by Todd R

Of all the U2 show's I've seen, this by far was the most city-specific, with many references to the Christmas Lighting of Cleveland, The Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame (and it's VP of Curitorial Affairs - Jim Henke) and the band's original stand at the Cleveland Agora in 1981 (in a similar very cold winter). The band was VERY loose - improvising some, with Bono sometimes missing vocal cues as a trade-off. With only a few shows left in the states - I can imagine the band casting fate to the wind. Who can forget Bono's improvised Airline Stewardist dance during "Elevation" (that he attributed to Larry!) or the two note reference to Sam & Dave's "Soul Man" in the guitar break of the same (after all the "goal is soul"!).

"Gloria" should always be in the set - I don't think anyone in the audience belived what they were hearing when those drums kicked in....fantastic.

Many Lennon/Beatles lines included therein - due both to the fact that the 25th anniversary of John Lennon's passing - and also the band's recent induction to the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame (a whole improvised verse during the "Instant Karma" cover was tribute to the topic).
"Sgt. Pepper's" was included in "Beautiful Day" with a spoken flashback by Bono to playing with Mr. Lennon's partner Paul at Live 8..."Happy Xmas (War Is Over)" made a short appearence later in the set as well. The Clash's "Rock The Casbah" felt perfect in the set - still another fellow inductee to the RRHOF....

"Until The End Of The World" was as powerful as ever, with Bono returning to his track-star days around the elipse - parallelled by The Edge (never missing a note !) and finally the quartet gave-in to Larry's gravity, with all surrounding him for the end - playing back to four guys in a room I'm sure.

Note to the band - the cell phone trick has now become a standard - those ultrablue lights now come out every encore!

The show ended with the perfect pair of "Yahweh" (dedicated to a mysterious "007" by Bono - was Tina Turner in house at the "Q"? ) and "40" - seemingly more at home as the final song as ever.

Thanks to the band and crew for a great tour.

Return to previous page | Post a Review of this show!