Every artist is a cannibal

Oh, why do I even bother pretending that I'm going to be a better blogger. I'm thinking of changing the name of this blog to The Apologist.

Anyway.

A couple of weeks ago I went to the U2 concert at Soldier Field, and it was of course spectacular. First of all, I had never been to Soldier Field before, so that was great in itself. But the concert had been rescheduled from last summer, so I had bought these tickets a year and a half ago. I saw U2 once before, back on the Achtung Baby tour in 1993, so it had been 18 years since I last saw them, and they have grown so big now--I was both excited and a bit apprehensive. Of course everyone says they put on a great show, but I'd never been to a stadium concert before.

But holy crap. What a show. The size and spectacle of their 360 set just has to be seen to be believed. Massive.

Opening band Interpol played a great set, and then U2 came out, accompanied by David Bowie's "Space Oddity." The band then powered up with a stirring rendition of "Even Better than the Real Thing," and then just played one great song after another. One of the best albums ever, Achtung Baby, was heavily represented, which made me very happy.

One of the unexpected highlights for me was the back-to-back of "Miss Sarajevo" and "Zooropa." "Miss Sarajevo" in my opinion sounds better without Pavarotti singing, and it was really just a beautiful moment. And while I've always love "Zooropa," it sounded especially lovely that night--maybe because I did not expect to hear it.

Here's the setlist, which you can see features a perfect mix of old (including their first single ever, "Out of Control") and new (including a dance remix of "I'll Go Crazy If I Don't Go Crazy Tonight" that really threw me for a good loop):

Even Better Than The Real Thing 


The Fly


Mysterious Ways 


Until The End Of The World 


Out Of Control 


Get On Your Boots 


I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For 


Stay (Faraway, So Close!) 


Beautiful Day 


Elevation 


Pride (In The Name Of Love) 


Miss Sarajevo 


Zooropa 


City Of Blinding Lights 


Vertigo 


I'll Go Crazy If I Don't Go Crazy Tonight


Sunday Bloody Sunday 


Scarlet 


Walk On




Encore:

One 
Where The Streets Have No Name




Encore 2:

Hold Me, Thrill Me, Kiss Me, Kill Me 


With Or Without You


Moment of Surrender 


One Tree Hill

The closing number of encore 2 was a real treat. I guess they don't play "One Tree Hill" very much, and have not played it for several years in the U.S. And everyone knows it is a near perfect song.

I did not have great seats--not bad, though. We had a good view, but we were just a little far away. But I got some good pics.

The huge stage before the show

The giant 360 degree screen above the stage helped with the view.

Astronaut Mark Kelly introduced a song via a link-up (not live of course) with the International Space Station.

On U2's website, you can find their "fan cam" pics, which takes pictures of the crowd from the stage every night. You can see me in the middle of this pic:


My friend Lisa was in the second row, and she got some better pictures. That may be a bit of an understatement.



Simply fantastic.