by Jimbo in CT

The first leg of the Elevation tour is over as I write this review. And having now seen U2 perform eight times, I have to say tonight's concert in DC was the best of them all. The band sounded great, the setlist was fantastic, and Bono was really on top of his game with his political and spiritual message. Everything just clicked perfectly and made for an outstanding night. The reason I bought so many tickets in January and February was so I could be present at a concert like the one we saw tonight.
Elevation kicked us off, with the house lights still on. But I think what's even cooler than those lights being on is when they are finally turned off during the song--right after the "I believe in you" line, leading into the huge "A mole!" crescendo. That never fails to whip the crowd into a frenzy right off the bat.
Of course, Beautiful Day came next...how many other bands do you think could afford to play a triple-Grammy winning song this early in the show?
Until The End Of The World was next, with Bono billing it as "a conversation between Judas and Jesus," which, when you look at the lyrics, really makes the song cooler.
Then, for the first time on the tour, I got to hear New Year's Day! It seemed to have the old fire back...I thought the PopMart version of the song on say, the Mexico City video was a little uninspired, but tonight it came over the arena like a breath of fresh air. Plus, it's always fun to watch Edge switch off between keyboards and guitar between notes!
Like last night, Bono told us a little story at this point in the show, but tonight it was about Stuck In A Moment, not Kite. I wish I could remember exactly what he said. He did not mention Michael Hutchence's name specifically, but pretty much told the rest of the story...something about a friend and a conversation he never got to have with him. Maybe what he said inspired the band, because I think that performance of Stuck was the most moving of any I saw on the tour.
Kite came after that and kept the emotional pace going strong. Bono's acoustic singing at the end of the song was flawless.
Then New York and geez, are we getting rid of ALL the new songs right at the beginning of the show? I couldn't help but think how nice it would be to hear this song performed IN New York, where the crowd would actually get into it.
From following the tour, I knew this was the spot for the early-days U2 song. I was really hoping for Out Of Control instead of I Will Follow for the fifth straight time--I was thinking Out Of Control, Out Of Control, Out Of Control, hearing the opening notes inside my head when Bono said, "We're going to do a song we don't do very often...our first single for Island Records, this is 11 O'Clock Tick Tock!" Hey, fine with me! I do wish our section had been a little more familiar with such a classic live U2 song. It seemed really slowed-down and not incredibly intense, but it still made my night to hear "It's cold outside..." in person.
Then came Sunday Bloody Sunday and if some of the crowd didn't know what to make of 11 O'Clock Tick Tock, well they went nuts for Sunday Bloody Sunday. Larry's drum beat on this one is simply timeless. Also, the inclusion of a few lines from Get Up, Stand Up is always well appreciated.
Once that was over, Bono went over to play the keyboards and I finally got to hear Sweetest Thing! I was worried about that, since they haven't played it too often in recent weeks, but this performance was worth the wait. The audience loved it too. Quite possibly the perfect U2 sing-along song.
Then there were the band introductions, followed by Desire. At one point Bono said, "Back before we were called U2, we had a few other names." To which I yelled out, "Feedback!" and some other guy near me said, "The Hype!" Now, we were too far away for Bono to hear us, but apparently somebody closer to him said the same thing because Bono responded, "Yeah, The Hype. Long before we ever lived up to it." That was really funny. "But for one lunch break, we were actually known as the Larry Mullen Band." That was all the introduction the band founder needed. I think Adam was introduced as "the first manager of U2." So this whole section was pretty much a flashback to the Dandelion Market days.
After Desire, Bono and Edge stayed at the tip of the heart for Stay. Bono led into it by talking about going to Berlin to record the Zooropa album, and how some people thought the band had gotten all "arty" when it came out. That seemed to amuse the audience. I could be wrong, but I think Bono actually sang "London, Belfast, Berlin" this time, rather than sneaking something in there about Washington.
Instead of Bad this time, the band played All I Want Is You, which I thought was an unbelievable performance. They also played AIWIY at the PopMart show I went to, but it was an abbreviated version; tonight, they played the whole damn thing and it was great to hear. The song sounded really incredible.
As usual, Where The Streets Have No Name was the amazing live song it always is. I never get tired of seeing the red background explode into a burst of light. Same visual intro for Streets since '87...and no reason to ever change it.
For the first time, I saw Mysterious Ways moved down to this point in the setlist, which I thought worked really well to keep the momentum going. I think Mysterous Ways
is actually the best live U2 song since Streets; tonight was no exception.
It was great to have The Fly back after its curious omission the previous night. The sequence at the end of the song where Bono takes a couple laps around the heart and then sticks himself to the TV screen like a fly is classic.
I heard Chuck Heston's gun credo for the fifth time...still not buying it.
Bullet The Blue Sky was as good as ever, still about ten times better than it was on PopMart, but I was a little confused by that random shirtless guy up on stage with Bono at the song's end. Thanks to some of the other reviewers for explaining exactly what happened, although it is kind of creepy... Anyway, perhaps because of that, there was no long gun diatribe from Bono tonight.
Bullet was followed by an excellent performance of With Or Without You, the quintessential bittersweet love song. Always a sure crowd-pleaser.
Pride came next, the lone Unforgettable Fire song of the evening. Of course, everybody loved hearing this one too.
After the expected short break, U2 came back out to sing One, but not before Bono talked for a long time about a lot of things. First, he thanked the fans and said they'd had an extraordinary week in DC. Then, if I recall, he talked about Jubilee 2000/Drop The Debt, and about our brothers and sisters in Africa who were still bound in chains of money, i.e. debt. I'd heard this before at other concerts, but Bono went further this time. He told us there were something like 2000 verses of Scripture that talked about the poor. He then said something like, "Christ says once that if you take your cloak off and put it on the back of a poor person, you're putting it on His back, or something like that I think." And then, emphatically, "Jesus never once mentions whether somebody is gay or straight." (I was encouraged by the number of cheers that got.) "America is still a great country. This is still a great idea." And he encouraged us to get in the faces of the people working in Washington and make them do what was right. If possible, everything he said make One even more powerful when they finally played it.
And Walk On followed, complete with all the "Hallelujah"s at the end for even more soul and spirit. A beautiful ending to an exquisite evening.
All told, this was the greatest concert I have ever been to in my entire life. Everything about the show was absolutely perfect. It was also special because U2 played certain songs (Sunday Bloody Sunday, Sweetest Thing, All I Want Is You, & With Or Without You) that meant a lot to my friend Kim who went to the show with me. [If you're reading this, thanks for coming along with me--you're the best and it wouldn't have been perfect without you there.] Well, I do believe I've finally run out of things to say, so until next time everybody...may your dreams be realized.

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