by CB

Overall the first of the four Philly shows was a great effort by the band. Personally, I'm not big on City of Blinding Lights as an opener but the visuals made up for the lack of adreneline you look for in an opening song at a U2 show. They were kind of all business as they pounded straight through the first four or five songs. The stage and lighting is incredible and almost worth the ticket even if all they did was run the lights and play U2 songs from an ipod! I felt the transitions were not as strong as last tour. Especially the lead-in to "Streets". It was such a powerful moment in the last tour when they snuck up on you with that song as they transitioned out of an extended audience chant into the unmistakable opening riff but this time they seemed to stumble a bit and Streets did't get the transcendant start it deserves.

The Edge seemed to be going the extra mile to keep the energy up for the show and he rocked on Bullets and a few others. Bono's voice was strong until near the end. I noticed he skipped the beatlesque scream at the end of All Because of You...

The crowd was a bit flat for the most part. I was in a corporate luxury box which explains the tight asses around me but the whole house seemed to lack the electricity needed to fuel a proper U2 storm. Philly, if you can't get up for the greatest band in history at their peak then give you're tickets to someone who deserves them. If the crowd is the 5th man then Philly did not show up for the game.

So...It was a great and powerful show. There is not another band in the world that could have matched what U2 did last night in Philly. However, the curse of a band this good is that those of us who know what they're capable of will be looking for them to up the ante on Sunday night when I believe they will open with Love And Peace and I fully expect the boys will remind Philly what time it is!

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