Elevation
Beautiful Day
Until The End Of The World:
(the usual performances of these, and excellent!)

New Years Day:
(the bass line on this never fails to just set me off. But my favorite part, & very visible from our perspective, is the Edge playing the piano notes, then immediately launching into the guitar part, and back and forth. Somone else could play those few keyboard notes while he concentrated on the guitar, but he continues to do it himself, just as he always has. I don't know why that gets to me, but I love to watch him do that, I first saw that on the Red Rocks video from what -- 1983? Still fun to watch for.)

I Will Follow:
(oh, my lord, when they blasted into this 25-year-old song, I done los' my mind. I still picture them as kids when I see or hear this. I love it SO much. Such energy, still! So hard to realize they aren't kids anymore -- men in their 40s now, even Larry...)

Sunday Bloody Sunday:
(speechless, I was. 'this is not a rebel song!' Bono says, and certainly it's not, but it's a moving tribute and wailing commentary on innocent victims of heinous and stupid acts. It was one of the MUSTS that I insisted on hearing at this show, or I had vowed to DIE. It was a searing version, in light of recent events, and the audience sang strongly along in chorus just as if trained, carrying it on softly even as Bono quieted down and wandered sadly towards the tip of the heart, where he took a Texas and a US flag from fans and cradled them gently to his chest, buried his face in them for a good 30-45 seconds. Larry's martial beat continued a bit more quietly and The Edge played softly, sorrowfully. It was quite a moment. Bono is nothing if not theatrical, but he's also nothing if not sincere. And after that interlude, it was a return to that hot, fierce military cadence and the Edge practically set his guitar aflame with anger, nearly attacking the strings. At the end, the band seemed impressed that the crowd continued the frustrated and somber mood by singing the chorus of U2's old song "40" -- "how long/to sing this song/how long/to sing this song -- over and over, louder and louder, a cappella. It was emotional, uplifting, a gentle connection. The guys hushed their instruments and listened to US)

Stuck In A Moment You Can't Get Out Of:
(Solid beauty, this song for a suicide, for Michael Hutchence. You can see the love these guys have for each other as they play this. When The Edge sang his falsetto part -- which makes everyone just go insane with appreciation -- Bono dropped his mike and just looked on, as well, sort of pensive -- as if grateful that he has not lost THIS friend to suicide. He claims to be about nothing but the music during a concert, and he certainly gives that impression, that onstage, he's reliving what he's written)

Kite:
('I wrote it for my kids, but maybe my dad really wrote it for me - he died in August, but I still think of him every day...' Bono on guitar. A song I didn't care for a year ago, but now very much enjoy hearing, especially live. And this version was achingly beautiful, his voice very tender.)

Wild Honey (Bono And Edge Solo)
(Hilarious. Face to face at the tip of the heart, those two singing into the same mike. Bono's voice wasn't trusted for the high parts on this, so Edge had to compensate. And they forgot the words, but there was a lyric sheet on the floor that Bono kept glancing at. The screens showed them giggling in each other's face, then Bono cracked up and collapsed in slight embarassment when a fan at his feet grabbed the lyrics and held them up high as if to help Bono see it better. "yeah, I have cheat sheet!", he said, "I have a test tomorrow, okay?!" Cute.)

Please --Bono And Edge only:
(Not one of my favorites, it being from the dreaded 90s string of techno-crap, but sweetly done acoustically, even though they blew a chord and the speakers sounded strange, briefly. But mistakes are fun, too, and I love the acoustic versions of some of that stuff, done without all that junk-sound behind them.)

Bad:
(ahhhhh. blue lighting, and that jingly-bell intro -- just about did me in. Bad is probably my favorite song, (or it's tied with New Year's Day, With or Without you, and One.) I told Blair I would cry, but strangely, I did not (until listening to the cd of it coming home) It was a gorgeous lush rendition, and though Bono had been sounding mostly in good voice, the test in all the bootlegs I have is always on the "wide awakes" in Bad, and I was hoping...and he didn't transpose -- the "wide awakes" were WIDE OPEN, right up there in the upper register. Sounded brilliant, and I was transfixed. I never get tired of hearing this long, wistful, loving song. He inserted something at the end, but I missed it, the audience was singing LET IT GO so loud and so well.)

Where The Streets Have No Name:
(Okay, THIS was where I figured I'd HAVE to lose it. They still do it the same way as in Rattle & Hum and it's not at all stale. When the "church music" starts, and those red screens come up, showing only the band's silhouettes -- and Larry starts tapping his sticks together, and then the Edge begins that beautiful chiming guitar, it's enough to just about finish me off -- then the computerized lights kick on and the fully-lit audience is surging -- well it'll grab you. Especially if Bono is racing full out around that huge, arena-floor-sized catwalk. Running for his life. If I was transfixed on Bad, I was transported on this...)

