by hosive tsang

I came back to my college hometown (again) to watch u2 get the kinks out of their DVD shoot. Not a bad thing at all. Their set was nearly identical to the previous night. Not a bad thing at all either considering the energy of the crowd. Bono agreed and rewarded us with an encore of vertigo to close the night.

The band seemed to be doing backups for Monday night’s shoot with all the extras: smashing pumpkins lyrics, bringing people on stage including the giant guitar playing girl (bono called her Laura tonight…I thought it was Gloria. My bad). Here are some of the things that were different than Chicago 2:

During miracle drug bono talked about faith and how it was a good thing: faith in the future, faith in your family, faith in your friends, faith in your band mates and faith in God. In fact it is faith in God that inspires medicine to help people.

Bono brings a boy on stage and asks his name. His name is garreth (?). Bono says:” my name is Paul…but I go by bono:” the crowd loves it.

I also came back to my college hometown to celebrate Bono’s birthday:

After mysterious ways, the setlist changes and the fun begins. First happy birthday….by the crowd! Then bono asks for the giant Chicago girl who wants to play party girl. She comes on stage and he tells her what he wants for his birthday. For her to play Bad….he jokes (I think). They stick with party girl with the full band and her.

After all because of you, a new staple but still rare performance of original of the species which bono apologizes for. He says that they still do not know how to play this….live. Yet. They do a great job. I was so excited for this, I screamed and sang along despite the fact my voice has been scratchy and that I’ve got a speaking gig in nyc on Saturday. Sorry Vision church! But my voice is miraculously better this morning!

The energy is so high that bono calls an audible and changes the set from 40 to end with vertigo. He rushes back and forth to all the members to inform them of his decision. This song is for him! He says! He teaches us some Italian about liking something so much, you do it twice! The energy was just too high to end with 40. Ending with vertigo certifies that the crowd had achieved liftoff!

Despite all this, the performance was NOT AS archival as the previous night. The band was simply more theatrical on Monday.

Other side notes: we were in the front row again! This time in the upper deck. :T
Theresa and I took our buds, Easten and Chris who just graduated from Wheaton college; Debby, Kristen and her fiancé Brian. It was a wedding present for Kristin and Brian…or a breakup consolation present if it doesn’t work out. They won’t be able to say they got nothing out of that relationship!

The kings of Leon thank one of their moms for being there tonight.

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