by Carson

I had indulged myself by reading too much about the concert before attending,
but it didn't diminish the show in any way. By performing "elevation" with the
house lights up, the boys set the tone for a raw sweaty evening in that swamp
called D.C. The MCI center was very humid and about 85 degrees.
As the boys came on-stage the crowd went ape-crap and Bono knelt before the
full house as if he were being knighted. The sold out crowd lifted their arms
in uplifting appreciation from the bottom of the MCI center to the nose bleed
sections. Everyone wanted to be closer.

I myself went a little unconscious and was mezmerized by the opening of "until
the end of the world", strobe lights went everywhere and Bono bounced up and
down for the fans in my section (on Adam's side of the stage). Bono picked
someone with a camera (probably a media woman) out of the heart and pushed the
camera out of her face and gave her a big smooch. He also has a nifty footrest
at the tip of the heart that allowed him to stand right over the out-of-heart
people and make their night. Standing at the tip of the heart put him right in
the middle of things and he spent quite of bit of time there.

This tour seems to be a winning combination of the previous three tours. Bono
has a spotlight in "Bullet the Blue Sky" a la Joshua Tree, There is a large
array of LED video screens behind the stage ( they are seldom used ) a la
Pop-Mart, and the heart juts out into the stage like the catwalk in Zoo-TV. I
didn't think the band quite did mysterious ways justice, but Bono showed his
true wit and stagemanship when he pasted himself to the video screens like a
"fly on the wall" at the end of "the fly". Streets blew everyone one away
like a drug, no band ever does any song with more soul or feeling.

The crowd was at their loudest during the first encore, my friend remarked
"just when you thought (the crowd) couldn't get any louder, they do". Its
uplifting to see 20,000+ fans care so much about a work of art. Everyone was
wired when it ended, the crowd would have loved to hear the entire U2
catalogue, and in the end its about the crowd and their reaction , which was
unbelievable.

I don't know if this was the best show I've ever seen, but I don't see how a
rock concert could be done better or more effectively. 20,000 fans walked out
of the MCI center on Friday night and they can't wait to get back to work on
Monday and tell everyone about how unbelievable it was.

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