I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For:
(Unexpected. Spiritual. Yearning. I think I was stunned that they were playing it. I may actually have dropped a tear on this one, it was slowly, achingly done in a toned-down, soft-gospel style, not like the Harlem choir version, and nothing like the Las Vegas video version, and the better for it.)

Pride (In The Name Of Love):
(Incandescent. Incendiary. There was not a nanosecond of time or breath in between the previous song and this, it IGNITED instantly, tightly and intensely -- with lights blazing, guitar blazing, Bono blazing -- with that itchy youthful idealistic raw singing style -- as in the Slane video of the recording of this, from so many years ago. Edge was absolutely raging on the guitar. A song I thought I was sick of was renewed for me, for all of us. They absolutely, completely, UTTERLY brought down the house with this one. I was hugging the guy in front of me, everybody in our area was high-fiving, yelling the "whoa-oh oh-oh-ohs" to the obvious gratification of the band. They loved it that we were loving THEM loving doing it! It was an exTREMELY high point, again, one I did not expect. And Bono stopped us singing to 'Let the reverend speak' as MLK spoke about the cause "I don't know about longevity, I may not make it there with you..." And maybe it was corny, but this crowd thought it was valid and showed visceral approval. I guess it's especially relevant now, after our losses on 9/11. "They took your life but they could not take your pride" now applies to a whole lot more hero-victims than just Martin Luther King. Bono was in FINE voice, throughout -- in fact, each of them was brilliant on this. It was unlike any version I've ever heard, and I have 1000 mp3s of everything. They enjoyed us singing with them, big smiling faces on this, even Larry... I can't express how hot this song and singalong was, it blew the roof off the dump, left it smokin'.)

1st encore-------------

Bullet The Blue Sky:
(Now seems to be taken as pro-USA's policies -- it certainly didn't start life that way. Seems to have appropriately morphed now, due to our collective anger. Seems U2 leaned towards recognizing the need to stop the madness with methods we don't particularly love...It was a vicious version but this time, the anger obviously directed at those who tainted our freedoms and taunted us into a righteous battle. The Edge was superhuman on it, almost Stevie-like, and their seriousness on this did not go unnoticed)

What's Going On:
(Sweet, and a cool song, but I'd SO much rather have heard ANY old song, ANY new song. It was a little flat, for all of us, I think. I was crushed that they didn't play With or Without You, and it was the only real disappointment in a fantastically satisfying night.)

New York:
(the projection screens of skyscrapers, the talk about meeting the FDNY, the NYPD, feeling the spirit and will of New York, and expressing the absolute FURY at 'religious nuts and sick pathetic cowards' who brought these evil deeds down on us. This was originally a long, self-indulgent song on the cd, but the ever-revising-Bono has new post-9/11 lyrics that rock the planet, and the pro-NYC cheers were Texas-sized, and endless. "Even Texas loves New York!" he yelled, grabbing a cowboy hat from a blonde gal in the audience, and galloping around the catwalk a bit. It was a giddy moment. And at the end of the song, he took off his black leather jacket (now wearing an FDNY shirt just like one I have, I think) and draped it inside-out over the microphone before walking off the dark stage. The spotlight centered on the American flag lining of his jacket, suspended there. A moving -- but strangely not felt as manipulative -- gesture)

Encore 2:

One:
(A grief and love fest, much audience participation, a feeling about being all together in this world, and hanging in, despite the troubles...The screens behind them, and the audience itself, was lit with a projection of a scrolling wall of names of the passengers of 4 airplanes that took off and landed wrong on 9/11 -- and with the names of NYPD, FDNY, all lost. Names you recognize from the news, names you haven't yet seen, names you recognize because you know someone with the same surname. Names of all nationalities and ethnicities. Names everywhere you looked, on the faces of the crowd, ceiling, walls, floor. It was highly emotional, as you saw the Susans, Nancys, Jims, Johns, Kevins, Barbaras -- scrolling in 12 foot high letters. These people were us. It was stunning and humbling to see all those individuals that we could have known; might have been, but for the grace of god. Heartbreaking. I was riveted to my spot, and the audience seemed stricken -- everyone's breath caught, at once)

Walk On:
(A lovely song made more meaningful by the addition of that particular Hallelujah backup, as in the tv tribute, except we were singing it, we were the back up singers. The audience was ready for it, right with them on it. It was hopeful, energetic, forward-looking. It was a triumphant climax to the Elevation that was building during the entire concert.)

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