by Ben

First time i'd seen U2 live... totally blown away.

A top quality evening all round; Starsailor & The Killers did a decent job warming up the crowd, and you could feel the atmosphere building as 20:30 approached. The roof was shut in the stadium, the main lights went out and the crowd when crazy as Vertigo started.

No major surprises in the setlist, but as a package of music, visual and a fantastic crowd proved, old favourites can still pack a mighty punch. There were too many standout songs to list, but the unaccompained mass singalong at the end "Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For" sounded amazing. Much of the same on Elevation, even if we all did get slightly ahead of ourselves at the start.

The triology of songs from the new album worked well, the visual effect was stunning when the curtain screen kicked in properly for the first time on City of Blinding Lights (possibly the highlight of the set), and the momentum carried on through Miracle Drug and Sometimes.

I'd gone to the concert expecting to be blown away by Where The Streets Have No Name, and wasn't dissapointed. The band thundered through the song, and it felt like the roof was going to lift off (cliched, I know!) as the crowd gave it 100%.

Even the slight break after one didn't seem to slow the gig down one bit, and for the nostalgia based punters we were treated to a Zoo TV flashback, complemented by comedy booing of Tony Blair's image by the crowd.

The encore on the whole seemed to lift the crowd even more (if that was possible). All Because Of You was flat out rock, and after the reflective moments of Yahweh it was onto the last track, the second play for Vertigo. If we thought the first time sounded great, this was even better.

And so it was over... but walking through the streets of Cardiff afterwards there was a palpable buzz. People were amazed by what they saw, but then surely they expected nothing less, didn't they?

Return to previous page | Post a Review of this show!