by Rob

Given the problems in the music business these days, it's barely an exaggeration to say there will not be another tour of this scale and ambition soon. Some observations from night one in Paris:

1. U2 songs reveal themselves in new ways when performed live, and this show was no different. The live version of Go Crazy was superb.

2. This show was political but not in a heavy-handed way. There was a Desmond Tutu message before Streets that strikes a positive note. The linkage between the Iranian Revolution and SBS was appropos and Bono talked about infant mortality in developing nations before One.

3. Bono did the "Can you hear me knocking" extra verse on One.

4. Larry, or maybe it was Edge, got a little out in front on Streets. Bono made a joke about it after, saying something about "accurate" being better than "fast."

5. Bono said something like "what a waste" or " what a shame" after the MJ tribute at the end of Desire. I couldn't quite pick up what he said but there was some editorializing there.

A natural trade off between intimacy and scale exists in any stadium show. I don't know for sure whether this tour will reconcile that but the band worked really hard to invite all 94k in attendance into the show on this night. It was just superb.

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