by Ron M

Here's an email I sent to a friend who's going to see them in Milwaukee in September:

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Since you're going to see this tour, I won't give too much away...

The show was AWESOME. That these guys manage to stay musically relevant after 25 years is amazing. At this stage in their careers, they're beginning to run into the danger of becoming caricatures of themselves by pulling in a number of elements from the "good old days" both musically and in the performance of the songs themselves (Bono shining spotlight on Edge and crowd or donning a military cap during "Sunday Bloody Sunday", for example), but somehow they manage not to cross that line quite yet by absolutely rocking the house. I was really impressed by how GOOD the songs on the new album sound live - I was as much impressed by that as anything. (They sound better live than on the album.)

The show was heavily loaded with a mix of U2 classics and tracks off the new album, and honestly, the new songs played back to back with "New Year's Day" and "Gloria" fit together seamlessly. They also threw in a few wild cards that were great - among them Bad being an awesome moment, as that's my favorite U2 song, and a very good Running to Stand Still.

The stage concept was kind of a "less is more" thing, but they were able to do some pretty cool things even within that. You'll see what I mean.

There was also a tribute of sorts to Colorado U2 fans and an acknowledgement by Bono of how the "Under a Blood Red Sky" performance at Red Rocks changed their lives. Even though I didn't live here back then, I thought that was a really cool moment. Bono also said something like "even when we were getting artsy and pretentious, Colorado kept saying to us 'come on back...come on back' - not like the uptight east coast folks who just wanted to hear rock-n-roll."

The ending of the show was really cool too - they did an extended version of "40" and kept the song going, but one by one left the stage, starting with Bono and ending with Larry Mullen Jr. The crowd kept singing "how long to sing this song" LONG after they left the stage, until finally the house lights came on. I have a feeling this too was a carry-over from previous tours (or possibly Under a Blood Red Sky?) but don't know because this was my first U2 show and I didn't see Red Sky. A GREAT moment nonetheless.

All in all, it was one of those shows that I literally dreamt about all night. Best concert I've seen in a long, long time. What a great band. What an awesome night.

-later.

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