by Teresa Cook

2 days, 2 countries, 2 U2 shows!

U2 Elevation tour, 4/12 Tacoma Dome and 4/13 General Motors Place Vancouver B.C.

Arrived at the T-dome around 11am, someone was keeping a list of people in line. Leaving everyone to self police the situation, was just under 100 people at the time I arrived. I asked what time the first people lined up and was told around 2am – that’s serious dedication! The atmosphere outside the T-Dome was friendly and warm, unlike the weather. At time the rain was
pelting down on us, leaving a lot of folks cold and wet. Most people where prepared for the wait playing cards, Frisbees, and using personal CD players (no doubt listening to U2!). I spent the entire day talking with a friend whom had traveled up from the Bay area to see this and the Vancouver show with me. Talked to the guys in front of us who had come from Portland who
where seeing the tour for the first of three shows. Even leant the recent copy of Propaganda to the guys behind us. The community of fans was awesome, everyone was friendly and gracious that I spoke with. I’ve been to a few hundred shows (not all u2, I wish!) and nowhere else have I ever ran
across a fan group that looks out for one another the way U2 fans do. The line didn’t really start growing fast until 1pm by 4pm the line stretched farther than I could see. Wristbands where handed out around 4, a nice shade of blue. Everyone in GA was given a wristband. About 6:20 doors opened and everyone ran for the stairs, it was organized chaos – the stream of people moved faster than security who randomly stopped people for a handbag search. I got stopped and it really slowed me up, actually cost me
admittance into the heart in the long run. A second wristband, white with black checkerboard design was administered to people who gained entrance into the heart. Seeing the swelled crowds trying to gain entrance on both sides of to the heart I knew there was a slim chance of making the cut. Quick thinking gained me a place along the outside point of the heart, left of center, which turned out to be an amazing vantage.

The music played while the stage set-up was completed included an electric mix of soul and funk. Hearing the people around sing along to The Commodores classic “Brick House”
was a hoot – they let it all hang out…

PJ Harvey played about 40 minutes. I like her voice, it’s very powerful for such a petite woman. She’s got great style, playing in a black sequined jumpsuit with a low back, very glamorous. PJ set included Rid of Me, Down by the Water, Dry, and Good Fortune from the CD. I’m not real familiar with PJ’s music, but it was refreshing to recognize a half dozen titles of the
relatively short set.

Full house lights came on after PJ’s set, Dallas Schoo and Stuart (Adams bass tech) where scuttling around getting gear ready. Dallas completed a full circuit on the catwalk with Edge’s gold sparkly guitar, cool to see the world famous Dallas up close with one of Edge’s toys. The music over the
PA after PJ Harvey switched from Funk and Soul to three tracks from Radiohead’s The Bends: The title track, Fake Plastic Trees, and High and Dry. The last song before U2 hit the stage was Primal Scream “Movin’ on Up.” Haven’t figured out any U2 connection to Primal Scream – wonder why they might have chosen this?

U2 hit the stage with no frills, house lights fully on they just strode out one after the other with Adam leading them, followed by Larry, Edge and Bono. Kicked off into overdrive with “Elevation”. House lights going off about ¾ of the way through the song into a nice blue scheme. Got my heart racing like an injection of Octane.

“Beautiful Day” came next, then “Until the End of the World”. Bono strutting around the catwalk like the alpha-dog he is. Edge strolled out to meet Bono at the point of the catwalk and begun to play the matador/bull characters that worked so well during Popmart. At this point I was thinking
“I never thought I’d be this close to Superheros!”

“New Year’s Day” was up then, “Stuck in a Moment You Can’t Get Out Of” was introduced as a song for “our friend Michael Hutchence” – very dear of them to keep his memory so close to their hearts.

“Gone” was a 7.6 on the richter scale, the sure magnitude of the song blew me away!

“Even Better than the Real Thing”

“New York” during which large sheer sheets of fabric descended from the ceiling along the catwalk with images to be projected on them. I guess the effect made the sheets look like skyscrapers with Bono wandering around almost like he was searching for something or lost.

