Giants Stadium, Thursday 24 September.
I sat in the second-to-last row of Lower Level Section 130. That means I was to the left side (stage-right) and just barely more forward than the claw's legs. The last few rows of the Lower Level were under the shelter of the Mezzanine seating too. It was, I believe, better than my seats at Boston Garden when I last saw U2 in 2005 (which was also my first U2 concert). Still not close enough to take good pictures, but close enough that watching them on stage was more appealing than watching them on the screen, which was fortunate because the "ceiling" created by the Mezzanine actually cut off my view of the top of the claw, including some of the screen.
Muse opened. From the first note of their first song (Knights of Cydonia), I felt the rush I'd come to expect from Boston. You immediately recognize an awesome song, you feel like you're more a part of it than just listening to it at home, and yet you still want to be more a part of the performance. That was one of the two things about seeing the Vertigo tour that left me feeling like my life had been changed. The other was the way Bono infused the concert with all his philanthropy, from Miss Sarajevo's petitioning for humanity to Sunday Bloody Sunday's rallying cry.
They opened with Breathe. When I read they'd switched up the second Boston show to open with Magnificent (and removed Breathe altogether) I was practically praying they didn't do that when I went. Breathe is possibly my favorite track on No Line, and I never really got caught up in the excitement over Magnificent. I could recognize by the way Larry opened them up that they were doing Breathe, I was psyched, and yet when the guitars joined in and the song arrived I was underwhelmed. It didn't have the same power that City of Blinding Lights did back in 2005. Perhaps because "the claw" wasn't as visually diverse as the strings of lights back in Vertigo. Perhaps because acoustics in a stadium are different.
Next was Get On Your Boots, and I still felt unimpressed. It's a hard-rocking way to start the set, but I still felt uninspired. Had the power of Vertigo for me been mostly in the novelty of it? It was certainly the biggest band I'd seen in concert, and the biggest concert. Disappointment began to sink in.
Then it hit. Mysterious Ways had that same effect as Knights of Cydonia -- from the first note I was immersed in something awesome. I could feel it in the whole crowd, as though they'd been waiting for it to take off as much as I had. Maybe it's just that the new album doesn't stand up against the classics, these legendary songs that've become bigger than the band itself.
Beautiful Day was next, and it was awesome. They added a verse of The Beatles' Blackbird at the end, which worked well with the song. I remember them playing a few Beatles numbers in Boston in 2005, and Blackbird was among them then too. No Line On the Horizon kept the feeling going. I noticed here that it's tough to really engage yourself in singing along when the chorus takes the pitch and volume down a notch from the verses.
Magnificent. Like I said, never been a particularly big fan. I used at least half of this song as an opportunity to erase photos and video from my phone that didn't come out well so that I'd have enough free memory to take more. I really wanted to record Your Blue Room if they were going to play it, so I'd been taping at every transition so far in order to catch it from start to finish. They never did play it, which was disappointing but I got over it before the night was over.
I don't remember when, but it was probably before this point that Bono had included his first monologue, and I literally couldn't hear a single word of it. Stadium acoustics? Poorly set levels? Obnoxiously loud fans in my section? I don't know, but it bothered me. I wanted to hear what he had to say.
Elevation again had me in a lull. I go back and forth about whether I like the song. Unlike Mysterious Ways, which somehow never gets old, this one felt like "more of the same." I remember thinking, "Yeah, I've heard it a million times," which is ridiculous because that's true of their best songs and I don't get tired of them. I eventually got into it but was kind of waiting for the next number.
I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For was good, and has always been one of their best in my opinion. I noticed between the first two verses that Bono had stopped holding the mic to his face, even stopped singing, but the crowd was carrying it amazingly. It's like when someone starts a prayer and slowly everyone else who knows it joins in -- we worship this song. (Later in the concert, Bono sang Amazing Grace and it had the same effect. I got all caught up in that even though I don't know the words to it). The audience even kept the last "But I still haven't found..." repeating long after Bono had stopped. It didn't die out completely until Bono started singing "Stand By Me" to Edge's fading guitar rhythm. That was a nice treat, and I wondered if choosing that one had to do with Playing for Change's performance of it in the first volume of (RED)Wire.
