by Tim

This was the 4th time I have seen them overall and the second time I've seen them on this tour. Compared to the Philadelphia show I saw this past me, last night in Pittsburgh blew it out of the water. There was definitely more of a vibe in the air and the crowd and the band seemed a lot more into it.

I was worried about Bono's voice from some of the posts I read on here. My fear was unfounded. Bono sounded absolutely ridiculous. He was belting out almost everything. I did notice some of the higher notes like, "time, won't take the boy out of this man" was sung in a lower key, but that was the only thing I noitce. He nailed everything else very powerfully. Anyone who says his voice is shot is mad. If he isn't what he used to be in the early '80's, then I would have loved to have heard him b/c I can barely imagine how much better he could have sounded then he did last night. Sometimes and Miss Sarajevo were nailed and no, those parts aren't pre-recorded, it is definitely him singing. With or Without You also sounded close to what it sounded like in the '80's, not the thin uninspiring version we got on Elevation. One, which I sort of grown tired of, sounded awesome last night. He also only flubbed the lyrics on Stuck in a moment.

The rest of the band was was dead on too. The Edge went crazy during the Electric Co., and nailed everything. Adam's bass, was surprisingly present and not wiped out by all the other noise. This band has clearly hit their stride on this tour.

As far as the atmosphere, the last two shows in Pittsburgh have been wild. U2 seems to always be up for playing here. Bono made all kinds of references to the city, its yellow bridges (which he sad was the color of mad), and at the end of one song did this awesome made up snippet along the lines of "From New York, from New York, down to DC, up to Pa, down through the Fort Pitt tunnel, where your city opens up, as we cross that bridge, into Mellon Arena, to Pittsburgh! Pittsburgh!" He also pulled to boys up on stage during Sunday Bloody Sunday and picked this guy out of the crowd to play Party Girl, who by the way, did an awesome job.

My only complaint was that "Out of Control" and "Bad" were missing. Other than that, they have done some changes to the setlist from the spring. In sum, a wonderful show, and anyone out there thinking about seeing them, don't listen to the naysayers, these guys put on the best rock act today, no doubt.

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