How to bring an Arena down?

Ever wonder what would it take to bring a big city like Frankfurt to a halt? Ever wonder what could cause a "stau" (traffic jam)on the "autobahn" (freeway)? Ever wonder what could cause even a hospital parking to be used for all the out of the city cars? ... all this is possible ... just bring U2 to town.

Paul David Hewson aka Bono, back all fixed up in Germany, in his terms "Made In Germany" stamped on his ass, with David Evans aka The Edge, Adam Clayton and Larry Mullen decided to pay Frankfurt a visit on the 10th of August 2010. When U2 come visiting these days they touch down in a spaceship. The spaceship touched down at the Commerzbank Arena and it was one heck of a sight. Pictures cannot do justice to the setup but still here goes -



To be fair, U2 has been on the periphery of the bands which I follow but getting a chance to see them live was something which I was not going to loose at any cost. What is remarkable is that this is one band which sounds so much more better live than on CDs. Maybe it was the acoustic of playing in a football stadium or the huge bank of speakers everywhere on the spaceship or whatever but the atmosphere was simply electric. The first notes of distortion guitar from Edge were just electric and all through the night there was this pulsating energy which came through. Bono, really looked fit and revived after the back surgery



I do need to get back to the spaceship because though the band's music would have been enough alone to blow us all away - they were in such flow that night - it was this piece of massive engineering which was fascinating. As I mentioned it was stacked with speakers plus the cockpit in the middle was a collection of screens which opened up to provide a massive projection medium. Maybe this picture helps you to get a perspective



True to form Bono did have a social message or two which he shared through the night. The 1st was a canned speech by Desmond Tutu propagating One Love which was appropriately played before "One" and then the prayer for Aung San Suu Kyi preceding "You'll never Walk Alone".
S said the other day "I have seen more than I can remember, I can remember more than I have seen" and I could relate to this statement when they played "Where the Streets Have No Name" or "I Still Haven't Found What I am Looking For" or "With or Without You". There were these flashes of memories associated with these songs which transported me to some other planes.
The set list for the night was -

1. Return Of The Stingray Guitar
2. Beautiful Day
3. New Year's Day
4. Get On Your Boots
5. Magnificent
6. Mysterious Ways / My Sweet Lord (snippet)
7. I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For / Movin' On Up (snippet)
8. Glastonbury
9. Elevation
10. In A Little While
11. Miss Sarajevo
12. Until The End Of The World
13. The Unforgettable Fire
14. City Of Blinding Lights
15. Vertigo / It's The End Of The World As We Know It (And I Feel Fine) (snippet)
16. I'll Go Crazy If I Don't Go Crazy Tonight / Discothèque (snippet)
17. Sunday Bloody Sunday
18. MLK
19. Walk On / You'll Never Walk Alone (snippet)

encore(s):
20. One
21. Amazing Grace (snippet) / Where The Streets Have No Name
22. Hold Me, Thrill Me, Kiss Me, Kill Me
23. With Or Without You
24. Moment of Surrender

which kind of covered the Discography spectrum pretty well. It also allowed each member of the band to have their solo time under the spot light or the strobe light.
The show was so good that we seriously think of going again in a month's time to Munich to watch the concert again. Whether we do it or not is a different question but U2 truly brought the Commerzbank Arena down on the 10th night.