by WillyBoine

The 2nd DC show was transcendent . . . spiritual . . . mind blowing. I went to high school and college from ‘80 - ‘88, and U2 was the soundtrack to these years of my life, and the lives of most of my friends. I only saw them once before in ‘92 at RFK. The other years (‘85, ‘87, ‘97, ‘01), there was always something that took precedence (exam, project etc.) This year, I vowed that nothing would get in the way. I took off two days of work, got a hotel room, got floor seats, and waited in line yesterday for six hours to get within 5 to 8 feet of the ellipse. My expectations of the show were hopelessly high. But, somehow every expectation, from the set list, crowd and band energy, and the number of "magic" moments in the show, was surpassed more than I could have imagined.

The band started out like it was shot out of cannon for the first five songs - it was only until "I Still haven't Found" that everyone took a breath. Some people in their reviews said that some of the Joshua Tree songs need to be retired – I say NO – these songs are part of my generation's DNA. The music scene in the 1980s was awful. U2 and a handful of other bands was it. For anyone who missed the 60s and early 70s, we always wanted "our band," the way the boomers had the Stones, Led Zeppelin, the Who and numerous others. All those great songs from the first five U2 albums were burned into our collective memories in dorm rooms and parties across the country. Like Bono said last night about "Sunday Bloody Sunday", they're our songs now.

High points: Bono coming out of the ellipse 5 feet in front of me at the start of City of Blinding Lights; Bono singing the high point of Sometimes you Can't Make it on Your Own on his knees at the edge of the ellipse; The cascade of flags and countries on the light curtain during Streets, Larry Mullen, Jr. jamming with Bono; Bono picking up the obviously planted "Coexist" bandana right in front of us; Bono's soaring intro to Streets during the segue from Pride (sent chills up my spine);"Bullet" being converted from and anti-US rant about our involvement in Central America in the 80s, to a tribute to the troops fighting the war on terror, One, Edge and Bono on the ellipse doing acoustic "Wild Horses" (amazing), and to top it all off, the best "old" U2 song, Bad. This song was all over college radio in 1985. We watched U2 perform it at Live Aid that summer, and I still have the live version from Wide Awake in my car. It hadn't been on the set list very much during this tour, but when I heard the opening chords, I (and everyone around me) went nuts. As the first reviewer said, it was EPIC and one for the ages. Thank you Bono, Edge, Larry and Adam for 25 incredible years!!

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