Friday, October 21, 2005

U2 Vertigo Concert: Washington, DC 19 October 2005 Last night, I went with some of my former colleagues from Maryland to the U2 concert at the MCI Center.  In the gang was M. and his wife M., my former co-workers W. and L., and W.'s brother, D.  Say what you will about aging hipsters or your ultra-cool yet independent artists, I like U2.  Those are four guys I would like to hang out with in an Irish pub and drink a few pints of Guinness.  I tend not to go to too many of the large arena concerts.  Part of the reason is the high cost that one must pay to TicketBastard.  The other reason, though, ist that I tend not to get to concerts because I don't particularly feel like going to them by myself.  The last large arena concert I attended was (I think) Lenny Kravitz and the Black Crowes when I was in graduate school.  U2 was simply awesome.  Bono is the consummate show man, but he tends to be too preachy at times.  Moreso as he has spent the last couple of days in Washington.  That said, the preachiness comes with the territory since most of their songs have a social and/or political bent.  The band was, as usual, up to snuff.  Larry, Adam, and the Edge were quite good.  The set list is below, courtesy of Interference.com: 1. City Of Blinding Lights 2. Vertigo 3. Elevation 4. Electric Co. / People I Don't Know Are Trying To Kill Me (Snippet) / See Me Feel Me (Snippet) 5. Out Of Control 6. I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For 7. Beautiful Day / Many Rivers To Cross 8. Miracle Drug 9. Sometimes You Can't Make It On Your Own 10. Love And Peace Or Else 11. Sunday Bloody Sunday / Father Abraham 12. Bullet The Blue Sky / Hands That Built America / When Johnny Comes Marching Home 13. Miss Sarajevo 14. Pride (In The Name Of Love) 15. Where The Streets Have No Name 16. One ENCORE 17. Walk On (Acoustic) 18. Who's Gonna Ride Your Wild Horses 19. With Or Without You 20. All Because Of You 21. Bad / People Have the Power (snippet) The concert began with some rocking tunes, and it ended on a good note.  I would have liked to see some more classics, but I had an awesome time.  I even broke the cardinal rule of concert-going: I bought a tour t-shirt.  Once I figure out how to get some crappy photos from my cell phone, I will update the post with some pictures.  12:45:08 PM    comment []  trackback []