The packed Continental Airlines Arena - the famous Meadowlands - is giving U2 an incredible welcome: With the house lights down, "everyone" is on his feet. The stage is in near complete darkness, with only the band members' silhouettes to see. Shimmering slide guitar sounds reminiscent of 1989/90's live version of "Hawkmoon 269" fill the space and announce the nights opener: "City Of Blinding Lights", a tune more than appropriate to the band's three night stand in the area of New York City. The musical dynamics explode with the the punkish "You look so beautiful to me..." outro, sung as a choir by everybody. Then "Vertigo" is next in the set's slot pushing the retro-foward feeling of HOW TO DISMANTLE AN ATOMIC BOMB's brilliant tunes live even a bit further. Bono's counting in is a great moment: Everybody's screaming, jumping - and singing along to this tune, already being a classic in U2's catalogue. There's no snippet tonight: Although the band restarts the tune again as usual on tour, Bono seems to be overwhelmed by the crwod-reaction - and he lets them coming again, pushing them forward with "Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah...". Simple, folks, but how it works! The atmosphere is in real high spirits and stays there also the following nights. The third tune "Elevation" is sung by Bono, Larry (!) and everybody else only to the sound of Edge's guitar - for the whole first part of the song. Then the other instruments join in and rock the arena. By the way: My very congratulations to the US-audience being that incredible strong and inspiring for U2's music; it will be hard for some European audiences to keep it going way.

Then there comes the breathtaking moment to take several steps back in U2's repertoire, with Bono talking about the early days and albums. Tonight the band decides to play four songs in a row from their debut album BOY, non-single tracks, that haven't been played for at least 15 years: "The Cry" (outtake), "The Electric Co." (last time played 1987) and the masterful, instrumental driven "An Cat Dubh" linked with its coda "Into The Heart" (not having been chosen by U2 since 1985). This block is filled with the young U2's energy and creativity combined with the musical competence of today: The tunes are delivered in an awesome manner with Bono's voice sounding better than ever, while he inserts snippets as "Send In The Clowns", "Bullet With Butterfly Wings" as a reference to the Smashing Pumkins and The Who's "I Can see For Miles". First is the music is first and not cut short - the performance, to bring up a kid on stage only happens after the last tone of The Edge's guitar really has gone in the round...

Musically fitting "Beautiful Day" follows with its poignant guitar riffs echoing the times of "11 O' Clock Tick Tock" - and being one of the immediately by everybody recognized Greatest Hits since 2001's tour. After that Bono signalizes Edge to play on and delivers some lines from the Beatles' "Blackbird", a song with a strong message of solidarity on coloured people. Now three songs from HOW TO DISMANTLE AN ATOMIC BOMB, some the album's finest albums are next: The block starts with the achingly touching "Miracle Drug", then the painful, true and emotional "Sometimes You Can't Make It On Your Own" allows Bono to hit high notes and give all of his soul - incredible. Then there's the band in dark grounds struggling with political issues and personal disbelief: "Love And Peace Or Else" shakes the house again; Edge's guitar coda is overwhelming, while Bono's and Larry's drumming on two different kits stuns the crwod. Very impressive and confusing at the same time is Bono in his "Ninja-Outfit" hitting his drum alone at the end - to segue into the anthem "Sunday Bloody Sunday", with its new "Abraham" middle part still being one of U2's finest crowd pleasers to play and one of the most important message songs, the band has written. So is "Bullet The Blue Sky", filled with new guitar sounds and Bono's performance of a blindfolded, maybe wounded Guantanamo Bay-like prisoner pleading for rescue and reflecting the absurdity of war in all its aspects. A courageous statement, especially in times, when war has returned to be one of the "normal" instruments of politics. In this stage persona Bono sings some impressive lines of "The Hands that Built America" with outstretched arms and he perverts the false glory of his snippet "When Johnny Comes Marching Home" in a Menetekel on the wall warning. As in the good old days the next THE JOSHUA TREE tune comes around: "Running To Stand Still" in its classic piano band version with a harp intro and "Hallelujah" as a snippet; this tracks is dedicated to the safe return of the US soldiers home - a feeling shared by thousands in the arena. Then an intermission informs the audience about "Human Rights" interference, with three topic songs following: "Pride (In The Name Of Love)", "Where The Streets Have No Name" and "One" - the latter being illuminated by thousands mobile phones' displays. The first encore starts with three tunes from ACHTUNG BABY, too: The great "Zoo Station" returning to U2's setlists with Bono marching on the catwalk, the incredible rousing "The Fly" with a dynamite jam of Bono, Edge and Adam around Larry's drum kit - and the ever crowd pleasing "Mysterious Ways". Then Bono requests for another, rare played tune: "Original Of The Species" in a full band piano version, but unfortunately hit by a non-coordination between piano notes and the singer's text lines. "All Because Of You" with a snippet of Bob Dylan's 1964 classic "Mr. Tambourine Man" opens the 2nd encore. "Yahweh" being played at the tip of the egg by all four has a hilarious moment: Larry arrives too late at the keyboard and because of his chords there exactly fixed and written, the band has to wait for him in the song and Bono has to count in - not without mentioning loud, that the drummer is too late. Then another great moment: The band plays "40" in old, classic style with Adam playing guitar (cool solo by the way ...) and Edge taking the bass. As one after the other has left the stage, only Larry stays for his final drum solo. But all of a sudden the drummer segues from his last drum beats in the pace of "Vertigo". So Bono, Edge und Adam come back and U2 rock the house again with this tune and end one of the longest and surely best gigs so far.

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