by hibricc

Last of seven Boston Vertigo shows, #19 lifetime. Patty and I had GA floor tickets (bought on ebay – sold my Loge 7 tix there, too) in hopes of landing in the ellipse one more time. We were at the very end of the fanclub line, but no luck this time, so we camped out right in front of the soundboard.

Okay, so this was one of those “Christmas” shows, with Bono dropping in bits of holiday songs everywhere. Felt like a fun show, with the band loose and relaxed, celebrating the final Boston gig of the tour.

Highlights for me were the She’s A Mystery To Me coda to One that ended the main set, Mysterious Ways with both “Santa” and “Elvis” rocking out on the ellipse, and the John Lennon classic Instant Karma (added during the recent NYC shows to mark the 25th anniversary of his murder) with everyone in the arena singing along as if it were a U2 classic.

And then, it was all over. Seven shows spread over seven months, seven round trips from the Cape to Boston, seven nights of ten-dollars-an-hour babysitters, and seven chances to explain to people why “you saw them AGAIN?!”

Honestly, Boston7 was a bit anticlimactic for me, after the surprise 3rd encore of Boston6 and our Ellipse Show at Boston5. Taken together, though, the seven Boston Vertigo shows were a completely new and different experience than Boston Elevation had been, much more emotionally and intellectually challenging. Also lots of great new songs from HTDAAB, and a lot more variation in the setlists from night to night. My only disappointment is that our two sons (both huge U2 fans – as if they had any choice) were too young to join us this time around. But if history holds true, we’ll be Elevating the whole family sometime in 2009….

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