by Richard

Bono's voice was shot to pieces, right from the start it sounded as if he was struggling with a cold. It seemed to improve mid-show, but by the encores he had notes going off randomly at all angles. He missed a few lines as well.

The show lacked visual excitement. The Edge and Clayton tend to just 'stand there', and Bono spent most of the time ambling around very slowly. The MSG crowd were clearly up for it, but I never got a feeling that they were truly excited.

My friend and I wondered if Bono has lost the plot. He seems to have become really self-indulgent and preachy, and we sat there wondering what egotistical line he was going to come out with next.

They inserted various bits of various songs into their set, but most of the time my friend and I just looked at each other and kinda said 'what's this then?'.

Bono's preaching of politics was incredibly tedious. Amongst other things...

Bono put on a headband with Coexist written on it (the C being an Islamic crescent, the X being the Star of David, and the T being a Christian Cross). He went on to tell us how we are all 'children of Abraham', and then told us that as we grew older there was a word that would become more important, and would we promise to remember it... that word was 'Coexist'. He then knelt down with his arms in the air, his headband over his eyes like a blindfold. After a minute or so of wondering what on earth he was doing, he groped his way on all fours very slowly to the front of the stage, standing up and fumbling for the microphone. What was that about then, it was embarrasing to watch!?

Bono told us that America was great, because it was a great idea, and asked us that we promise to 'hold on to that idea'. How patronising!

Then he told us that if we were bored of all the politics, sorry (he chuckled), but we would be getting much more of it. He went on to talk about a world poverty campaign that he is involved in, urged us to sign up, and talked about how people from this campaign were helping people in flood hit New Orleans (etc.). Then they played a piece of Old Man River, which was pretty hilarious.

Somewhere amongst all of this, Bono talked about it being Pavarotti's birthday, but frankly I don't think many people cared...

We then had the articles of Universal Declaration of Human Rights read out to us, well partially, the sound didn't kick in until article 3. Then lots of names scrolled across a screen, no indication who they were... perhaps people who had signed up by SMS to his campaign?? Frankly who cares. ...African flags projected onto screens and something about 'Nelson Mandela's Africa', which might have surprised the dozens of other non South-African, African leaders...

Somewhere else amongst all of this, Bono told us how he seeks meeting with world leaders and how 'They must wonder, why should I meet this man?' [who knows what else he said, but I turned to my friend and completed this little speech for him... 'But once they meet me, they realise what an incredible person I am']. He went on to say something about the cover of Time magazine, presumably that he was on it.

The music was pretty everyday. There were moments during Vertigo and Sunday Bloody Sunday when I felt that a full-on vibe was going to kick-in, but it never held for more than a minute or two, before things died down, and people started sitting down again.

A disappointing night, and an expensive one too. Any chance of a decent concert was ruined by the unecessary politics and self-indulgent ramblings of Bono, coupled with his shot voice and general lack of energy.

I shan't bother going to see them again.

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