By DAN AQUILANTE

March 30, 2005 -- SAN DIEGO — Every year, a monster tour rocks America, baring its teeth, slapping its tail and roaring, "Here I am."

In 2005, that tour belongs to U2, and it opened in California on Monday.

While it isn't the biggest or even most ambitious music gathering of the year, it is without doubt the most important — because after all the accolades given the band during its entry into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame earlier this month, U2 now has to prove if it should be on the stage or in a museum.

After Monday's world tour opener — the band eventually will play to more than a quarter-million New Yorkers in 10 shows — the Irish quartet demonstrated how vital, exciting and relevant its music remains after more than two decades.

At this first show on a two-year world tour, there was rust in Bono's pipes when he rendered the opening song, "City of Blinding Light." But the scratchiness was gone by the end of the tune. He was ready for the show, and you felt it when he stretched his arms wide and belted the words made famous in his iPod ad: "Hello, hello, we're at a place called Ver-ti-go."

If the San Diego show was telling, "Vertigo" is a place that makes an audience dizzy and giddy with adoration.

From "Vertigo" on, over the course of the 2 1/2-hour gig that mixed greatest hits and tunes from the new "How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb" disc, U2 was noticeably aggressive — only giving ground on a few deep-cut rarities that made even the most devoted fans swallow yawns.

During the 22-song program, the band (which features the original lineup of guitarist the Edge, drummer Larry Mullen and bassist Adam Clayton, as well as vocalist Bono) seemed to be on a mission to prove it's the greatest rock band in the world.

The program overflowed with U2's sweeping arena rock anthems, but a number of fan favorites were MIA. Screamed requests for "With or Without You," "I Will Follow" and the sexy "Mysterious Ways" went unanswered.

Nevertheless, the quartet sounded well-rehearsed and able to inject its famous passion into the big hits.

It was the small songs that hurt U2. While these little gems may have personal meaning for the group, they often killed momentum.

The exception was the rarely played oldie "40," which Bono said the band hasn't dusted off since 1983. It was a terrific encore piece that erupted into the loudest sing-along of the show.

In rock 'n' roll, U2 is bigger than life, and in the past that has manifested itself in over-the-top stage sets that tried to be as visually engaging as the music.

The Vertigo edition hammers U2 back to basics, with a totally open set connected to a circular track that loops 100 feet onto the floor. Although playing stadiums in the round would be better, this setup is pretty good.

The variable element in any U2 show is the level of Bono's preachiness.

Good news. At this performance, he never put on a priest's collar, instead embracing issues that were on his mind through his songs.

Bono illustrated how human rights are being attacked globally by performing "Bullet the Blue Sky" with his headband pulled down over his eyes.

"One," a concert highlight performed in the first of two encores, became an endorsement of the global village concept.

At U2's Hall of Fame induction, Bruce Springsteen speculated that the reason the song "Vertigo" counts off "Uno, dos, tres, qatorce" ("one, two, three, fourteen") was because in rock, the total doesn't always equal the sum of the parts.

What Bruce was getting at was, this is a band with chemistry, not only among the players but with the fans. That's why after all these years, U2 remains a monster act that still has teeth.

U2 plays two shows at the Meadowlands arena, May 17 and 18, and one at Madison Square Garden May 21. The band returns to New York with seven additional dates at the Garden in the fall.

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