch199

As a privilege of living in NYC, I was able to see U2 perform 9 times in 2005 (without getting on an airplane!) and I saw all 8shows at MSG. Actually, I saw them 10 times over a course of a year, if you count the wonderful free Brooklyn Bridge show.

All of the shows were great, though there are ones where you can tell the band is more “on” than others. Although the set lists was almost identical for the last two shows, Tuesday show was definitely better in terms of the bands energy and performance.

Tuesday’s show was much better even with the extremely odd and weird ending. I would be really interested to know if they planned on leaving the stage and returning during Instant Karma or if something went wrong. Did they plan that? Were they supposed to leave the stage during Instant Karma, let the audience continue singing for a bit and then return to finish the song? I am not sure. Maybe they did plan that and they were supposed to play one or more songs before ending but it did not work out as planned.

What I did observe, and it was a bit odd, Bono did grab Patty’s hand and lead her off the stage. It looked like Edge did know what to do at that point, so he followed them down the stairs. What was weird is that he took his guitar with him! I never saw him do that before, he usually takes it off and gives it to his guitar tech before leaving the stage. This time he walked down the stairs still playing his guitar. Very odd. I did not notice if Adam took his guitar with him or not.

They returned, Edge still with his guitar, finished the song and left abruptly. Still it was a great show and it was fun to see something completely different from all of the other shows even if they may not have played one or two more songs.

Some interesting other things about the show, on Monday Bono actually kissed Adam directly on the lips during STREETS. I am sure that Adam wanted to say to him, what are nuts or something, (imagine if one of your buddies spontaneously and on a whim kissed you on your lips!) but they just smiled at each other at the tip of ellipse and continued to play the song. I was watching intently to see what Bono would do on Tuesday, this time Adam was staring at him, sort of like daring him to kiss him again, sort of like OK I dare you to do that again, but he didn’t, more smiles on the ellipse and I thought that whole exchange was interesting to watch.

All in all, 2005 was a great year, Thanks to U2 for giving me such inspirational music to get me through my days. We're one, but we're not the same… We get to carry each other, carry each other... and we all shine on and on…

2005 is almost over, but I know I have something to live for, the future. More extraordinary music is on the way from this band and I am looking forward to the next album/tour. They will be back and even if I have to wait another three years for it, I know the wait will be worth it.

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