It’s my first U2 concert, a thing that I’ve always dreamed of, so excuse my excitement. The opening was assured by Sterephonics, a group which I’ve discovered that night and who surprised me by the quality of their music. We’ve lost the beginning of their part but the last few songs (recognizable : “Mr Writer” and “Have a nice day”) seemed appreciated by the French fans. After the pause between the groups, the lights still on, we heard the opening song, “Elevation” (like everywhere else in the concert). U2 got on stage, Bono with the same leather jacket with the red star on the left side, The Edge with his T-shirt marked “7”. The audience became instantly crazy, everybody was jumping, dancing, clapping hands and singing. It’s my fourth concert at Bercy and I’ve never saw the WHOLE audience standing, a sea of waving hands. Bono gave away soon his glasses and he waked on the heart-shaped scene between his fans, shaking a lot of hands. He spoke in French, the audience seemed touched by this (knowing that there aren’t much groups/singers who try to communicate in French). He remembered their first concert in France, at Elysée-Montmartre, twenty years ago. A change in the set-list was “Gone” who came after the sensible “Kite” (dedicated to Bono’s uncle who was there). During “Sunday, Bloody Sunday” Bono was walking around the set and asked for a Irish flag from the crowd behind the scene. He got it and laid it on the stage, singing beside it. “In a Little While” was dedicated again to Joey Ramone, leader of the “Ramones”. For “Desire” the band came to the tip of the heart shaped stage. All the audience was clapping their hands in the rhythm of the song, making the group stop for a while. They seemed impressed. “Where the streets…” made the audience explode, The Edge’s guitar was leading everybody in heaven. Everyone sang along (like the most of the time). “In the beginning rock’n’roll used to be a dance music” introduced “Mysterious ways”. During the song Bono was dancing in front of the screens and at the end he took on stage two little girls (age around 10, 12). I’ve heard a rumour that those were his girls. He tried to make them dance but the girls was petrified. They looked only at Bono at each other while he sang “Don’t be so shy” on the finish of the song. Seeing that he can’t make them dance, Bono gave up, returning on the main stage, waving his hand to the girls. During “The Fly” Bono ran around the stage and ended up flat against a big screen. Before “Bullet the blue sky”, on the screen was marked: ”The five permanent members of the UN Security Council” / “UK, USA, France, Russia, China” / “The five biggest arm sellers in the world” / “UK, USA, France, Russia, China”. During the song, images of children-soldiers and so on was displayed. They’ve marked a second pause after “With or without you”. Returning on stage, Bono thanked France for supporting the 2000 Jubilee idea, the cancellation of the debts of the third world countries. He said France had cancelled the debt of 30 (on 41) countries concerned and dedicated “One” to the French Prime-Minister, Jospin (supposed to be at the concert that night). The last surprise was “Wake up dead man”, a song that I (personally) didn’t expect. Even if I was a little disappointed that they didn’t do “Pride”, I appreciated “Wake up…” very much. During the concert there wasn’t a very spectacular lightshow, they used a lot of projection on the roof and walls (e.g. a horoscope sky-map for “One”). From time to time, semi-transparent texture were coming down from the stage upper part and they were used as projection screens. Well, that was it. I’ve heard that the next concert (2001-07-18) Bono had voice-problems but that can be someone else’s story. From a happy Romanian in Paris, thank you for the show, U2, we’re already expecting you for the next tour.

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