I saw U2 last in March 1981 at the Rainbow Music Hall in Denver for $3, so I don't have the perspective of other tours or Vertigo shows to compare Vegas No. 2 to anything other than an ideal of what a rock show could be. I did write back then in the Denver University newspaper "expect them to be stars when they return in the fall."

That being said, it was an uplifting experience to see one of the great bands of the day at work. It was a singalong with 12,500 others. First concert I've been to in years where I didn't need - or want - the video screens, except as a design element of the stage show. I wanted to experience the totality of the hall, the stage and the band in one take.

I had actually hoped that the band would play with the concept of Vegas and make it an element of the show, but ultimately I didn't miss it. I did feel as if I got my money's worth (even at the ETS tour rate and with my son falling asleep after Vertigo).

Two low points: Bullet the Blue Sky did not have the life or the rage it should have. Edge's solo just failed to take off and it just sort of fizzled away. Then there were some members of the Vegas crowd. It seems that any band in Vegas, regardless of the standing, message, artistic merit, or whatever, is reduced to being only an entertainment option there. Jesus could do the Sermon on the Mount alternating on the quarter hour with the Bellagio fountains and most people would just see it as another free attraction with a buffet. The drivel of the Atlantis show at Ceasar's Forum Shops would probably have more meaning for some (anyone else see the Bono impersonator in the red hoodie there Saturday afternoon?). But with traffic being the way it is, I can see why some people left after the first encore. I did the same at Green Day a month ago in Albuquerque.

The true fans do make the show. My favorite was the homie in the Chargers cap in Sec. 209 who bought himself a six-pack of lite beers and sang every word to every song. Now that's life-affirming.

Take a loved one, a friend with a spiritual or artistic nature, or a child if he or she can stay up until 11:30. The Vertigo show - to my wife and I anyway, - was the performance of music as an art form with a positive message and not commodity or product to be shoved out the door for the public to lap up.

Now if only they had played Crumbs From Your Table (instead of Yaweh). Or Wire. Or Into the Heart. Or if B.B. King had showed up (he was in town also) and they played When Love Comes to Town . . .

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