by Ben

Well this was my second U2 concert (the first being back in Sydney for the Vertigo tour in 2006) and what a great night it was! I made the concious decision of getting to the stadium bright and early to guarentee myself a chance of getting into the inner circle, so when I arrived outside gate B, I was slightly worried to see an allready swelling crowd of hardcore U2 fans there lining up before me. Still, I got the number 684 and after a little while I soon realised that it pretty much confirmed that I would make it into my desired location in the venue. 11am to 5pm is a helluva long time to wait until the gates opened, but thanks to meeting a few new faces in the line, and the relatively nice weather, it wasn't too bad.

Getting into the stadium was a typically mad rush, trying to avoid the person's heels infront of you while the stampede of impatient fans behind you threatened to trample you to death if you happened to fall over. There were a few laughs in line when one of the security ushers announced in an over-the-top authorative sargeant major style voice that "you are to WALK, not RUN!", to which he got the reply of "Sir! YES SIR!". Predictably, most people assumed a sort of walk/run hybrid anyway.

After getting my wristband which guarenteed me access to the inner circle, I was set. There was lots of jostling for position for about 3 hours while a constant stream of people continued to push in and around others as they retrieved themselves drinks and whatnot, but yours truly stayed in his position for the entire time. I had a good spot, just underneath the left leg of the claw on Edge's side. The supporting bands were quite good, and I must say I enjoyed Elbow a lot. By the time 8:30pm arrived, my legs and feet were dying, but when Larry came on stage, it all dissapeared.

I'm not sure about Breathe as an opener, but it didn't matter because everyone exploded into raptuous cheers and applause as the other band members joined him, followed by the allmightly Bono. The songs never really took off until Beautiful Day, then the crowd got into it. I guess they felt a bit more comfortable with a song they were used to. didn't matter to me; I loved the 4 NLOTH opening songs just as much. The CLAW was a superb peice of eningeering as well, I must say. When the whole screen contraption extended down into a big cylinder style vaccum looking thing, it blew me away. Just way too cool. Bono didn't use the circle stage as much as I hoped for, but the Edge made a few trips around and even Adam and Larry managed one as well, so it was good to see them close up. The Unforgettable Fire and Streets were definite highlights for me, especially the latter. When Streets started and then exploded into its epic introduction, the whole inner circle went crazy. It was fantastic. Much better than the crowd responce it got when I was in Sydney.

All in all it was a great night. I wish they had played FEZ - Being Born, but oh well, maybe next time. I guess that's the problem when they just have so many awesome songs to chose from!

U2 Forever!!!

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