by Peter

Still no review for Berlin on this page (a lot of reviews can be found in german on www.u2news.de), so i tried to write my story down, hopefully not to boring?!

After having seen the 2nd concert in Cologne arena at 13th of July my wife and me decided some days later not wait some more years for seeing and at least FEELING U2 playing right into our hearts and souls. Just a short addition to that concert in Cologne, funny idea and hard to believe for us people from Cologne, Bono said in accordance to J.F. Kennedy famous words during his Berlin visit on 26th of June 1963 „Ich bin ein Kölner!, Wir alle sind Kölner" which means „I'm from Cologne, we are all from Cologne!". Take it as you like, but we were quite impressed about that!!

So we changed the schedule for our weekend trip to our friends in Dresden (200 km south from Berlin) and planned to leave already on Sunday instead of Monday to see U2 playing in Berlin the 2nd time this month and the 5th time overall after 1987 and 1993 in Cologne Stadium and 1997 in Paris.

In a very thrilling online auction we could manage to get the neccessary tickets, we were happy as little childs getting their christmas presents. After two very hot days in Dresden and a very nice boat and bicycle trip along the river Elbe, the wether changed to thunderstorm, hail and heavy rainfall on Sunday afternoon in Berlin.
After waiting some hours in the rain before the gates were finally opened at 17:30 (I think some announcements said that due to technical problems the admittance were postponed, actually the concert should start at 18:30). Believe it or not, just in that moment the rain stopped to fall, the clouds disappeared and sun started to dry everything and everyone, I think this is that kind of sign that is often referred to in certain books!! U2 definetly has got good connections to heaven!

Some flashbacks:

First announcement of the guy on the stage „… thanks to U2 the concert was not canceled…" (due to the very bad wether in the afternoon)

„Söhne Mannheims" as opening act was canceled, nobody really was sorry about that, instead the crowd began to cheer. This was the 2nd sign, thanks to god ;-))). Micheal Mittermeier, german commedian (yes, it's true, we also have some..) did a really good job, very appreciated by the audience.

Waldbuehne, near the Olympic stadium, build like an amphitheatre, but with an higher ascending slope like the „Lorely"(where U2 played 1983, recorded by German TV) is a phantastic place for seeing and hearing U2.

Beside the „default girl" (with Ramones t-shirt), a Bono McPhisto double (golden suit, with a white painted face and red devils horn from „Achtung Baby/ZOO TV/Zooropa" phase ) was pulled from the heart to the stage.

Some words for Berlin: „…Berlin where Achtung Baby was born…, this City is NOT straight forward, and we like that…" Comment from a Berlin guy behind „Yes, Yes, OK, stop it…"
Bono's running gag of the evening, „5 words in german …und das ist gut so…" meaning „and that is good" used by new berlin mayor making some weeks ago his homosexuality officially known.

Politics : Irish vote/selection on Monday, Genua, „..politicians living behind walls, very high walls.."

Some words for the audience before playing One:"… Thank you for giving us such a wonderful life…", i'm convinced that most of the fans thought „Thank YOU!"

Reading a lot of all the reviews of this tour i hardly can describe anything new regarding U2 and their performance as such, I never experienced a band beeing able to play right to my heart and soul, making me shiver and happy, making me grin for several hours.
I'm not sure if this also has to do with duration of my „relationship" to U2 and the fact that I feel a certain connectivity since 1983, like all the over-35 years fans??

The concert : Power, Soul, Emotion, Authentic band members having fun, german crowd, (krauts) ;-)) and of course all other from all over the world, going nuts!

LIVE CAN BE SO EASY!!

Peter

Cologne, 1st of August 2001

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