by Tine Van Criekinge

This my fifth time seeing U2, and my first time for the Vertigo tour. The show met all my expectations. Bono's voice was great, and the rest of the boys simply rocked. Miss Sarajevo, and the Pavarotti piece sung by Bono, was very emotional and beautiful. And while I don't like the album version of Yahweh, the live version is incredible. The Italian fans were fantastic, very loud and responsive. I am not used to seeing U2 from the distance I saw them at in Rome, but the lighting and the effects are simply amazing from afar.

Only 3 things were a bit disappointing about this show:
1. The organization outside of the stadium (in order to get in the stadium) was near non-existent.
2. For the price of the ticket (about 100 euro), and after a 10 year Propaganda membership, the seats I was given through the U2.com presale were really bad, with the view of half of the stage covered by a sound-tent. Luckily Bono didn't wander onto the ellipse all tha often, otherwise I would have been watching the screens for 2 hours. 3. The ZooTV set (Zoo Station, The Fly) were really nice to see live (since I was too small to attend the Outside Broadcast tour, but have completely worn out my ZooTV Sydney tape), but the audience didn't interact well with those songs. In fact most of the people around me, that had been singing and dancing the whole time up until then, were sitting down, looking at their watches during that set.

Besides those 3 minor details, all in all it was yet again a wonderful U2 experience. The boys are in great shape, and they sound awesome. The humanitarian message intertwined with the music is an absolute winner for me. Now I just have to wait another 4-5 years for the next (and maybe the last?) tour. But next time I am going to see them up close, like the last 4 times I saw them. It's just not the same when they're so far away.

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