November 2, 2001 - Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA - First Union Center

Fan Review:

Brian Q.

It was a day of all days. it was the day of the concert, and i didn’t have any tickets. my 7th grade social studies teacher called and had 2 tickets for $40 each, so i snagged them two hours before show time. when my brother got home, me and him drove down to the most amazing display of music that i have ever or will ever see. we arrived in section 219, row 15, seat 3 and 4. The stage was shaped as a heart and at the fat end of the heart, was a small stage, and infront of the stage, was the pit. After about 30 minutes, the opening act, another Irish band, Stereophonics, came out. they were talented, humorous bunch. for an opening act, they were excellent, but they weren’t anywhere close to Fuel.

about 20 minutes after the set was over, the music faded out and Bono’s voice came over the speakers as the band came onto the stage. The audience rose up and screamed and cheered and waved their hands into the air. Bono came up to the microphone and yelled “PHILADELPHIA”, did a major karate kick at the pit, and did his signature “hoooooooooooo-oooooooooo-ooooooo” and Elevation began, along with the coolest concert ever in the First Union Center. As Bono said “elevation” The audience threw their fists into the air in a chorus of the song title and random screams.

The next song they did was Beautiful Day. When they came to the chorus of the song, the lights in the stadium turned peach, and it looked like a morning sunset.The next song they did was Until The End Of The World. as the intro started, bono ran onto the heart, and once The Edge came in with the guitar, the lights went pitch black, and lights flashed around the heart, as bono did my “Student Council Dance.” the effects in the performance were amazing, with all of the lights and other effects.

All became quiet, as New Year’s Day began and The edge was working triple duty. he was playing the guitar, the keyboard, and vocals during the entire song. Bono was running around the heart and reaching towards the audience. The next song, which i almost had a heart attack hearing this song, off of Boy, track 5 from 1980, Out Of Control. When Larry Mullen Jr., began to play the drum intro, and then Adam Clayton, came in with the bass, i went “Out of control”! (Get it?)

From Out Of Control, immediately came Sunday Bloody Sunday, which is also when my brother actually began to talk.As the song drew to its halfway point, Bono ran to the end of the heart and reached out to the fans. he reached out and grabbed an American flag. He stood up and hugged the flag in mourning for the 9/11 victims. he respectively returned the flag to its owner. the next song, Stuck In A Moment That You Can’t Get Out Of, began as Bono returned to the stage and jammed with the band. He turned to all of the sections and pointed at them, as everyone screamed as loud as they could. He began to punt bottles of water into the sections.

Bono then gott a guitar from one of the roadie dudes and began to talk. he was saying stuff about the next song, Kite, and how it was his father’s last song that he wrote before he died. so they began to play an emotionally charged performance of Kite. it was excellent. After the song, Bono lost the guitar and the edge got an acoustic guitar. Adam and Larry got a break as Bono and The Edge did an acoustic rendition of Wild Honey. It was a good performance. They then did an acoustic performance of Please. Which i thought was a great performance of that song. It was different.

The next song they did was Bad (get it?). They had some kind of slowly spinning lights that looked cool and set the mellow mood of the song. right at the end of Bad, They played a little bit of “40”. The next song, the best performance of the night, was Where The Streets Have No Name. They had special lights come down from the ceiling that spun during the chorus. They were very luminous and hurt your eyes to stare at. The audience went insane during that song, jumping up and down, and singing as loud as they could. My old social studies teacher was in the lower level and said, “I came to hear U2, not the audience!”

The next song was I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For. It was an ok performance. they’ve done better. Pride the next song, was good too. they showed a little clip on the screens of Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I Have A Dream” Speech. it was a great concert, so far…..

U2 came back onto the stage after Pride, and did Bullet The Blue Sky. During the long dialogue part, Bono wandered around the heart with a large spotlight and shined it on the audience and other sections. it was very bright. After that, they did a little bit of What’s Going On. It was just bono and the edge just jammin’ out. not really any big performance. once that song was over, 3 large screens came down and they did New York. On the sceens, they listed all the names of the victims of 9/11 on them and in the screens that rose up in the back. At the end of the performance, bono took off his jacket and he was wearing a NYFD uniform.

They left again and came back out for one last time. Bono grabbed a guitar and they began to play One. It was a very good performance. after that, Bono began to sing a little portion of Peace On Earth. Then they jumped into their last song, Walk On. It was an incredible performance. once they finished, me and my brother bolted for the car.

The entire conert went till about 10:30. it was incredible, and as bono said in the song Kite, “i hope that this is not goodbye.” Well, neither do i.

Images:

All images are © Hayley Coristine