Opening Act(s): Muse
Setlist:
Breathe, Get On Your Boots, Mysterious Ways, Beautiful Day, I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For - Stand By Me, Stuck In A Moment You Can't Get Out Of, No Line On The Horizon, Magnificent, Elevation, Until The End Of The World, The Unforgettable Fire, City Of Blinding Lights, Vertigo, I'll Go Crazy If I Don't Go Crazy Tonight (Remix), Sunday Bloody Sunday, MLK, Walk On. Encore(s): One, Amazing Grace, Where The Streets Have No Name, Ultra Violet (Light My Way), With Or Without You, Moment Of Surrender.
Remarks:
With over 72,000 people at tonight's show in Tampa, U2 breaks the all-time attendance record for Raymond James Stadium. One notable mention tonight is U2's live satellite link-up with Cirque du Soleil CEO Guy Laliberté orbiting the Earth in the International Space Station. Laliberté, the first French-Canadian space tourist, is promoting his campaign "Moving Stars and Earth for Water" (as clean water awareness). Shortly after the live chat, a pre-recorded version of Elevation (taped in Charlottesville) is broadcast via the Onedrop.org website.
Media Review:
Tampa Tribune
With U2, 72,000 beat as 1
by Curtis Ross
TAMPA - For all the hoopla over hugeness of U2's 360° tour, Friday night's show at Raymond James Stadium felt less elaborate than previous U2 megaproductions.
The high-definition video screen, the major element in the band's stated effort to bring the show closer to even the cheap seats, was the main attraction tech-wise. The enormous structure looming over the stage looked impressive all lit up, as at the beginning of "Where the Streets Have No Name," but mostly faded into the background.
Which is as it should be, because all the big-budget toys in the world can't save a show this size from a second-rate band. And Friday's show was first-rate.
The Edge's arsenal of guitar effects gave the sound the heft it needed for the stadium setting. Bassist Adam Clayton and drummer Larry Mullen locked in tight, showing the benefits of 30 years of playing together.
U2 may be the only band alive whose songs make more sense being played in front of more than 72,000 people. On the record, "I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For" communicates restlessness and dissatisfaction. With thousands of voices singing along with U2 frontman Bono, it became a song about endless possibilities.
Songs of more recent vintage, such as "City of Blinding Lights" and "Beautiful Day" have that same quality. Friday, both exploded, as if U2's last two scaled-down, arena tours hadn't been big enough to house the songs.
Selections from this year's "No Line on the Horizon" took on new life live as well. The band brought out the punkish simplicity of the title track to good effect, while "Get On Your Boots" became the rave-up it just missed being on disc.
The show's latter portion focused more on social and political concerns, with photos from this year's Iranian protests accompanying "Sunday, Bloody Sunday." "Walk On" was dedicated to imprisoned Burmese leader Aung San Suu Kyi.
But in the end it was U2 that made the biggest impression -- four musicians who wanted to be the biggest band in the world and succeeded.
© 2009 Tampa Tribune
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