by Dan Thorson

Wow... what a night, first time seeing U2.

First the setlist;

City Of Blinding Lights
Vertigo
Elevation
the Cry / The Electric Co.
I Still Haven't Found...
Beautiful Day
Miracle Drug
Sometimes You Can't Make It On Your Own
Love And Peace Or Else
Sunday Bloody Sunday
Bullet The Blue Sky
Miss Sarajevo
Pride
Where The Streets Have No Name
One

The First Time (acoustic)
Who's Gonna Ride Your Wild Horses? (acoustic)
With Or Without You

All Because Of You
Yahweh
Crumbs From Your Table
Vertigo

The night began with a couple of tickets in the reserved seating, but I had wanted to be on the floor badly. U2 opened with "City Of Blinding Lights" which was visually stunning, and it was a great opener, no confetti this time around.

Most of the setlist remained the same, but they had a different transition of songs, this time they played "I Still Haven't Found..." before "Beautiful Day" but "Still Haven't" segued into Beautiful Day. The color and stage display were simply beautiful, they looked incredible in the dark arena.

One of the coolest things was when during Elevation, a girl held up a sign that said "Bono, I lost 75lbs to dance with you!" So Bono pulled her up on stage, at first she seemed nervous, but then again -- who wouldn't be? There were 20,240 people there...

And then during "Beautiful Day" a parent raise their child to touch Bono, and the kid said to Bono "You da man" -- later on, Bono would walk around the elipse during "The Ocean" and ask "Where is that boy? Where is his face?" I think he wanted to bring the boy up on stage.

During "Sometimes" Bono sang a little bit of opera when he sings "Can you hear me when I sing?" Which sounded full of emotion, it was fantastic.

The standard setlist songs sounded great, Bullet was full of passion, the lights and solo were stunning, and it spoke to me. I liked Bono's pose as a prisoner. Bono sang a snippet of "Please" during Bullet, and I was so excited!

After Bullet, they played "Miss Sarajevo" which almost sounded like Running To Stand Still, which I had hoped for, but Miss Sarajevo was great to hear Bono do Pavorotti's part, it was superb! I didn't think Bono could pull it off that well, but boy, did he ever! Easily one of the best moments in the night, it was beautiful.

Then Pride and Streets and One came, Streets was great to hear live, I think the whole audience was singing along to that, I couldn't hear myself sing, and everyone was dancing. The lights coming on at the end was great. One sounded strong as ever, as I texted to the number (I can't remember the number off the top of my head now) and got a text message from Bono / The One Campaign.

Now, the encore...

I was wondering about this... was it going to be Discotheque? Or was it going to be Zoo Station? I wanted to hear Zoo Station / The Fly but they chose not to play that, instead, Edge came out with a acoustic guitar and started playing "The First Time" Bono seemed to forget the lyrics but made up for it. Next, they moved to "Who's Gonna Ride Your Wild Horses?" The crowd loved that song, as everyone sang along to it -- it was a long lost favorite, and it sounded great, Edge on acoustic guitar, Adam and Larry on bass and percussion. They seemed to do a Zooropa / Achtung Baby encore, which was great.

Next came With Or Without You, Bono pulled up a girl to hold during this song, and Bono sang the song perfectly, sometimes hitting the high notes in this song.

After that, people started to leave -- but then All Because Of You came on, which sent the arena into a frenzy as people started dancing in the isles and in their seats, Bono came out in a cowboy hat, trademark shades and a newer jacket. Next was "Yahweh" which was great, and then the biggest surprise of the night...

Edge brought out a new guitar that I hadn't seen before, and I was thinking about hearing "Walk On" and then the introduction began ... CRUMBS FROM YOUR TABLE!!! I yelled and freaked out I couldn't believe it, MINNEAPOLIS WAS THE FIRST PLACE TO HEAR CRUMBS! And to think, it was soundchecked so many times during this tour, but we got to hear it first! It sounded great, Bono's vocals were good, but he couldn't reach the high notes, but the sound musically sounded great.

So after Crumbs got done, the band was going to play 40... then they switched and played Vertigo, which was a little bit of a let down, but seeing from the crowds reaction to each song, I think Vertigo seemed appropiate to send them off with. I wanted to stay behind and hope for 40, but maybe next time. It was a great night full of surprises, and I loved each song. I won't forget this night. Pictures coming soon!!

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