Unknown Caller was kind of a journey for me. I wasn't really interested at the start of it -- I knew they were probably going to play it and there it was. There's perhaps an irony in the way using metaphors to technology shows the band members' age(s). They definitely sound like guys in their 50s trying to sound hip because they're familiar with the new tech, but ultimately revealing a kind of elementary understanding of it. For the first time in this concert, I sat down. I didn't do that at all at Vertigo. I wondered again if the new songs were weak, if I'd expected too much from the experience. But then that state turned beautiful, because I read the words of the chorus scrolling across the screen while everyone else sang along, and the spiritual message hit me deeply. It was a very emotional moment, and it didn't even last the entire song, but it was powerful. In 2005 I had a much stronger moment like that at the height of Sometimes You Can't Make It On Your Own, and a smaller one during One when they used the video collage effect to use thousands of smaller videos to make up a bigger image of Bono singing.
Until the End of the World was the "surprise" Achtung Baby number thrown into their second encore in 2005, and I found it less exciting this time when I knew it was a possibility because they'd been playing it at half the shows. I think it also suffered a little acoustically. My attention was snapped back when I had a strange feeling of deja vu when Bono started running laps at the end of it, even though I don't remember him doing that last time. I stood up again so I could watch him, and then he collapsed. Someone near me, who I figure had been there the night before, made a collapsing motion with their hand the same time he did.
Stay (Faraway, So Close!) is one of my all-time favorites, and even though I knew it had been played lately it took me by surprise as he started it from the floor where the last song had left him. This was one they didn't do at Vertigo, and I loved it. It was weird the way this concert would start to lose my interest and then immediately bring in a song that I went fanatic about.
This was one of my favorite songs of the night, despite the fact Bono seriously messed it up. I noticed from the start that he was singing the second verse first, and then the "And if you..." part was from the third verse. Trying to move on, he got a few words in before realizing this was the same verse he just sang, and he took an entire verse to figure out how to fix it. You could see in his face (on the screen -- I doubt many people could see the expression on his face even from the floor) that he was genuinely mixed up and thinking his way through it, and I couldn't help but laugh. I explained it to the girl next to me, who I'd made a little idle conversation with before the show since I was in attendance alone, and this revealed to her just how huge a fan I am. When the chance came around again, Bono started it off right, did the second verse at the right part, and carried it to the finish. I was surprised he didn't throw "New Jersey," "New York," or "Giants Stadium" into the list after "You can go anywhere." Instead he said, "London, Belfast..." and then threw the mic in the air for the crowd to finish the line. I don't know how he expected a stadium full of people to unanimously agree on a location-specific lyric in a slightly less known song. All he got was crowd noise.
The Unforgettable Fire was another that I knew was coming but was still awesome because I hadn't seen/heard it live before. This was also when the claw did its most exciting trick, breaking apart the screen and stretching it down to the stage. That was really cool. I think the whole show could've benefitted from more visual stuff like that, though maybe there was stuff happening at the top of the claw that I couldn't see. The girl next to me hadn't heard of the song before, or the album. I think I get a little personal joy in not only recognizing obscure references snuck into the show, but having someone there to explain it to. I don't typically like to show off anything, but maybe that's just because things like encyclopedic knowledge of U2 is rarely impressive. Bono did something weird with the words in this one, like he had a new version of all the "Stay..." parts. I couldn't hear what he was saying, only that it wasn't the original version. I don't think I've heard any live versions of the song before, so for all I know he's always done those parts differently.
