by Bill Daras

Overall an excellent, high-energy concert that absolutely lost all momentum in the encore.

The opening songs blew the roof off the place (though the sound mix seemed a bit off until the 4th song in) and the recently re-introduced "Mysterious Ways" sounded far fresher than a 14 year old song should, and was presented in an arraignment that was more reminiscent of the album version than most of its previous live performances.

I never thought "Original Of The Species" was a good choice for a single, and the crowd's reaction to it backed up that assertion. Many people sat down, or found other places to be.

"Miss Sarajevo" reached unexpected heights with Bono's wonderful rendition of the Italian verses that left most of the audience simply amazed.

The show was hitting all of the right notes, and the band were in excellent form...that is until the encore arrived. Would they play "The Fly"? Perhaps pull out at least one, solitary track from "Pop", thereby correcting the glaring omission of any songs from that album? Nope. Tonight the band wanted to go out on a quiet note.

"Pride" had closed the main set with a burst of energy, and it turned out that was the last time the crowd was to be united in fist-pounding excitement.

I hate to say it, but the encore really derailed an otherwise fantastic concert.

Opening with "The First Time" set a somber tone, with "Stuck In A Moment You Can't Get Out Of" continuing that theme. Any hopes of the pace picking up again were dashed by "With Or Without You" appearing next. WOWY seemed to use a slightly modified version of the drum track from "God Part II" but was an otherwise unremarkable performance that appeared to be the band simply going through the motions. By the time "All Because Of You" arrived, the crowd was anything but energized. The band followed it up with "Yahweh" and "40" which didn't seem to provoke the usual reaction. By this point the emotional high of the main set was beginning to fade, and most people around me just seemed interested in packing their things up and going home.

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