From the purity of the high notes Bono hit squarely on the head to the ringing, chiming ultrafast guitar chords from the Edge, everything about U2 at the Erwin Center last night set the standard for how a rock show should sound---bright, uncompromising, and more vibrant than any band that's been around 20 years has a right to sound. The band played a nice selection of favorites along with stuff from the newest (and best) record yet, last year's "All That You Can't Leave Behind." "New York" was performed to a backdrop of skyscraper images projected onto towering screens, and the intensity of the chorus took on new meaning in light of the losses the city has suffered; likewise, the elegiac "One", sung with gutwrenching sadness by Bono while a backdrop of a printed roll call of the names of the dead--the hijacked airplane passengers and crews, NYPD and FDNY victims of September 11--slowly scrolled on the monitors and was projected onto the walls of the arena, was emotional enough to bring several people around me to tears. But then, that's what a fiery Irish band with a spiritual bent and a passion for politics is supposed to do, and NOBODY does it better.

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