by BS

Wow, what a show. This was my 14th time seeing them in concert. I was worried a little about this tour after reading the reviews and seeing the setlists for the different shows I just wasn't as excited as I have been about seeing them in the past. But this show was going to be my wife's first time seeing them in concert so I knew no matter what it would be special.

The great-The spaceship, claw whatever you want to call the stage was jaw dropping. Pictures don't do it justice. It is massive and the video screen was amazing. We had general admission tickets on the field and there really wasn't a bad spot to watch it from. We were able to get into the inner circle. Which was a lot easier to do than you would think it would be. They were still letting people in there until around 6:30 ish. We were on Edge's side of the stage, towards the back railing and had a great view of the stage, even though it was a little high, and when they went on the outer catwalk could turn around and they were right there. My wife couldn't believe how close we were. We came there with shirts we made that had a picture of us at our wedding and said "We got married to Maginificent". We got married in June and ours was a non traditional ceremony. Everyone walked down the aisle to an acoustic version of "Everlong", we played "The Luckiest" by Ben Folds as our song in the middle of the ceremony and we knew that we were gonna end the ceremony with a U2 song. It was a matter of which one. We went back and forth for months over, "Beautiful Day", "All I Want Is You" and many more but the new album came out and Heather listened to it alot and really liked the lyrics of "Magnificent" and so as the intro played and the official said I now pronounce you man and wife we kissed as the intro ended and Bono sang "Magnificent". So enough about that. The highlights for me, Magnificent-trying to get The Edge to see our shirts, Beautiful Day, hearing The Unforgettable Fire live again for the first time in 22 years, Streets-I still get goosebumps when that intro starts, Ultraviolet-here is a song I never expected to hear again live and with the laser jacket and led microphone it looked so cool. Until the End of the World-glad to see it back, it is an awesome live song, Sunday Bloody Sunday-MLK-Walk On segment-tying SBS to what happened this year in Iran worked well and how daring to devote a whole segment to Aung San Suu Kyi when 3/4 of the people there had no idea who she was and having the AI people walk out there with the masks on was a pretty cool piece of political theater. And I have to give it up to the Tampa crowd. We are notorious for having lackluster crowds at shows, people who are there just to be seen but this town loves U2 and it showed. People where singing along all night, even to the new songs. I was really surprised how well the crowd reacted to the new stuff. They were singing along and it was great. Of course all of this was topped by being there with Heather and seeing how excited she was, jumping up and down and singing and dancing the night away.

The not so great-There were just too many people in the inner circle. I am 6' 3" and it started to get uncomfortable around the time Vertigo was played and Heather is a foot shorter than me and she got very uncomfortable and we had to get out after Walk On. I don't know if it was less crowded on Adam's side but if we go again on this tour we may have to try his side and see. I can see why some people who got there early went straight for the front of the outside circle cause that was probably the best place to be. The setlist was lackluster. There were alot of great moments and I do like the new stuff but we have been very spoiled the last 2 tours esp the Vertigo tour where almost a quarter of the set list would change every night. Even though I felt it flowed better not opening with 4 new songs in a row could we please retire Mysterious Ways, One and With or Without You. The band just feels like they are going through the motions when they play those. Hell bring back, Even Better than the Real Thing; Hold Me, Kill Me, Kiss Me, Thrill Me; Lemon; Discotheque(which is awesome live)or Desire(a full blown version, not some half assed one). Also one of these three should be played Bad, All I Want Is You or 40. Every jawdropping, amazing U2 show I have seen one of those songs was played. I like "Moment of Surrender" but it just didn't work for me as a show closer. The encores(except Ultraviolet and Streets) just were pretty weak.

So it was a great U2 show. It was great to be there with my wife and see the joy she got from the show. Hopefully, we will be able to go again when they come back to the US next year.

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