today was day 1 of 2 u2 shows in toronto this week. i actually had been not at all excited about it just given how much everything sucks lately. after boston not going well, and being disappointed in the show itself, i was just not looking forward to seeing them 4 more times.
well they did a better job this time. actually a lot better. tho i still have complaints.
it was great because they massively rearranged the set list. it was no longer all new stuff, and really really old stuff for the first half, and then doing a greatest hits set before going into the achtung encore. they mixed it up nicely through the main set, they sounded better, bono wasn’t limping and in pain. it was definitely alot better. my complaint is that they played a whole TWO songs from achtung. “one” and “the fly”. no “until the end of the world” which is a tragedy really. we DID get “with or without you” this time, which was great cuz i miss it. we also got “bad”…unfortunately “miss sarejevo” replaced “running to stand still”…as expected there was no “who’s gonna ride your wild horses” as that seemed to be a special treat for the final boston show. i’ll find a real setlist somewhere. they brought daniel lanois, one of their long time producers, out at the end of “bad” as he’s from hamilton.
we got up there around 6:30am, and were around 35 in line (we got numbered by the line nazi – holy crap i remembered this lady from hamilton in 2001, but it wasn’t as bad as today…she numbered everyone, ok cool…later she went and stamped some ppl with a stamp that she was saying was bono’s lips…then as people are trying to sleep in line, she decides to do what the employees of the air canada center are supposed to do, which was to move and arrange all the metal barriers…we happened to have at least 6 behind where we were sitting, and by the end i was like, can i ask what is the point of all this? shes like, well people are going to jump in line ahead of you, and security is gonna do it anyway…SO LET THEM. later she came by and asked if she could use our sidewalk chalk so i guess it was a truce. didn’t mean we stopped making fun of her tho haha). i somehow managed to sleep in a folding stadium chair for a few hours. with lots of loud traffic around. amazing. spent the rest of the day coloring, and drawing with chalk, and reading etc.
once inside, none of our tickets scanned for inside the ellipse, so kate headed to adam’s side, and me lei and james headed to edge’s side. all 4 of us were at barrier for the whole show, on the outside of the ellipse. and i like that much better than being inside, cuz you can just see everything. on the way in someone had lost their devil horns, so finders keepers i wore them for the whole show haha. and now for my teenie bopper fan girl moment, during “streets” bono was walking along the ellipse over by us, and he absolutely 100% dead sure made eye contact with me, and started smiling cuz of my horns. and i almost threw up haha. it was so exciting hahahahah. a few people down from us was “Mrs Edge” from interference who lei used to talk to. she belly dances and was dressed up. even though they didn’t do “mysterious ways” (complete lack of achtung what?) bono found her and brought her on stage during “bad” which was totally cool. i’d die. there were some tough parts, teary parts i should say, through the show but i totally lost it during “one”. i’m a retard. hahah. how cliche, crying during “hurt” and now crying during “one” again. at least last time, i had the excuse of u2’s sept 11th tribute at hamilton during “one” and all the emotions running high from all that 4 years ago. this time i have no excuse i’m just lame haha.
one of the funny things about the day, was this crazy homeless black guy that was at the NIN shows was at this show too. he’s a pretty good homeless dude, as he actually sort of performs for money. he does crazy song rant things, and is rather entertaining in a black homeless crack head kinda way. and the same scalpers were there as at NIN and i hate the one guy i wanted to hit him.
but yeah….it was good. excited for friday. hopefully we get some set changes, and some big songs back into the show. we’ll see. adr arrives fri morning so we’ll probably get up there this time around noon. hoping to still do ok in line.
1. Vertigo
2. The Electric Co.
3. Elevation
4. Beautiful Day
5. I
Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For
6. City Of Blinding Lights
7.
Miracle Drug
8. Sometimes You Can’t Make It On Your Own
9. Love And Peace
Or Else
10. Sunday Bloody Sunday
11. Bullet The Blue Sky
12. Miss
Sarajevo
13. Pride (In The Name Of Love)
14. Where The Streets Have No
Name
15. One
16. The Fly
17. With Or Without You
18. All Because
Of You
19. Yahweh
20. Bad / 40
when looking for the setlist, lots of people who had seen monday’s toronto show were disappointed in tonight’s. can’t say, i wasn’t there. i still think this was more enjoyable than boston. it still has problems though. there is something really lacking this tour. i don’t know if it’s energy, or bono’s stage presence lacking as someone suggested, but something is off. kinda sad. lei and i keep saying it’s cuz the elevation tour was just so perfect, but i dunno. not that much has changed, but it feels completely different.
and also when looking for the setlist, apparently DISCOTHEQUE AND MOFO were rumored to be appearing in the set!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! holy crap i’ll die to get either of them, especially mofo. i kept saying it’d be so awesome if they surprised everyone and busted out with mofo. and i swear if they don’t appear on friday, but do on saturday that i’m not at, i’ll be pissed haha.
