by Shawn Bison

It just so happens that I have a college friend, Vlad, who hails from and still lives in Oslo. He was kind enough to host me for the past few days as we traveled far, wide, and quick amongst some of the most amazing scenery I've ever seen in my life. If you ever make it to northern Norway in the summer, it is a sight to be seen. The fjords there should win awards, quietly trumping the ones I saw down in New Zealand five years ago. Norway is easily now in my top five countries ever.

Anyway, Vlad was also kind enough to score some nice reserved seats (he was impartial to general admission seating, so I executively decided that we should stick to seats, especially to maximize our sight-seeing adventures). Vlad said it was the most amazing thing he had ever seen since PopMart, and better. I agreed.

The venue is a strange one. Mostly used for ice events, it certainly is lower, flatter, and more acoustically spatial than the typical European football mega-stadiums. When Bono sang "hello, hello" (43 times, mind you - I think I've now heard the song Vertigo over 300 times) it would disappear back into the distance.... unlike the circular intensity it achieves in other places. I enjoyed the show a lot, regardless of the tired old setlist I've witnessed too many times already. I'm anxious for more of Scandinavia. And I pray for at least one more An Cat Dubh (or Crumbs!).

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