by Lance Longwell and friends

U2 played on Saturday May 4th to a packed house at Rice Stadium in Utah. Most of the technical glitches have been worked and the cameras had many more closeups of the band members.

Highlights of the night was the added Stand By Me after I Still Haven't Found. Edge let Daydream Believer go on longer than the Denver or Las Vegas shows. Until the end of the World was again longer than in Vegas, about as long as the Denver show.

After I Will Follow, he talked about being back in Salt Lake after a 14 year absence. It was a nice personal touch. He also mentioned the big U2 that a radio station had put up on the side of the mountain. He said, he didn't think they would do it for the Red Hot Chili Peppers.

Discotheque was rocking!!! But there was much less of the Howie B./Hairy B. mix.

During One, he again thanked Rage by saying, "we're one, but we're not the same." This seems to be his way of saying thanks. Look for it at future shows.

During Pride, he thanked the fans and called us "top fans in his eyes." It was a nice touch. The fans were really into it. In Vegas and Denver, it seemed like fans were waiting for stuff of Joshua Tree and earlier albums, but in Salt Lake, the fans were singing along to the new stuff too!

Marilyn Monroe is now gone from With or Without You.

During please, there were many more flags during Please. During Salt Lake, only France and Algeria (that I can remember). Compared to Denver where they had England, Israel, France, Algeria, Bosnia, and Ireland.

And, of course, Velvet Dress was back!!! It was much shorter than in Las Vegas, but still back and still powerful!

Screw Ups:
Before the show, they lit up the screen and showed the woman/man dancing scene. The intro with Pop Muzik played, but no band came out! Then, they played an Underworld song. Then, they finally started Pop Muzik over and the band entered. It took the band some time to regain that energy. Because the audience had already seen the Pop Muzik intro, it lost it's emotional grab. But the band quickly regained the energy and the fans were with them the whole way (even more than in Denver or Las Vegas). However, the transvestite images were different. Different colours and more high kicks. One bar of lights on the stage left (audience right) side was out. It was a vertical bar about 15 feet from the right edge and 10 feet down. It was more annoying than any real problem.

Security:
Security were real jerks. They wouldn't allow for the WIRE banner to be hung. The security managers name was Tom Vehill if anyone would like to complain to the security people or if you would like to find where he lives. The Salt Lake City police had a sniper patrol on the roof of the West press box. The were supposed to be recording the audience, but about 2/3 of the way through the show, I looked up and they had it focused on the stage. It was pretty obvious having a few uniformed cops on the roof. Security didn't do the pat-downs, but they were confiscating cameras during the show. I saw several individuals have theirs taken away from them.

Salt Lake culture:
When they put up the Roy Liechtenstein "evolution" images, the LDS (Mormon) culture had a very negative reaction. Those in our section were fairly appalled. This was also the general reaction to the transvestite images that they ran before the Pop Muzik repeat at the beginning of the show. Before the show, the nice woman and her husband asked me how many of the band members were homosexual. They seemed concerned about the new style and dress of "discotheque" as being distinctly gay. I had to reassure her that they were all, to the best of my knowledge, happily heterosexual.

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