by Tim

It's 10:30AM CST, and I'm sitting outside on a grassy hill just outside Gate 5 at the United Center. There are about 120 people in front of me with the hopes of getting in the heart or somewhere near the tip of the heart. I'm just happy to be there.
In various efforts to cure the boredom that can come with sitting outside for 9 hours, various fans went and played basketball with some of the inner-city kids, people worked on their tan (I personally resemble a tomato now) or just enjoyed the companionship that we as U2 fans can enjoy.
Once the GA line was starting to be let in, I was able to secure a place on the outside barrier of the heart, approx. 9 people from the tip on Edge's side.
Jonathan the piano player from Saturday night was three people away from me, he was holding a sign that simply said "Thank You"
P.J. Harvey came on and played an amazing set, she did "Down by the Water" which I was not expecting at all, but it was a good set, the crowd was getting into her, better then the first night.
So the band walks on stage to the remix of Elevation and does the whole wave to the fans, before kicking into Elevation.
After one of the first songs, Bono started talking to the audience. He said to the effect that "I tell every person that I run into, be it a taxi driver, the door man, the room service, the maids, even the receptionist at the hotel, I Love Chicago"
I'm almost positive that the crowd went nuts after that.
Right before Discotheque, one of Bono's security guards, a really tall bald guy who was wearing a Nike Hat was standing in front of me, he pulled a setlist out of his pocket, and then looked at it, he walked up to me and said "what is it, what's next" and I was thinking hard "no idea" "c'mon you had it on the tip of your tongue and then it hit me "discotheque!" "Yea man, it'll rock just watch"
Bono started the bloopers by screwing up New York. When he was supposed to sing the third verse of "Irish been comin here for years..." he instead started to sing "In New York...lalalala" so he played that out for a few bars, and then jumped back into the proper verse. Also, the screens, which had usually dropped from the ceiling, remained up, and Bono didn't wear his cowboy hat.
During In a Little While, a girl gave Bono a leopard skin cowboy hat, which he put on and wore for the rest of the song. Then right before Ground Beneath, he asked edge "is this a hat song?" Edge looked at him and kinda waved his hand in mock disapproval. So Bono threw the hat back.
The rest of the first set was pretty predictable. Although it seemed Bono let the crowd sing the end of AIWIY far longer then I have ever heard him let it go before.
During With or Without You, Bono pulled a girl on stage who instantly fell as soon as she got to the heart, so Bono sang the entire song while laying next to or on top of her, she just sat their laughing the whole time. Funny little thing, when Bono first laid down, his jacket kinda flipped out on his back allowing us access to view his bare back and could possibly have given us sight to his underwear, but alas his security guard flipped the jacket back into place.
Walk on had its obvious problems. It was obvious from the start that there were some problems, so Bono cut off the band, and started ad libbing this song that included "Edge is havin a bad day" and ended with "I think this will do the trick"
After "Walk On" when the band was waving good bye, the crowd produced the loudest cacophony of sound that I have ever heard. Bono actually stopped walking down the stairs and turned around and it looked like he didn't want to leave. Everyone pointed that out after the show, it honestly looked like he was going to come back out, he stayed up there, just looking at the audience for 30-45 seconds, smiling that Bono smile that everyone loves so damn much.
11:00PM CST, I finally leave the United Center, 12 and a half hours later. With a burn that still is killing me the next day, my ears buzzing constantly, and knowing that my soul was elevated, twice now.

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