2006年 Dec 15日 Friday, 19:59
Well, the tour is finally over after nearly two years. I feel very fortunate to have been present at the final show at Aloha Stadium last Saturday.
I live in California, so I had the pleasure of only a 5 hour flight to get to Hawaii. Most people I met in the GA line had come from much further away. This truly was an audience of diehards. When Bono asked who was local and who had flown in, nearly everyone indicated that they had travelled to be there. It was pretty cool to see the dedication of our fanbase.
I got to the stadium at 4:00am on the day of the show, so I only waited for about 17 hours until U2 came on. That was nothing compared to the people who had been there for two days, but it was plenty for me. I think I was close to 700 in line, but they stopped numbering after the first few hundred, so it was hard to tell. I was happy just to be in the first thousand (floor capacity was around 10,000).
After a very long wait and lots of line drama and confusion, we were finally let into the stadium at around 4:30pm. I made it into the inner circle, and was second row at Adam's b-stage. Rail would have been nice, but I was happy to be as close as I was. The people in front of me on the rail claimed to have been there since Thursday morning. I'm happy I didn't camp out because the line got so jumbled that it didn't give anyone much of an advantage to have been there super early.
The first opening band was Rocko and the Devils, and they were surprisingly great. They played a short set of a few covers and a couple of original songs. They performed pretty much just to the GA crowd, because the rest of the stadium hadn't filled up yet. Rocko is U2's tour manager and a pretty awesome guy. He can sing, too!
Next up was Pearl Jam. I have to be honest, I do not like Pearl Jam. I've tried to get into them, but I just can't make myself enjoy their music. I wasn't that interested in seeing them live, and was mainly wishing they'd hurry up and finish. I'm glad I can at least say I've seen them, though. This was a pretty momentous show due to the hugeness of the opener.
Finally after what seemed like an eternity, Wake Up came on over the PA and the crowd went batshit crazy. It's hilarious how we've all developed a Pavlovian response to that song now. Crazy.
Then City of Blinding Lights began and Bono emerged from the b-stage right in front of me, waving a huge American flag. I went nuts. Everyone around me went nuts. I hadn't seen the band in a year (my last show was 12/14/05 St. Louis), and it felt like I was finally home again. I fucking adore this band. I adore them with every fiber of my being.
This was the setlist:
1. City of Blinding Lights
2. Vertigo
3.Elevation
4. I Will Follow
5. I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For
6. Beautiful Day
7. Angel of Harlem
8. Who's Gonna Ride Your Wild Horses
9. The First Time
10. Sometimes You Can't Make it on Your Own
11. Love and Peace or Else
12. Sunday Bloody Sunday
13. Bullet the Blue Sky
14. Miss Sarajevo
15. Pride (In the Name of Love)
16. Where the Streets Have No Name
17. One
Encores:
18. The Fly
19. Mysterious Ways
20. With or Without You
21. Window in the Skies
22. The Saints are Coming (with Billie Joe Armstrong)
23. Rockin' in the Free World (with Pearl Jam)
24. All I Want is You
They had a marquee scrolling at the top of the light screens at the beginning of COBL, listing all of the Vertigo tour dates, ending with 131. Honolulu. That's pretty damn impressive, I think. 131 shows is a hell of a lot.
Bono pulled a fan up during Angel of Harlem to play piano. The fan insisted that he couldn't play that song, and that he wanted to play Who's Gonna Ride Your Wild Horses instead… so they did! It was fantastic. They clearly struggled to get through it, but amazingly Bono remembered most of the lyrics. The audience freaked out, because it's rare to get something unexpected like that at a U2 show. The setlists are fairly static. When they finished the song, Bono made some comment about U2 becoming wedding singers.
I realized later that the fan who got pulled up was the same guy, Michael, who got pulled up in St. Louis to play piano during Yahweh last year. "Play it like a bell! LIKE A BELL!" I met him in line for that show and he was a really nice guy. He certainly added a little extra specialness to both of those shows.
LAPOE made a surprising return, which I was thrilled about since Bono did his drumming bit right in front of me.
The second encore began with the new song, Window in the Skies. I was totally thrilled to hear this live, especially since there's a high probability it'll be forgotten by the time the next tour rolls around. I guess it just depends on what the new album is like and how Window fits in with that theme. Only time will tell, but I feel privileged to have heard it live. It's really beautiful.
Billie Joe Armstrong of Green Day joined the band for Saints. I really hate Green Day and wish it had just been U2, but this was still a pretty cool song live. It's better than All Because of You, anyway, so I didn't mind it being in the set. Billie Joe promptly exited the stage after the song ended, so I was happy about that. I was afraid he'd stick around for another song.
Next was Rockin' in the Free World, for which Eddie Vedder and Mike McCready of Pearl Jam came back out. This was alright, and we all knew it was coming, but I wish they had performed it during Pearl Jam's set instead of U2's. I would have preferred One Tree Hill or Kite to take this spot in the set, but oh well.
The band ended the show and the tour with a final performance of All I Want Is You, which was beautiful. I fully expected Vertigo2 instead, so I was thrilled that they decided not to go that direction. AIWIY isn't as good of a closer as Bad or 40, but it seemed oddly appropriate for the final show. 50,000 people singing "all I want is YOUUUUUUUU" to U2 pretty much said it all.
Larry was the last to exit the stage as usual, and was given the final words. "See you soon," he said.
"Soon" probably means 2009 (late 2008 at the absolute earliest), but I'll be here waiting. Thanks U2 for giving me the time of my life at all of the shows I went to. Thanks for being my inspiration. Thanks for EVERYTHING. See you soon.
My pictures from the show are here:
http://s6.photobucket.com/albums/y204/cadyfan/hawaii/u2/