by Brian Rossi

Seems like so many years ago. Still it's clearly implanted in the mind. This was the second of two shows in Melbourne. After the stadium was pretty full the first night, many seats were now empty at the very back of the Great Southern Stand. Still some 40,000 people ain't bad. I do remember the atmosphere surrounding these gigs was massive. The whole hype of U2 in town and the media saturation was everywhere. The boys had been in town some 5 or so days leading up to the gig and rehearsing in the stadium for the last leg of the tour.

I secured decent seats for this gig near the bstage. The night before i was stuck way back in the stand so the experience wasn't as good from there. I Spotted quite a few local celebraties in the area as well. Big Audio Dynamite were pretty cool as the support.

Now the main act themselves. Wow. This was the second time I'd seen U2 play live, the first being the night before. The whole intro/opening was breathtaking, and this excitement continued for the rest of the gig.
You've seen the Sydney Video so im sure you know the setlist. With the inclusion of 'She's a Mystery To Me' at the end of 'One' and 'Dancing Queen' after 'Angel of Harlem' and 'Tryin to Throw' which was left out of the Sydney Video. Other standout memory's were when Bono was channel hoppong before 'Real Thing' and he suddenly turned to the cricket. The crowd went nuts! Macphisto tried to make his devlish call to the Queen Mother but instead got stuck with Dame Edna Everidge. The night before there had been some video problems for the song Lemon. The synching of the words on the screen to the actual playing had been waaaaay out. Was all fixed tonight.

During 'Love is Blindness' as Bono slowdanced with the girl he pulled out a ciggarette lighter, held out out, and continualy lit it up in time with the beat. Dunno why this still stands out for me, maybe it just added to the emotion of the song.

The only complaint of the night was the sound. It seemed to bounce off the back of the Southern Stand, so if you were situated on the ground you'd get a massive echo which was very annoying. You'd hear the boom of the bass drum first from up the front then a second later from behind you.

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