"It's one love/We get to share it"
This was not only my first U2 concert but my first large venue concert. I got quite the buzz as I walked towards the MSG front entrance and saw on the marquee "Tonight U2 Vertigo SOLD OUT." I don't know how many MSG seats, but it's a lot. And we were all singing along through most of it.
Keane opened for them. They're very good, if you've never heard of them, classify them in your mind in the column just below "Coldplay." They've had one album so far and there was just something so gutsy about a group like that opening for U2. Before they did their thus-far signature song "Somewhere Only We Go" the lead singer said "I know we're not U2 but if you know the lyrics, feel free to sing along" and some of the audience did. The rest of the audience drank beer, chatted, and wandered in and out which I don't blame them for, they hadn't heard of Keane yet. Their loss.
But enough about Keane! So there was a half hour break. We watched the sound check guys do sound check while the clock crept past nine and I finally let myself get jittery and excited. Because before that, my mindset was "I will believe I am going to see U2 in concert when I am in my seat watching them."
Finally the lights went down and a shadowy figure came out alone on the stage, and those guitar notes drifted up into the cavernous space and I had literal goosebumps. That was Edge, doing the opening for "City of Blinding Lights." Then everything sort of exploded with light, Bono and the rest appear, glittery confetti falls from above on the lyric "A city lit by fireflies."
I'm trying to remember all of what they played, and of course can't, but here are the high points in no particular order--they nailed "City of Blinding Lights." They played "Sunday Bloody Sunday," "I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For," "Pride," "One" and "With or Without You." Before doing "Sometimes You Can't Make it On Your Own" Bono talked about his father, who loved opera and would stand in front of the radio pretending to conduct. They did "I Will Follow" and "Miss Sarajevo" and "Bad," which awed J. because she said they almost never play that live. When the opening guitar lines of "Where the Streets Have No Name" started, J. and I started jumping up and down, clutching each other's hands and squealing for joy, which was just fine because all around us tens of thousands of other grown-ups were doing about the same thing.
Bono crawled on the floor blindfolded, marched, leapt, and ran around the oval, clasped hands with the audience down in the pit. Larry Mullens actually emerged behind his drums to play a small drumset out at the front of the oval. Edge sang (though not alone). Bono played guitar. Adam Clayton supported it all with his bass guitar, the unsung hero.
I've seen DVD's of their concerts and talked to people who have been to see them live, so I had certain expectations but this went beyond anything I could have expected. They're brilliant musicians and showmen in the old-fashioned sense, and the four of them have such a rapport and their joy in the music is so clear and they project that to the audience as if they want you to feel that joy too. Bono hit that soaring sustained note in "Sometimes You Can't Make it On Your Own" just so, and held out his microphone to get the audience to sing the familiar songs.
At one point, Bono's throat scratched on the start of a line, so he had to run over and take a sip from his water bottle. The audience kept right on, finished singing the line for him, and then he picked right up and did the line how he'd wanted to and kept on going, with sort of a nod towards the crowds that telegraphed sorry about that, thanks, for being patient.
[ETA: there's a good review of the Friday show (not Monday's which I attended) in Newsday you can read here]