by Ann

It is undeniable - U2 is the best band in the entire world. This was proven without a doubt on Sunday, Easter, Sunday at the Rose Garden in Portland. For U2 fans, this concert was truly a religious experience.

Like the other reviewer, Flopek, I saw the band at the Tacoma Dome on Thursday night (my first U2 concert ever!) and was so blown away I knew I just *had* to go to Portland! Berating myself for not getting GA tickets earlier, I bought seats on the lower-level reserved seating. The view was fantastic, although I did wish that I were inside the Heart!

As a novice U2 concert-goer, this may sound redundant to older fans, but the stage presence of Bono is simply amazing. Larry's passionate drumming and Adam's driving bass are truly the backbone of the band. Add to that The Edge's incredible guitar riffs and, WOW. They are just sooooo good! What I especially love about the band is how awesome they sound live, which I believe is the litmus test of a real quality band. In this day and age of homogenous radio crap and manufactured pop bands who sound absolutely terrible in concert, U2 lives up to all expectations . They just put on such a great live show - Bono's voice was in top form and he's the consummate performer, charming, funny, and endearing.

There were two things that kind of puzzled me about the concert, however. First of all, towards the end, when Bono dived into the arms of the crowd, instead of crowdsurfing for a bit and then going back onstage, as he did in Tacoma, it looked to me as if he FELL down into the crowd. At that point, he ran through the masses as if he were Moses parting the Red Sea and disappeared backstage for a minute or two as the band, seeming momentarily stunned, finished the song Bono-less. This struck me as very unplanned! Next, when he sang Amazing Grace, the part that should go, "I once was lost, but now am found/ Was blind, but now I see," it sounded to me as if he sang "I once was lost, but now I see..." But no one else seemed to catch this, so perhaps I was just delirious! These are just minor quibbles, however, in what was a mind-blowing concert! Pictures are soon to come.

Thousands of reviewers, professional and otherwise, over the world have probed the psyche of U2 - the rhyme and reason of the band, their driving force, their change and evolution, the irony, the reinvention, etc, etc. All I can say is that they ROCK! I love U2!

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