by Michael Zámečník

After staying in the amazing city of Berlin for three days, my historically first visit of a U2 concert seemed as perhaps the best possible way to put a nice end to the entire trip.
Arriving at the gates of the truly massive Roman Colliseum-lookalike Olympiastadion with my girlfriend at about 8 o' clock, we were amongst the few but persevering fans, who were soon to fully taste the stunning 360° Tour from the inner circle. Waiting exhausting 9 hours, we were finally sent through the gates, storming the stadium, and eventually after nearly getting crushed on the steel barriers, we got our spot within the inner circle, directly on Adam's side, about 1O feet from the stage! And what a stage it is, reaching nearly the roof of the Olympic Stadium, the so-called Claw is a true marvel of both stagework engineering and concert shows alike. It is simply bound to be a landmark in musical history.
Snow Patrol were quite a good opener, kudos to them, especially as to warm-up a 90,000 strong crowd waiting for U2 is a truly difficult task. Even the main singer acknowledged that, once the band played about 4-5 songs, the real deal is just about to start.
At about 8:30 PM, smoke began to be funneled out of the central stage spire and everyone knew that the time has truly come. Within moments, Larry, followed by Adam, Edge and Bono appeared on-stage and opened with Breathe, as powerful and booming as it possibly could be. Followed by No Line On The Horizon, Get On Your Boots (which sounded rocking and perfect compared to the poor CD version) and Magnificent, the ZooTV-style block of new songs was ended by Beautiful Day, which saw the entire stadium jumping with happiness. The following Mysterious Ways came like a very nice surprise and again, the entire stadium (including me and my girlfriend Jane) danced, sang and waved their hands in responce to the immortal classic song of Achtung Baby in the city which gave birth to the album. However, just as it ended, another complete classic was served to the U2-hungry crowd, as I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For echoed through the venue. Bono even let the fans sing the entire first verse and chorus and it sounded like when a thunder roars, massive and incredible. Angel Of Harlem saw three Czech blokes playing guitar,bass and drums. However, despite me also originating from Czech Republic and smugly smiling when one of the guys said that his name is 'Christopher and he comes from Czech Republic', the entire event completely stopped the show in its tracks and the band could have rather played more gems like Dirty Day or Trip Through Your Wires instead of wasting time with this stunt. Stay (Faraway, So Close) followed and was an expected, but nice surprise, since the song itself was written and recorded in Berlin. Unknown Caller sounded just fine, but it was The Unforgettable Fire that became the first highlight of the show for me, sounding just as incredible as 20 years ago, Bono's voice sounding just amazing. City of Blinding Lights and Vertigo brought back a bit of the Vertigo Tour and saw a breathtaking show of the new stage's lighting capabilities, as the entire stadium turned into a large Christmas tree, glistening with camera flashes, just as the entire pitch jumping to Bono's "Ein, zwei, drei, catorce!" opening Vertigo, rocking as hard as ever. The new dancy remix of I'LL Go Crazy.. did not impress me too much, mainly because some of the greatest songs the band ever wrote were to succeed, namely Sunday Bloody Sunday, which again got the entire stadium on its feet, just as Pride and Where The Streets.. did afterwards. One then finished the set prior to the encore break. Nevertheless, the true highlight of the show was just to come...
The rather short encore break ended as Bono & the band appeared back on-stage, which was entirely engulfed in a cloud of smoke. Bono appeared in the thick mist which was further soaked in dark blue light and began singing the first verse of Ultraviolet. At that moment I was actually close to a point that tears nearly began rolling down my cheeks as he began singing my most favourite U2 song. To even further increase the already magical scene in front of my eyes, Bono's leather jacket had hundreds of little laser-emitting devices on it, so in combination with the blue-lit smokescreen, hundreds of laser beams could be seen shining out of Bono's body, a scenery true to the name of the song. Everyone was singing out loud the "Baby, baby, baby, light my way.." chorus together with Bono and I felt that nothing can be more beautiful than this. With Or Without You continued the already poignant encore, which in my opinion brought even more of the audience to their knees and tears into their eyes. The large ZooTv-esque mirrorball hanging off the central stage spire even intensified the moment and the entire Olympiastadion turned into one large ballroom, couples locked into each other and slowly dancing, random people huging each other, it was simply beautiful. The gentle ballad Moment Of Surrender then closed the show and 90,000 fans walked out into the night, happilly singing, many drunk and everyone knowing that U2 are and always will be truly Magnificent...

I am one of them.

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