first U2 concert for me - casual fan since Joshua Tree, hadn't followed much after Zoo station.
Bought standing room (floor/soccer field level) passes on Ebay for 50€ each (56€ face), only to find many scalpers outside selling all tickets for 20-30€, probably by showtime giving them away.
The "Snow Patrol" or whatever band was on before U2 sucked bad. Lead singer was clearly on prozac or maybe just slow, but if he was trying to get the German crowd worked up he failed miserably. repeatedly saying "thank you for being patient" and stumbling around the stage drunkenly, wow, great job. can't stress enough how lame they were.
U2 came on about 45 minutes after Blow Patrol ended around 8:45 to big applause, but me and my girlfriend were in the minority jumping around, dancing, yelling out lyrics etc, as we were most of the night. Olympionstadion is a huge place with lots of presence, relatively good accoustics, and hey it was U2, but the crowd was subdued, even by german standards. The last concert I went to was Toten Hosen, also in Berlin but in the outdoor amphitheatre next to the OS, there the crowd was into it, but this was also in their language.
U2 lyrics just go over their heads, the only explanation I can give.
The Band was awesome, clear vocals, guitar, good drums, and the show went by in a blur, but was strange that Bono said nothing about the london terrorist bombings that day (did he?? I didn't learn of them until the next day), and come on Bono, learn at least one sentence in German.
The huge light show behind the stage was impressive, but I had a hard time following the fast flashing words on the screens, the Germans had no chance.
Like Snoop Dogg's plea to hold up "cell phones" and "lighter" (germans only know "handys" and "feuerzeugs") for 2Pac, Bonos thanked "scientists" - both nice thoughts, but totally incomprehensible to the crowd.
Great first U2 show, would go again, next time just won't buy tickets before hand if it's in Germany!

cheers
Kurt
American expat in Görlitz Germany

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