by Gippsland Jimmy

To repeat my fellow reviewers, this show was something special, awesome and incredible. This was a very polished show performed by the best band in the world at their very best. Although I must admit I did miss the rawness of unforgettable fire and love town tours.

Two gripes to get out the way first, neither anything to do with the band:

Number one is the fact that I bought 'A reserve' tickets thinking they are the best seats in the house. Sitting on Level two 250 metres from the stage does not seem to be the best seats.

The other was unfortunately to do with some of the crowd in A reserve. At the start of 'City of blinding lights' my friend and myself exploded out of our seats and were dancing within seconds. Perfect start you would think? It was perfect until half way through I received a polite later not so polite) tug of the jumper with the request to sit down. EH? Sit down at a U2 concert! Staggering. People if you want to sit there like a cardboard cutout, sit at home and watch the DVD. Unbelievable. This did taint my night especially during the middle songs. Sad.

However, as Bono would say, 'its all about the music'. And what music it was. 'City' was a passionate opening which just gathered strength when they jumped into Vertigo. This song was made to play at stadium gigs and they nailed it. A nice little Australian flavour with 'Beds are buring' just to top it off.

Elevation continued to lift the crowd into a frenzy and U2 were off and running at a hell of a pace, the crowd singing note perfect (no, I don't want to sit down). Of course they couldn't keep this pace up and 'End of the world' felt a little flater. However you could see the band (particularly Adam) were having fun with this song so it was more about enjoy the song than a frenzied wall of music.

With the exception of 'Beautiful Day', the next 5 songs were a little flat for me due to the above gripes. Its been said before but this song truely did ROCK. I thought this song was a very good song on the live DVD's but this a level above. Not doubt one of the highlights for me.

'Still haven't found', 'Angel', 'The first time' and 'Sometimes' were all played well however didn't really reach the stale bottles up in the stands with us. You could see the GA crowd were having alot of fun with them so that was good.

'Love and Peace' restarted the sit down/stand up discussion only by the time 'Sunday' started there was no turning back. The crowd just exploded into action and everyone was up and there was no looking back. Another strong 'Sunday' performance with Bono pushing his COEXIST message well.

'Bullet' as always was fanastic and played with raw emotion. I like the fact that U2 have been changing this song every tour to make it unique however I felt this version just fell away to nothing at the end. 'Miss Sav' was well played with Bono showing his singing capacity to the full.

Don't need to say much about 'Pride' and 'Streets' as these were nailed by the band and the crowd went wild. Awesome versions.

For me, the concert's real highlights came in the encores as U2 continue to lift the crowd song by song.

I kind of thought 'the fly' would struggle at this stage of the set but how wrong I was. This was a very strong and quite raw verion of the song with Larry absolutely pounding through the song. Next it was Edge's turn to star with 'Mysterious Ways'. Well played my son. Bono plucked a lucky girl out the crowd towards the end of the song and she stayed up for the next song.

Its hard to find a single highlight but 'With Or Without You' has to go close. What a perfomance! The lucky girl on stage was bought to a quivering hunk of flesh as Bono serenaded her on one knee. Very moving.

'Saints' was incredible but far too short. It always feels like it should go longer. Great song though. 'Party girl' was a real laugh and 'Kite' was a strong finish to the show.

Normally but not tonight. All other Australian gigs have finished with 'Kite' but tonight they gave us an Australian farewell present with an incredible version of 'Bad'. This really is one of U2's best songs and I don't know why this song remains unplayed at some gigs. One of U2's anthem songs and they got it right again.

Thankyou U2 for a great night and we look forward to seeing in the next 4 years. 8 years is too long my old friend

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