by Steve Carlson

This was my third show on this tour, the first two being the San Jose shows. And I must say, I'm almost thinking that this show bettered the now-infamous 2nd San Jose experience. Although it was a little different.

The crowd was *electric* in a way I've never seen before. You could tell it was going to be an amazing show when the Elevation remix first came on and most of the crowd not only cheered loudly (before the band ever came close to the stage), but then proceeded to begin jumping to the music -- again, before the band ever took the stage. I knew then this was going to be a great audience.

I was positioned outside the heart, on the left edge of the tip, next to the left platform Bono uses to jump into the crowd. It was perfect! When Bono took off his sunglasses, he was starring for a LONG time into my friend Marissa's eyes, because she was holding a sign I had made that read "Nice Sunglasses". Unfortunately, when he took them off, he teasingly handed them to somebody to his right, and I couldn't tell if it was a fan or a roadie. I was disappointed, I wanted his sunglasses. :)

Other highlights of this show... Bono took the camera of a guy standing next to me and proceeded to take our picture (I can't wait to get a double!) Then he calmly wound the camera once more and took a self-portrait, with a bit of a goofy, surprised look on his face.

"Stay" with Jonathan was a treat! I was worried he wouldn't pull it off, but somehow he did it beautifully and calmly. It added a whole new vibe to that song, I can't wait to hear a bootleg.

During "New York", Bono did an imitation of Robert DeNiro in Taxi Driver..."You talkin' to me? You talkin' to me? I don't see anybody else here, so you must be talkin' to me!" I tried offering him a deck of playing cards, but he didn't bite.

At the end of "Bad", a few choruses of "40" rang out, which was picked up again during the pause before the first encore.

"Wake Up Dead Man" was completely spontaneous. Bono had to motion to the Edge a few times to get his attention, to make sure he understood what he was trying to do. It was a *perfect* transition into "Walk On", and I think it should remain a part of the show. Amazing!

And again, my favorite moment of the show remains "With or Without You", mainly for the exceptional use of the opera screens. Being on the floor while they project the star charts onto the screens AND the audience leaves me feeling like I'm enveloped in the song...I've never experienced such a well-done 3 dimensional lighting effect. Kudos to Willie Williams!

My last highlight was that I had the chance to meet Willie briefly...I found him after the show and asked him about a cafe in San Francisco, which I've been wanting to find out more about. I only talked to him for about two seconds, as security was rushing us out, but he was a great guy nonetheless!

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