U2 in Boston last night

["Jeff House" <whocasa@hotmail.com>]

My 1st time seeing U2.  I'm working on 3 hours of sleep, so all I can offer 
is randon thoughts.  Here's a review of the show from The Boston Globe that 
is very accurate...

http://www.boston.com/dailyglobe2/157/living/At_opener_it_s_U2_minus_1+.shtml

I've also heard that 2 songs from tonight's (June 6) show will be broadcast 
at halftime of the NBA final.  Look for Mrs House, she will be seated behind 
the stage 2 rows from the ceiling :-)

They are arguably THE hottest act out on the road at the moment, so it is 
interesting to see what's up with them.

They are a chick band.  Many, many young (to my 38-yr-old eyes) women 
dressed as if they were going to a club - dancing, singing and hugging each 
other as if they were at a club.

Boston is one of the most Irish cities in the world and the crowd energy and 
volume was amazing.  The crowd singing drowned out the band many times.  It 
was great fun hanging out and throwing back a few pints amongst all the 
Irish faces.

I hear slowed down Ramones when I listen to U2.  Very simple rhythm section 
with hooks all over the repetitious chording guitar and catchy melodies.

A bit of a rough start for me.  The sound was sloppy out of the box and the 
enthusiasm of the crowd made it difficult to hear.  The house lights up 
thing just does not work for me.

The heart-shaped catwalk in front of the stage and the standing floor crowd 
really created a great vibe on the floor.  A wonderful idea.

A very slick show.  The Edge is clearly the best musician in the group and 
was only allowed to cut loose a few times on "Bullet the Blue Sky" and a 
song from Pop that I did not recognize.  The 16 year old boy sitting next to 
me told me what song it was, but I forget.

As The Globe points out, Bono's voice was pretty ragged and he used his 
incredible charisma and stage smarts to get the crowd to sing the choruses 
as he held the mic back from his mouth.

And yes, my ears are ringing this morning.

Look for an HBO broadcast of this show (or portions thereof) later this 
year.

I am calling it a good show.  Not really good and definitely not great.

Jeff
_________________________________________________________________
Get your FREE download of MSN Explorer at http://explorer.msn.com