by Andy

So second night of the Denver shows last night. While the past three times I've seen U2 have been nothing short of religious and/or amazing (Joshua Tree Oakland Stadium, Zoo TV Oakland Stadium, Elevation Oakland Arena) last night's show was very good, but hardly amazing.
The sound in the Pepsi Center is awful. I scored a $164 ticket out front for $40. I feel bad for others that paid full price and amazed U2 charges that much and can’t put together a better sound system. Many of the new songs lack the emotional urgency the old ones do, and fail to get the crowd going - during many of the songs Bono was waving his hands to try and get the crowd pumped.
They just seamed to be coasting a bit. As last night, there were a few glitches. In "Running to Stand Still" it seamed obvious they haven’t rehearsed it that much, Bono's voice and Edge's keyboard were way off, and it was almost embarrassing.
Of course there was the customary pull a girl up on stage and dance with her. And bono pulled a little boy on stage and said "You know what the magic trick is... Stay exactly as you are..."
There were some high notes, but mostly an emotional plateau.

That being said, there were some choice moments.
"Gloria" and "New Years Day" back to back were stellar. Gloria live is great - and a few songs later Bono rededicated Bloody Sunday to the US - obviously an Iraqi war thing.

"Bad" alone was worth the price of admission. Still makes the hairs on your neck stand up - definitely the high point of the show. After that Bono said, "Love is in the house," and went into "Pride."

2 encores. The first: The Fly,
Mysterious Ways
The second: All Because of You
Original of the Species
“40”

On original of the species Bono said, "weve only played this once, so if we mess up, blame the Edge."

40 was great too - with the sing along, bono and the edge leaving first, then adam, then for 5 minutes just the crowd and Larry, who did nice tricks with dynamics. Then with Larry gone, the crowd kept going.

A couple other things - one, Bono mentioned the legendary Red Rocks Live under a Blood Red Sky gig - which I was anxious to hear about - saying it was night that changed their lives.
Also, he said that there were a few towns were they never really had an off night, and colorado/denver was one of them. That even when they were their most arty and out there, that Colorado always asked for more.
2 funny things - one, in that same dialogue, Bono made a crack about other towns and how some fans say "Just play the rock songs" - in a total white man American yuppie voice.
And during "One" he asked everyone take out their cell phones as lights, kinda 21rst century lighters, and the sheer amount caused people to laugh.

Well worth the 40 bucks in a heartbeat.., full price - no way.

set: City of Blinding Lights
Beautiful Day
Vertigo
Elevation
Gloria
The Ocean / New Year’s Day
Miracle Drug
Sometimes you can’t make it on your own
Love and Peace or Else
Sunday Bloody Sunday
Bullet The Blue Sky
Running to Standstill
Bad
Pride in the name of love
Where the Streets have no name
One
Zoo Station
Encore:
The Fly
Mysterious Ways
Encore:
All Because of You
Original of the Species
“40”

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