by Chris Brown

This is the fourth time that I have seen U2 in concert. As a band, I have never heard them tighter. Pride was almost as good as their performance during the televised Conspiracy of Hope concert in 1987, which in my opinion is the best version (live) of this song. They also mixed it up quite well which was nice to see. They played some old and some new. One of the musical highlights was the set featuring I Still Haven't Found...., and Bad. They surprised me by playing Bad, but I was happy as it is perhaps my favourite U2 song. They always seemed to sing the right songs at the right time.

Unfortunately the Big Egg (Tokyo Dome) is probably as bad acoustically as the Sky Dome in Toronto used to be...Horrendous!!

Bono's voice lacked lustre at times. Perhaps he is getting old, or just feeling the abuse from a year on the road. Overall he hit when he had to.

The audience was anything but hyper. My friends and I were asked to be quiet by the people in front of us (Japanese of course) who were sitting there trying to listen to the show. Whatever!! I guess the band was as into it as they could be given the lacklustre crowd.

Overall, the show was excellent. I still believe that the Joshua Tree tour was probably U2 at their best, butthat is just an opinion. I believe that U2 must return to that style of concert, not the music necessarily as I like their unpredictability, but the more personal stage design and lack of all the show. Popmart was good, but U2 seemed to always be at a distance, something that I have never felt at a U2 show before...

Return to previous page | Post a Review of this show!