by The Goal is Soul

“The Goal is Soul” is back for one last time on this tour: this was my third show of the Vertigo 2005 tour: Manchester1, Dublin2, and I was determined to go out with a bang in Berlin.

Flights and concert tickets were booked in January, and a plane full of U2 fans flew out of Liverpool on Wednesday – to be greeted at Berlin Schonefeld airport to the sight of the U2 Vertigo Jet parked up. Hello hello Berlin…

Next stop – our hotel in Potsdamer Platz – and which train to get? Namely: the U2 line on the U-Bahn underground….

Thursday arrives… and no sooner are we touring the Berlin hot spots, then news of terrorist atrocities in London filter through. The day is spent catching the Berlin vibe, and at the same time calling home and picking up news of events in the capital.

Eventually, as dusk approaches we’re in the impressive Olympic stadium, and U2 take the stage at 9pm and immediately congregate in front of the crowd accepting the cheers of the expectant Berlin crowd.

Straight into the music, and you can just feel that Bono and the boys are up for a special performance.

There has been some criticism of the opening 6 songs or so on the Vertigo tour, because this part of the show is played in daylight. Some people say the show doesn’t really take off until the light goes down and the lighting effects begin. I sympathise – up to a point – and in fact my take on this is that U2 have very cleverly worked the show in such a way to essentially pump out raw rock music to get the crowd going and to negate the need for special effects. The huge video wall and lighting effects are kept on their leash during this time, and because of this delay, are spectacularly introduced during City of Blinding Lights, much to the amazement of the crowd. You can really feel the atmosphere turning up a notch as this. This has really grown on me on the shows I have seen – and pays off spectacularly for the second half.

Vertigo is played with the raw energy we have come to expect on this tour, and the crowd are immediately seduced.

I Will Follow is next, memorable for the fact that halfway through the song Bono had a major problem with his footwear, and just managed to sing “these SHOES – make a circle” – before sitting down on the stage, and apologising to the crowd that his shoes are hurting, whilst a kindly assistant made some adjustments to the offending shoes. “That’s shoe business” Bono explained, through the laughter that ensued (mostly from Bono) – and as the band kept the music going in the background, the final verse was delayed for a good 30 seconds. A notable U2 tour moment!

The Electric Co gets its usual welcoming outing, followed by New Years Day, and then a slightly uninspired Beautiful Day (no “white outs” on this tour, and I also think this song has been permanently damaged by being sold to ITV in the UK for its football coverage for all those years!). Bono sang a verse of The Beatles “Sergeant Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band” during the final chords – a throwback to the band’s performance with Paul McCartney at Live 8 the previous weekend.

After Elevation’s powerful version in the 2001 tour, the 2005 version starts off more sedate in an almost ‘soulful’ manner. Bono (who also managed to incorporate some Tina Turner lyrics – “I can’t stand the rain on my window” into the opening bars) invites the crowd to provide all the “woo hoos” for the first verse, before the full rock sound returns for the 2nd verse. (For the record – there was nothing to compare to the way this song was played – and received in Dublin!) The Berlin audience were slightly reserved in their participation – maybe as the song was so early in the set – or maybe the crowd didn’t appreciate this version of the song.

Next, “I Still Haven’t Found What I’m looking For” – and more audience singing, followed by All I Want Is You.

And then, as daylight gives way to darkness, the first bars of COBL are played and the giant beast of a video wall coughs and splutters its way into life and we are then dazzled with an array of truly impressive visual images to accompany this new phase of the show. This is one of the highlights of the show.

Miracle Drug and Sometimes are next, followed by LAPOE (a clear favourite for best live song of the tour) and we move into the “war”-related set:

Sunday Bloody Sunday (Bono shouts out “Bloody Thursday” as the song closes – in reference to the London bombings).

Bullet The Blue Sky – a wonderful and new arrangement for The Edge’s solo. The song itself is also allowed to fade out as Bono sings “Johnny comes marching home again hurrah hurrah” and we move into Running To Stand Still – which tonight is dedicated to the victims, and families of today’s London terrorist attacks – Bono’s prayer is that “in defeating the monster, we don’t become the monster”. A poignant moment for all.

Pride picks the crowd up, and once again the band incorporate a clever fading out of the song as the crowd sings “oh oh-ho oh” over and over again, and the song ends, and Streets is introduced – and low and behold – the first U2 “white-out” lighting effect that I have seen all tour lights up the whole stadium and the sight of 80,000 Berlinners jumping up and down is impressive.

The main set is closed with One – where Bono apologises for his “German being so sh*t” – so instructions on how to text the German Govt are flashed up on screen.

Encore time – and the Zoo TV set goes does well in Berlin: Zoo Station, The Fly and then an excellent With Or Without You – where yet another young lady is plucked from the crowd for some Bono smooching – and (heavens above) a second “white-out” moment from the lighting team.

Yahweh – played acoustically – is the penultimate song, with Vertigo bringing the set full circle and an enchanted audience filter out of the Olympic Stadium.

Overall verdict of the show? Well worth the trip to Berlin to see “the boys play rock n’ roll”. Berlin was up for it too and there was a truly excellent vibe all night.

Overall verdict of the tour? Sceptical at first that they could better Elevation 2001 – but in my opinion, they have taken the best elements of Elevation – the stripped-down and raw rock, and combined this with some technological wizardry – without overkill. My only slight gripe is that they have not mixed up the playlists as much as they could. For the 3 shows I have seen there have been small variations which have been more than welcome – and to be honest its hard to complain about a show like that: 23 songs of pure emotion.

Looking forward to the DVD – and the 2009 tour already……

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