by Mika Heikkinen

This was my first, and so far my only, U2 concert. At 21 years of age I had enjoyed the band's rise to mega stardom and desperately needed to witness them at the peak of their strength.

Coming over to Stockholm from Northern Finland meant a trip of 1000 km that was spent intoxicated and in good company, as me and my merry friends took a ferry loaded with U2 fans the night before the concert and partied throughout the sea trip.

After a long day queuing in Stockholm we watched lacklustre PJ Harvey and Stereo MCs go about their business of licking fiery legs and sorts. It was relatively quiet at the front, so we made our way towards the stage and ended up just a metre or two away from the edge (oh well).

Recollections from the show: U2 had discovered irony - making people applaud them onstage to a Nazi propaganda piece was pretty twisted. Also, as the crowd took their time warming up, a frustrated Bono was punching his fist in the air and trying to get people in the wings going - which felt like we were supposed to go through certain motions in a rehearsed event. Ironically enough it made you think about the Nurnberg rallies and cult worship back in the 1930's Zooropa. It all became a mixed signal.

The problem in being too close to the stage is that you cannot see or hear the band properly. Only after moving towards the centre of the field could I enjoy the show better. It was very impressive visually, and people were getting on with it better as the show went along, until Bono called Sarajevo and stopped the show for a couple of minutes to talk to a girl in the city that was under siege.

The connection seemed poor and it was hard to follow their conversation. Moreover, it was a totally deadening moment for the show, and I'm not sure music could recover the evening from there on. It made you feel a little more guilty plus it made you snap out of the mode for awhile.

Having seen video footage and reading about the tour, I couldn't but conclude that the show at least didn't live up to all the hype. It certainly didn't lift my spirits to any spontaneous heights or take me 'somewhere else'. The references to Nazi mass hysterics and its obvious links to stadium rock kicked the show off in the wrong direction and made you want to think twice about joining in. Calling Sarajevo and some right wing politician in Sweden later on in the show seemed patronizing or in some way guilt ridden to an unnecessary point.

I ended up feeling numb and disoriented and unsure about the place of rock'n'roll in the postmodern world. It might have been the show's whole point and a good lesson for any young pilgrim who's coming to witness his gods. But to pay for the priviledge? It put me off U2 for a while.

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