by Kjetil Gilje

Here is a little personal review:

We arrived to the venue around 16.30, and the doors opened at 17.00. The weather was perfect, sunny and around 20 degrees. Perfect! Two bands had supportslots: Paddy Casey and Razorlight. Razorlight was alright, but they are not arena rockers. I think I could enjoy their music in a dark, small club.

Vertigo was a perfect start. You've waited for this moment for years, so it's great to start with a rocker. I Will Follow was great, but I would personally prefer An Cat Dubh. Didn't matter too much, because the next song was Electric Co! Edge had some problems with his rig. Poor Dallas Schoo! This problem certainly made the band a bit nervous, but it never became a big deal. I noticed Bono put in a few lines in a song (paraphrase: Dallas is taking it too far). I love that song, and it sounds better than ever. Elevation was great of course. Edge really gets to show off his rocking skills (foot rocking the pedal). I LOVE New Year's Day!

I don't remember when, but Bono made a little speach about Edge. It was something about Edge coming back from the future to make everything alright again. "I believe in ... The Edge!". He was probably referring to the rig problem. The problem just made one more appearance during the start of Streets.

Beautiful Day rocked. Bono surprised the crowd with a snippet from A-ha's The Sun Always Shines on TV. Of course it is a nod to the controversy around whether Bono had "stolen" the melody from the song (the touch me part). Bollocks of couse. I still haven't found was beautiful and a song I will never grow tired of. Bono danced with a girl during All I Want is You. Beautiful song and my sister's favourite I think.

Miracle Drug was fantastic. He started the song with a little speech about medicine, and I also remember the screen which showed a heart pulse. Miracle Drug and SYCMOYO are my favourite songs off the new record and they were both too good for words.

Everything after that was awesome, but particularly Bullet and Miss Sarajevo stood out. Bullet might be my favourite song ever. I knew they had played Miss Sarajevo in Amsterdam, so it wasn't a surprise in itself. The big surprise was how incredibly good it was. If anyone has doubts on Bono's voice these days they should listen to those few seconds of Bonorotti magic!

But it didn't stop there of course. Zoo Station was legendary. I never got to see the Zoo Tour, and that is a pain that never goes away... but it helped a lot to see Zoo Station :) Please, start selling that Zoo TV DVD soon! And then the brilliand The Fly. I was really looking forward to hearing his Variax Acoustic rocking out, and it - needless to say - didn't disappoint. Great tone.

The second Vertigo started with Bono yelling in Norwegian "ein, to, tre... fjaarten". I think Bono was even more energetic than during the first. Unbelievable. I remember the last time they played in Norway, Popmart '97. It was a fantastic show, with a very different feel and look. In my opinion the Vertigo show was a bit better. It just has a much better balance, setlist and energy. It's actually the best concert ever played in Norway IMO. All the newspapers I found gave it 6/6.

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