by Sarah

What an emotional, highly charged and above all passionate experience U2's second concert in Manchester turned out to be. I have witnessed a great many concerts at the MEN arena and beyond but have never seen such a passionate response from a crowd. This being my first Elevation experience I had seen a couple of earlier set lists and heard people's reactions to the US leg but nothing could have prepared me for Sunday's show.
You could tell the crowd were up for it as they amused themselves with Mexican waves and mass singalongs with the PA system. When Elevation began everyone was on their feet and stayed there till the end.
Kite was highly emotional and bravely dedicated by Bono to his father. I didn't realise how seriously ill he is so, looking back it seems even more poignant and special. The new songs sounded even better live (particularly New York) and fitted into the set as if they'd always been there. The connection between audience and band was so strong for such favourites as New Year's Day, Streets, Sunday Bloody Sunday, and With or Without You. My personal highlight was All I Want Is You as everyone from the young to the old sang along and before anyone had time to recover they launched into Where the Streets Have No Name, which threatened to raise the arena roof. The inclusion of quite a few songs from Pop reminded me of why it is such an underrated album. Wake Up Dead Man sounded fantastic as Bono sang lying down looking up at the arena ceiling.
The special effects were more impressive and imaginative than I had expected, instead of competing with the songs they complimented them beautifully.
All in all an unforgettable experience which couldn't even be spoilt by the problems during One. At least Bono stopped short of throwing his guitar across stage as Peter Buck did when REM last visited. As newspaper reports have said I'm sure Bono was probably going to fly back to Dublin to be with his dad, so he wouldn't have wanted to overrun, which is understandable. I left happy knowing I had just witnessed a phenomenal band at the peak of their powers.

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