U2 x 2

When a band has been making music for 25 years, including 11 studio albums and what is widely considered to be one of the top five live albums of all time, they've got a pretty heady reputation to live up to. Since I've been a fan for about 19 of those 25 years, but these two shows were to be my first live experience with U2, I had very high expectations. For the first show on Sunday night, Andy and I arrived about 25 minutes before U2 came on. Our seats were in the lower bowl, about 20 rows off the floor. The stage was set up at the opposite end of the floor, but there was a large oval walkway (referred to as "the ellipse") that extended about halfway out across the floor, creating a pit area that encompassed about a hundred lucky fans and bringing various band members closer to us throughout the night. The view from our seats looked pretty similar to this. The Wachovia Center filled in pretty quickly, and by the time U2 took the stage, the place was full. But despite the packed house, the show was, I have to say, a disappointment. I don't know exactly what it was: the sound was tinny, the band seemed sort of lifeless, and the few moments of real excitement tended to come during Bono's political rants (which ran on a bit too long). They did in fact lean pretty heavily on the newer stuff, with songs from their last two albums probably accounting for 2/3 of the setlist. A few big ones were in there (Sunday Bloody Sunday, Pride (In the Name of Love), With or Without You), but the hits were overcome by some odd choices (Miss Sarajevo?) that really brought the mood down. I thought it was a decent show, but was left preparing myself to be disappointed again on Monday night.

Well, I needn’t have worried. We arrived much earlier the second night, due to the fact that we had general admission floor tickets. When we arrived and had our tickets scanned, we were informed that they were randomly selecting people with floor tickets to go inside the ellipse, and Andy and I had been picked! After receiving two wristbands apiece to identify us as members of the elite, we got beers and proceeded to the floor to stake out our spot. As we made our way into the pit by passing under the ellipse framework, we realized that our position was going to give us a vantage point equivalent to seeing U2 in a tiny club. At the farthest point, we were probably 20 ft. from the stage. We took a spot towards the back of the pit, but just in front of the farthest point of the ellipse, where the night before members of the band had camped out during different songs. (This picture is good for reference: the people in the spotlight on the floor are right about where we stood.) Since we arrived early, we got to see the opening act, Bob Marley's son Damien. It was a decent set, mostly marked for me by the fact that at one point, there were no fewer than three Marley offspring onstage singing one of their dad's songs together.

By the time U2 hit the stage, the arena was again packed, but unlike the night before, the crowd was electric (although this may have had something to do with the fact that instead of being towards the back of all the shouting, I was basically standing in the epicenter where the crowd sounded thunderous). The Edge appeared onstage, followed by Larry and Adam, and then suddenly Bono passed within 6 inches of me as he was ushered to his starting position at the tip of the ellipse by a phalanx of security. From the very first song, it was clear this night was going to be different. The band seemed much more awake and energetic, and the crowd responded, which in turn fueled Bono to take his performance to another level. I lost count of how many times he turned the mic to the crowd and let us sing, and I must say, we were in fine voice. It's been a long time since I've shouted and sung myself hoarse at a concert, but as anyone who spoke to me today can attest, my voice is gone. They basically followed the same setlist from Sunday until they got to the encores, but each song seemed to have that little more on this night. The sound problems from Sunday were solved, as Bono's vocals had a lot more bass, and he tightened up his speeches and kept them short. You expect some politicking from the man, and as long as it's not at the expense of the concert's flow, it's fine.

So the show was going well, the crowd was into it, the band was feeling good, and just when no one thought things would get any better, they did. Several songs into the encore, the stage crew set up another microphone and a guitar, and from behind the stage, up pops Bruce Springsteen himself, looking, as Andy remarked, like he'd just woken up from a nap. Bruce (and wife Patty Scialfa, after some coaxing from Bono), joined the band to cover "People Get Ready," with Bono making up lines as The Edge and The Boss traded solos. And the place went completely apeshit, for lack of a better word. If U2 were trying to endear themselves even more to their fans in Philly (not something that appears necessary), they did it with this guest appearance. After a long jam, the Springsteens left and U2 finished with three more songs, leaving me about as satisfied as I could get.

Talk about a save. I went from being pretty bummed that one of my all-time favorite bands (for whom, I might add, I had paid a lot of money for tickets and flown halfway across the country) was losing it, to being ready to re-crown them as the world's greatest band, all in 24 hours. But it was also a learning experience. I discovered two things about U2 from these shows. One, as goes Bono, so goes the show. Sunday, he seemed disconnected and listless, and the show was a disappointment. Monday, he was on and loving his audience, and the show reflected it... which brings me to point two. Not surprisingly, it's the fans that really drive this band. At the risk of sounding cheesy, on Sunday night, we saw a U2 show. On Monday, we were part of the show. Watching the band feed off the energy of the audience was a pretty incredible thing. During "Sometimes You Can't Make It On Your Own," an emotional song dedicated by Bono to his deceased father, the crowd sang the line "You don't have to go it alone" back to Bono. And at that moment, you could see by the look on his face that he knew it was true.

Here's some links:
u2.com's review of Monday night
Monday's setlist
Sunday's setlist