by howey

The second Sydney show is and will probably remain the best live show I will ever see.

Having been to the show the previous night (my first U2 concert, and a fantastic one at that...) I thought it would be interesting to see if they would mix it up at all. We joined the GA queue at about 4:40pm, ie "late". We ended up about 10 metres from the stage (compared to right up the back in the "nosebleeds section" the night before) so still pretty damn good all things considered.

Before Kanye started a guy near us pushed through to the front and tried to start a fight. All I can say is hate doesn't work with a U2 crowd, he was very quickly put in his place. And did anyone else notice that on this night Kanye was censoring his lyrics ("but she ain't messin with no broke-broke") where as the night before he wasn't?

But we weren't here for Kanye. When U2 came on, this close to the action, the energy of the crowd was 10 times better, the sound was fantastic from where we were, and the band just seemed more "upbeat" than the previous night. The show was very "Australianised" throughout, with some aboriginal art up on the screen, Bono changing the lyrics (Beautiful Day especially), and the Didgeridoo during Kite. Bono absolutely nailed Miss Sarajevo and I think took everyone by surprise that he was able to fill in for Pavarotti so well. ISHFWILF was a good change from the previous night. Desire was great simply for the fact that it was obviously impromptu.

Both nights I took friends with me who were non-fans but "thought it would be good" and now put U2 up with the best concerts they have ever seen. It doesn't get any better!

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