That was the start of a steady period of really good songs. City of Blinding Lights was fantastic, especially (you can watch the video on U2.com) when Bono pulled a kid from the floor up onto one of the moving walkways and then ran a lap around the stage with him. That had to be the best moment of that kid's life. But even beyond that bit, it was a great song, definitely a highlight.
Vertigo was good too, playing the two back to back was smart, and almost as incredible as when they opened the Vertigo show with the same combination. At the end of the song, after the "Yeah yeah yeah yeah"s, he threw in a couple lines of It's Only Rock 'n' Roll by The Rolling Stones, and then more "Yeah yeah yeah yeah"s.
Against my expectations, the live "remix" of I'll Go Crazy If I Don't Go Crazy Tonight was awesome. The original version sounds musically like leftovers from How To Dismantle an Atomic Bomb to me, though the lyrics are more in line with the new album. It always sounded to me like it was made for the radio and the concerts, trying to cram a single down our throats. Then it sounded like a weird idea to do a remix version live, though I suppose it's hardly different from when they did the Perfecto Mix of Lemon in the Pop Mart shows, with the exception being they actually played and sung this one instead of broadcasting it while changing for the next act. But anyway, I really dug this. It was like going to a dance club, and not having to care that I wasn't dancing. I liked the way they used their faces, purple like on the single artwork, bopping and clapping on the screen. And it was clever that Bono interjected the "oo-oo-oo" chorus of The Rolling Stones' Miss You, they worked well with the remix's style.
Sunday Bloody Sunday never gets old. It stood out in this set, there wasn't really another song like it. I think it was during this one that he added the chorus from Rock the Casbah by The Clash.
Then MLK, which was one I didn't see in 2005. The girl next to me didn't know it, and asked me if I thought they'd play One. I said, "Yeah, it's later in the set," and, "They pretty much have to." Then again, I sort of thought Pride (In the Name of Love) was a song they pretty much have to play and I didn't realize until I was on my way home that they hadn't done that one.
Walk On, though new to my live experience, was another one that felt like nothing new. There was pretty much no pattern to this fickle boredom and elation. The Aung San Suu Kyi message is a good one, but one I'm incredibly familiar with already, so it wasn't like back in Vertigo when Bono went on extensive talks about aid opportunities worldwide as well as the progress being made there in Massachusetts. I wonder if this was him succumbing to people who wish he'd get off his pulpit already. Like I said before, that's one of the things about a U2 concert that make it life-changing for me.
When they had their little One Campaign promo video, I knew that was their lead-in to One. I was less struck by it this time than 2005. I was sitting down again at this point.
When it moved on to Where the Streets Have No Name, it felt cool, but I wasn't particularly excited. It's a great song, but I've heard it so many times. I figured this was a good opportunity to see what merchandise was left and bought a t-shirt that I later realized would've been cheaper online with my 25% off coupon from back when I subscribed. Financially, this whole venture was a bust, but that's another story.
Got back in time for the second encore, because I'd been waiting all night for Ultraviolet (Light My Way). It's a fantastic song and under-appreciated. Bono's lit-up jacket was cool, as was the suspended, lit-up microphone, though it seemed like Bono only had a couple ideas how to play with it. At least it was another worthwhile visual effect.
With or Without You was good. By now we were all a little tired, and I knew it was just this one and Moment of Surrender left, so I think it cheapened them a little bit.
Bono seemed to start Moment of Surrender a little out of key, but I guess that's understandable given the soft music and shouting vocals. It was alright as a closer, though really I wished they'd surprise us all and do "40" at the last minute.
It was four years in between my last U2 concert and this one. Between my come-and-go malaise, the long drive there and back, and the unforeseen expenditures on parking ($25), food and drink in the stadium (generally everything was $4.50 apiece), and both expected and unexpected tolls (totalling $11.75), I can definitely wait at least four years before doing it again. I'm so glad I didn't spring for the VIP package in Gillette Stadium in addition to this ticket. It hardly would've been worth the "exclusive" goodie bag, no matter what was in it.