“I will Follow”

“Sunday Bloody Sunday/Get up Stand Up.” Very cool to finally see U2 cover Marley live, I know they’ve done it over the years just not at any shows I’d been to.

"Sweetest Thing" featured Bono on piano, the entire GA crowd swaying to along with each note.

During moments when Bono was strolling the catwalk, the crowd would surge every time he stopped. At one point I lost contact with the floor, being lifted by the crowd. I guess you could say I was fully ELEVATED.

“In a Little While” just on the inside of the barricade, inside of the heart side they was a group of 5-6 very young girls. Edge and Bono’s daughters, perhaps? Having read a review from Calgary I instantly made a connection. Most of the girls looked like they were singing along during their time
standing inside the barricade. Bono announced the entire Evans clan was in
attendance including Edge’s dad Garvin and his mom, “U2’s first roadie.” Bono pulled up one of Edge’s daughters, to dance with. What a sweet moment adding to the electricity of the show. Bono bowed to her and kissed her
hand after the song finished then she was helped back down between the barricades. Bono danced with another of the girls at the end of “With or without You” – I suspected it was his eldest daughter Jordan, a beautiful young blonde. Remember sing her and Evie on C-span when Bono and family
visited the White house in Washington DC for the Presidential millennium diner. I’ve seen a few other reviews that said both girls are Edge’s daughters – I really don’t know. Either way both moments felt intimate even though they were shared with 20,000 other fans.

Bono introduced the band after “ Sweetest Thing”. Larry was up first “he’s had the same haircut for 20 years.” Adam was introduced as the man with the “biggest instrument” the poshest guy in U2 “Lord Adam Clayton – the Jazzman.” Edge “a man with more children than Abraham” and “He plays the
whole orchestra himself – The Edge.”

Bono slipped in “Seattle” in lyrics what must seemed like at least a dozen times. Comparing Dublin and Seattle, with common bond of the rain. Got the impression that Bono was having blast playing for the fine folks of Seattle today.

“Desire” and “Ground Beneath Her feet” featured just Edge accompanying and Bono. Both songs stripped down to basics. I enjoyed the arrangements immensely.

“Bad” was a big high, they could play that song for 60 minutes and I’d still think it was too short. The crowd was following every note with reverence. Going into "Bad" Bono mumbled a Gavin Friday lyric, "I have ordinary addictions...."

“Where the Streets have No Name” was carried out with a lightening scheme of red, just like in Rattle and Hum. Memories of seeing that in the theatre came flooding back. Bono read a bit of scripture at the beginning of
streets, I'm sure of the passage notations.

“Mysterious Ways” begun with one section of the video wall rising while Bono laid flat on his back on top of it. The video wall contains 7-10 panels of pixel screens, very muck like the Popmart screen but on a much smaller scale, each panel could be lowered and raised individually. Each panel shows a woman dancing (the same one repeatedly).

“The Fly” I didn’t recognize at all until Bono sang the line “it’s no secret that the stars are falling from the sky”, awesome arrangement simple at the beginning then kicked into full gear by the end.

“Bullet the Blue Sky” had this weird Charelton Heston video intro with him saying "Here's my creedo. There are no good guns, there are no bad guns. A gun in the hands of a bad man is a bad thing. Any gun in the hands of a good man is no threat to anyone except bad people." Followed by a clip of a little girl, very weird part of the show for me. Bono carried a portable
spotlight out to the catwalk and scanned the crowd like a lighthouse beacon scans the sea. Bono threw in a bit of Led Zepplin's "Whole Lotta Love" towards the beginning and David Bowie's "Young Americans" towards the end of BTBS.

During “With Or Without” Edge was bathed in a blue spotlight through the ethereal notes, Edge really is a a guitar super hero.

“Pride” had the whole crowd singing along at full volume. Nice to see this song get added to the set list after in omission from the first few shows. For me if U2 didn’t sing “Pride” it would compare with say Sinatra not singing “My Way.”

Time for the encore…….

“One” always a delight to hear weather on the radio, through my walkman on live.

