by Feeble Zeeble

Hello.

Just got back from the first Montreal show. I had lots and lots of fun.

First of all, I scored a pair of GA floor tickets from a scalper for $100 Canadian (A total deal). Then, once the arena doors opened I found myself and my companion getting ushered into the heart by misinformed arena staff. Apparently other people had been waiting since 5 am for heart wristbands and were not able to get in. Oh well. Meanwhile I found myself standing three feet from Bono at center stage.

The band played the exact same setlist as they've been playing at the other dates. Bono and the boys seemed to be going through the motions (mention city name as much as possible, tempt the crowd with the chance to touch your hand, etc.) but what motions they are. Bono is a pure rock star. He is the reason that U2 are so much fun to see live. There were several additional keyboard and loop tracks added to the sound mix that were not played by the four main members. A mysterious character was slumped over a bank of synthesizers filling out the band's sound, once again... that was cool, since the sound rocked.

The crowd was ridiculously loud. Which was quite nice.

Best parts of the night: Acoustic version of "Stay", Rocked out pseudo zoo-tv version of "The Fly", Solid versions of relatively new tracks "Kite" and "Gone"...

Worst parts of the night: No real deviation from their standard setlist, Larry Mullen seemed to not know and/or care where he was. Bono's silly speeches about how much he loves Montreal.

No matter what you do... SEE PJ Harvey!!! She is the most hardcore rocker around. I would venture to even say that her set tonight was more energetic, tighter and even BETTER than U2's! Even though she blew her amp out during "rid of me"... her talented band of freaky looking characters was able to rock out "The whores hustle and the hustlers whore" and "big exit" before leaving. And she's oh so nice to look at.

It seemed as though the Canadian crowd wasn't able to piece together the Charlton Heston/ NRA connection. Which made that silly little intro video to "Bullet the blue sky" seem even sillier.

All in all, a fantastic night though.

Tickets are not cheap, but the band puts on a good solid two hours of entertainment.

Feeble Zeeble

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