After waiting an obscene amount of time to get in to the show, my cousin, her friend, my brother and I managed to snag some awesome spots centre stage, on the inside of the outer ring of the claw, right by the walkway. For those of you unfamiliar with the setup, here's a picture to demonstrate:
Now these were probably the ideal spots for the show, because the main stage was too tall for those in the front row to have a proper view, while the walkway (where u can see Bono standing in the picture) was much shorter and allowed for a perfect view for even those right beside it. Now we could see the performance wherever it was, whether on the main stage, walkways, bridges, or giant 360 degree LED screen above.Just needed to mention this. As you can see from the picture, this setup is RIDICULOUS. Its super tall, and very wide around its circumference, so much so that U2 can only play the larger stadiums in the world during this tour, and sometimes even they have problems closing their retractable roofs due to the giant antenna-like lighting structure hanging in the middle. This setup goes with their tour name perfectly (360) as they really did cater to all sides of the arena, and every seat in the house had a view (with the exception of those seats behind the sound shack).
On to the performance, well sort of. The opening band was Snow Patrol, and they're a good enough band if you're into that sort of thing, and certainly a good pick in terms of their popularity, they are a familiar enough name for fans to recognize, but everyone's still there for U2. Unfortunately, their style of music is not exactly what one would call high-energy, and for a band that is supposed to be warming up the crowd for what is arguably the biggest musical group around nowadays, "Chasing Cars" doesn't really cut it.
Oh and speaking of the crowd, it sucked. This was supposed to be one of those "ohmigawd its bono! lets jump and dance and sing and do whatever hardcore U2 fans do" type of events. What I didn't take into account was that the majority of casual listeners of U2 are middle-aged housewives and business men. With the majority of the really intense U2 fans going to the first show, we were left with those people who said, "Hey look! U2's coming to town! I saw that BlackBerry commercial and it looks pretty cool. Can I spare the expense to go and see them? Certainly! and I won't let any of my friends forget it, so I'll bring a camera and take pictures the ENTIRE BLOODY TIME!" Now I have nothing against taking a couple of pictures, and even a couple of videos, but you came to watch them LIVE, so why are you going to look into a viewfinder the entire time and not dance, sing or even MOVE so that you can watch it later?! Well the answer to that is simple, Facebook. Everybody wants something to post today, so instead of watching the show themselves, they can let all their friends, family, and stalkers have a peek into it. But I think I've wasted enough time with this, bottom line; no energy, no fun.
Now to the good bit, the actual performance. U2 is legendary for their over-the-top shows (just watch The Simpsons) and they did not disappoint with 360. The giant space-themed stage was beautiful, extravagant and quite an amazing feat of engineering and a testament to the setup crews' abilities. When U2 was taking the stage, Bowie's "Space Oddity" was playing in the background, with Larry goin on first and starting the show with some drumming skills. The Edge and Adam quickly followed, with Bono taking the stage last. The setlist was pretty well chosen, with many of their greatest hits mixed in with songs from "No Line on the Horizon", their new album, though I heard from my cousin that she wished there were more of the obscure songs. But as I said before, the band was serving a fair-weather audience for the most part, and had trouble getting a proper response from "Beautiful Day" or even their more recent hit "Vertigo", so random songs (no matter how good) probably wouldn't be the best choice. To sum it up, awesome music, and U2 knows how to rock it.
U2 has always been a political band, and it showed at this concert, with Bono taking a particular interest in promoting the "ONE" campaign and raising awareness of the situation in Burma, which is a military governed state, with the elected leader placed under house arrest for the better part of the last 2 decades. This of course did not act as a distraction from the show but was actually an integral part of it, with everyone in the, inner section, aka the (Red) zone (yes that (Red), the one for fighting AIDS) receiving masks of Aung San Suu Kyi (the burmese woman previously mentioned) to wear during their song dedicated to her struggle.
Ratings:
Stage and Props: 5/5
Opening Band: 3/5
Main Performace: 5/5
Crowd: 2/5
Waiting times: -1/5 (Seriously guys, an HOUR after Snow Patrol finished? C'mon!)
