U2 Review Night 1 in Boston

U2
TD Bank North Garden, Boston, MA
October 3, 2005

I'll admit that up until U2 hit the stage last night I was kinda ehh on the whole night. I worked from home and needed to do that "over 1hr drive" thing and park and T it up to the Garden and all that jazz. At least it was not raining. I had been looking at the set lists and they hadn't really changed up a ton since the shows I saw them do in May. I had my single GA ticket, my taping gear and the mind set I was going to pull a great tape.

U2 took the stage just about 9pm (about 10 minutes before John Kerry took a seat about 15 rows up on the side to a pretty favorable applause) The set was pretty standard and again, rather than blow by blow discussion here is some of my personal favorite moments.

Vertigo: Its just a great rock song. It really hammers and the band is in such tight form on this.

The Electric Co - still, perhaps, my all time favorite U2 song. I like how most people don't know what it is. Feels like I can have a connecting moment with the band. The sequence towards the end always does it for me.

Miss Sarajevo - I saw this on the set lists and groaned. It was really the only 'song' on the Passengers cd the band did a few years ago. What made me really think this song was not going to work was the fact that Luciano Povarotti sings just about the last 1/2 of the song. Much to my surprise this was one of the better songs of the night. Bono did what he could to hit the vocal range and he came pretty close. His voice never cracked or wavered so that was a surprise. He pulled it of and I was left a believer.

Where the Streets Have no Name - the intro alone still makes the hair on my neck/legs/arms stand up. I could hear the live version of this song 20 times in a row and not be bored. The ovation at the end was amazing..even bono stopped and said "wow...thanks".

Pride - although this is one of the real ho-hum songs to me Bono had zero voice on this. He botched lyrics and even looked to the audience to take over. Granted it was not "vintage U2" but still it showed he was human.

The encore was pretty standard but we did get The First Time and a mostly acoustic version of Who's Gonna Ride your Wild Horses.

Bono was busy with female fans. During Elevation he pulled a woman out from the front who had a sign reading something like "Baby in belly would like to dance with Bono" and during With or Without You he took a woman from the end of the ellipse and hugged her for just about the whole song.

All in all it was a pretty strong show. I know the set list is pretty standard and even I groan when I read them but still when I hear them live I get a nice big smile. I love that music can make everything seem okay, even if its just for a few hours.

I'll do it all over again Tuesday the 4th for my 15th U2 show.

Set list if ya care:

City of Blinding Lights, Vertigo, Elevation, The Electric Co. - Bullet with Butterfly Wings, The Ocean, I Still Haven't Found, Beautiful Day - Many Rivers to Cross, Miracle Drug, Sometimes You Can't Make it On Your Own, Love and Peace or Else, Sunday Bloody Sunday, Bullet the Blue Sky, Miss Sarajevo, Pride, Where the Streets Have No Name, One
Encore(s): The First Time, Who's Gonna Ride Your Wild Horses, With or Without You, All Because of You, Yahweh, 40