by Marko/Croatia

I can't believe what I just witnessed last night in Torino!!! I was on Zoo TV and Popmart, and I thought that nothing will ever beat Zoo TV, but oh my God was I wrong! The concert in Torino was the most beautiful thing that I ever witnessed and experienced.
First it took me 14 hours to get from Croatia to Torino, Italy. I got in the stadium around 15:00, so I was late to go near the "hart" area. I went to the stands (the lower ones – my ticket was for grass and lower stands), and I must say that it's has terrific view and it's really close to the stage. In the hart (as I heard) were around 3000 people, so it was much bigger than in arenas.
We had 3 support acts, 2 Italian bands and Fun loving criminals. The crowd was fabulous, guys were playing football (that's soccer for you Americans), girls were sunbathing in their bikinis and we were all wet from the showers that were turned on all of the time. And I have to say that Dele Alpi (Stadium for FC Juventus – go Juve) is beautiful.
Around 21:20 the elevation mix started playing and than our 4 guys came on stage, picked up their instruments and launched in elevation without any effects or light show. CROWD WENT NUTS!!!! Even beside me on the stands everyone was jumping and shouting like crazy, and down on the football field thousands of hands were clapping and bodies were jumping. I never experienced such euphoria and atmosphere on a concert, not on POPmart, and even not on Zoo TV (for which I thought was unbeatable), these Italian people are really great for parties!!!
After elevation they played their standard setlist but every song was played perfectly, and the crowd around me sang every song and every line. Kite was amazing, gone too, then new York, I will follow… if I continue I'll name every song and there's no need for that…
After 3 tours I finally heard Bad and it was everything I expected and than my all time favorite moment in U2 concert – Streets – the moment when all the lights in the house come on and it seems like daylight – and you can see Bono on the tip of the heart and around him 80.000 strong crowd moving in waves, singing in full voice and clapping. Bono was visibly moved and he repeatedly banged his fist on his heart and "throw" it to the audience. This evening he didn't pull any girl out of the crowd – he communicated with all the people instead, and it seemed that this night the stadium was club – they don't need the arena to get intimacy!!!!!
Another fine moment was in the middle of IALW when Bono sang "… a man build a rocket ship…" , and at that moment the big airplane flew directly above and low over the stadium – nice coincidence.
They finished the first part with The Fly which is one of my favorites, and that Bono chant "…we must go, go, we must go…" – I say just put that chant above any decent techno or trance rhythm and you've got an instant hit.
They came back for the firs encore and did Bullet with Bono giving a homage to rattle and hum by carrying a light with him, and than a great moment at the end of WOWY – Bono called to willy to turn off the lights, and when willy obeyed he said "Let the people light it" and than all the crowd put up their lighters – a moment to carry with you for a long time.

AND THAN the best moment of the gig, and the whole elevation tour so far, happened. They came back and played One, wonderful Wake up dead man, and at the end Walk on. At the end of walk on the lights turned of and than Bono said to the mic: "one more, one more for you…" and the Pride blasted out on the speakers!!! At the beginning I said to myself that I don't want pride on this tour 'couse I was tired of it, but this night they played it and bono sang it honestly and passionately like 15 yrs ago, it was really moving to see all their emotions and happiness on their faces, they were thanking the crowd all night like they thought the crowd can not recognize that they really meant it. After Pride they went of stage and than Edge appeared on stage and the rest of them followed him, Larry was shirtless so he had to put it back on. They made one more lap across heart catwalk, and Bono just didn't want to go away, he was sending kisses an waved to the crowd like he wanted to stay there forever. At the end he put his arm around Larry or Adam (I can't be sure) and whispered something into his ear), and he said ONE MORE ONE MORE TIME!!!! I was happy like a little child for I knew that I'm witnessing something unusual, something that will go into U2 history as one of the best gigs ever!!! Than Bono said "…this is our first single…" and they launched in to Out of control - that confused me, because I expected 11 o'clock - but I don't mind, this was fabulous also. And than they left the stage at last (not that I was pleased with that) and over the speakers we could hear Grace (some people thought that they came back). It took me 14 hrs to get back home to Zagreb, Croatia, but it was a trip filled with big memories and great feeling. I just have to say that after Munich (zoo tv), an Viena (POPMART), I'll never go back ther, now my country for U2 is Italy (unless they decide to come to Croatia), the crowd was terrific, on the stands beside me people were pulling their hair, crying their eyes out, singing to every word, clapping and jumping. Unbelievable experience. I think that there is no concert beside Slane that has a chance to top this one In Torino….

All best from a grateful fan from Croatia!!!

I wish you all a concert like this one

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