by Stephen Master

Great show! We were in the middle of the GA pack, about 10 rows or so from the tip of the ellipse. We had been at Philly #1 the week before, and we were able to get GAs for Philly #2 when they released some more tickets in the mid-afternoon--unexpected bonus. I realized after seeing the Good Morning America footage that you can’t generally see the wild ellipse lights from GA (at least where we were), but it’s great to be in the middle of the crowd and to get that close to the band. City of Blinding Lights is a fantastic opener, and I hope they stick with it from here on out. The crowd was (again) into Elevation, which is turning into a highlight. As someone else mentioned in their review, Bono brought a fan on stage for the end of Beautiful Day, and we even got a taste of “Ultraviolet” thrown in (“Baby, baby, baby light my way”).

The middle section (Miracle Drug, SYCMIOYO) seemed stronger than the week before. Considering that they had just done the only MSG concert for this leg the night before, they could have coasted tonight—but they didn’t! Great energy, great songs.

The war section – LAPOE, Sunday Bloody Sunday, Bullet, RTSS was also very good and more solid than last week. Edge seems to have a slightly more understated solo for Bullet these days. Running to Stand Still is one of their all-time great songs. Talking after the concert, several people felt that the voice reading the Universal Declaration of Human Rights was too much, and I do agree that that wasn’t necessary to get the message across (sometimes slightly less is more), but overall you can’t fault a section of the show that has Pride, Streets, and One along with a call to action and shout-outs to MLK and Nelson Mandela.

Someone mentioned that the band didn’t use the ellipse enough, but I didn’t agree with that comment for this particular show. Adam did a lap (Bono met him at the tip of the ellipse as they passed), Edge was out on his side and came around during Zoo Station, etc. The fact that they have things like Love and Peace set up to use the ellipse also works well.

The band played an Achtung Baby set as the first encore, with a great Zoo Station followed by The Fly. Bono seemed to be absolutely on fire at the end of The Fly—“The Universe exploding because of one man’s lie” line (he may have altered it slightly) was like a kick in the teeth (in the good sense).

They added “With or Without You” to the end of the first encore tonight, which was a great choice. It felt like a last-minute addition since Bono had a woman on stage from Mysterious Ways to dance with. There may have been a guitar mix-up—sounded like Edge was tuned about a half-step above everyone else—but they made it through and the crowd didn’t seem to mind.

Given where we were standing, about the only ellipse-related disappointment was that they played Yahweh from the main stage last night. This must have been a last-minute decision, because Larry’s keyboard appeared on the ellipse before the second encore, but it was taken down again and reappeared on the main stage. That song is still transcendent, though, no matter where they play it. I thought that playing it on the main stage might mean that they had something else in mind, but we ended with a great 40. No complaints here.

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