“Unchained Melody”

“Walk on” - I love this song. The powerful lyrics, soaring vocals, beautiful melody – 4 ½ minutes of pure heaven. Everyone call your local radio stations and request it!

Onto Vancouver...

First off we drove up from Seattle in just two hours, hit an nasty ice storm just 15 miles south of the border. So bad that two car spun out into the median or down the embankment - driving to fast. The poilce actually stopped traffic for a few minutes then paced people for 3-4 miles, keeping
the MPH belowe 30. Very weird weather for PNW in April.

Initially thought the show was at GM Place Stadium, turns out it was GM place - next door to GM place Stadium. Names are all to confusing when your running of little to no sleep and a huge adrenaline buzz :) Got in line at the venue around 1pm, about 60 people infront of us. Wrist bands were
issued as soon as we arrived, nice shade of purple. The staff at GMP was much better prepared for U2, and their fans. As the crowd grew we were penned off and left to self police. The venue staff announced that they would be letting people in as groups, so the first group would be let in,
probably about 200 people. Once they were in then the next group and so on. Very well organized and orderly. The pat down search was more involved, everyone was searched - still they let disposible and non digital canmeras in without question (same as Tacoma).

Now here is the BIG Suprise! U2 came out and signed autographes around 4,maybe earlier. It was Bono, Edge, and Adam. Larry was still sound checking, you could hear the big THUMP THUMP THUMP coming from inside the arena. Adam was posing for pictures with the ladies - LOL! It was a mad scene everyone
just mobbed them. They mingled with the fans for about 20 minutes, maybe half an hour.

So back to getting in to the venue. I was the 46th person into the heart on Edges side. Took a place against the barricade at the front of the stage just left of center. They issued a second wristband, hot pink checkerboard - this allowed you to leave the heart and come back in. The system was
flawless. However there was no way I was going to leave my spot for any reason! Holy Moly could I be this close to Edge and Bono, Yeah baby!

PJ Harvey's set only had about three songs in common between the Vancouver and Tacoma shows. I enjoyed her more the second night. She wore a beautiful sequined gown, it was see through when the stage lights hit her from behind. She also had on very kick-ass bad girl boots on, spiked heels/black faux
snake print. VH1 owes her a fashion awrd! PJ is a very petite woman, amazingly powerful voice for her size.

She came out to open her set solo about 1/4 into the first song she went to step on her efx pedal and lost all sound from her guitar. He tech ran out and plugged her into a new lead and she jumped right back into the song - fairly flawlessly. the crowd roarded for her when that happened. PJ just
seemed to "Rock" more in Vancouver. The guynext to me passed PJ a bouquet of flowers with his email address tied to the ribbon arround them. She graciously thanked him and then favoured our side of the stage for the remained of the set. I hope he get a thank you note from her, that would be pretty
cool for him.

The set list was identical to Tacoma, aside the inclusion of "Wake Up Dead Man" in place of "Unchained Melody."

Bono didn't make many mentions of Vancouver, unlike Seattle. He mentioned that it was exactly 20 years ago this week that U2 first played Vancouver, in The Commodore Ballroom. Bono also made note of the successful Greenpaeace campaign to save bears in the BC rainforest. Saying soemthing
along the line of, amazing how you can always get things done in an election year.

The girls next to me had brought flowers. Bono bit off some of the flower petals from a white Gerber daisy. He spit them out with the most sour look on his face then had a little laugh. After the show the girls girls were asking the security guards to pick up the petals Bono spit out for them. Adam at one point was on Edge's sie of stage, he was looking at someone very near to me and gave them a huge smile and a big wink - LOL!

Hands down this is the best U2 tour I’ve seen, better than ZooTv better than Popmart. The overall lighting and stage elements equal the high standards U2 puts into their music. The set list combined with some of the
performance elements reminded me just how MEGA U2 has been for the last 15 years. This show brought back so many happy memories of seeing them on previous tours that had been locked away into the folds of my brain. Bono’s been saying that U2 is “reapplying for the job” as biggest band in the world. For me they already HAD the job. I wonder how many people will give them tenure after seeing this tour.

Teresa Cook

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