by Dan

I am a long-time veteran of U2 concerts with the first being in 1983 at the Tower Theater on the War Tour. I would have to affirm some of the comments related to a lack of emotion from the band on Saturday night. Perhaps the whole filming bit and travel from Chicago was a little taxing. I'm looking forward to next Sunday the 22nd. We sat at lower level "center ice" and the sound was a bit muffled and distorted but not annoyingly so. And yes I did notice that the band was off tempo on Vertigo. It seems to me that in the early years there was more spontaneity and raw emotion, perhaps because they were 25 years younger. I do think that bringing the kids up and walking them around is a bit contrived and comes across to me as something that has become obligatory. People have come to define this as "connecting with the crowd." I suppose if I was down in the ellipse I might have a different perspective on all of this. My favorite song was Into the Heart/An Cat Dubh, so I guess I'm showing my age a bit. The backbeat on it was absolutely sensational and the band seemed to really enjoy pulling this one out of the archives. The lighting was good and not too overpowering. Also, I agree with the one reviewer regarding the political speeches. It use to be that he could connect with the crowd by hitting an emotional chord about an obvious social injustice that added not subtracted from the crowd energy. Now he feels he needs to lecture others on his own political agenda. I could sense a definite cause and effect in the crowd losing its energy and connectedness once he launched into his diatribe. That being said I enjoyed the concert but in my opinion it was not in the Top 10 of U2 shows that's for sure. Overall, I would rate the concert 3 out of 4 U2 stars. They have set the bar high and anyone else I would have rated 3.5 stars.

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