Category Archives: U2

u2 in buffalo tonight. kate wanted to go early and i was not about to sit outside in the freezing buffalo cold all day. she was kinda mad, but adrienne said she’d go, so the 2 of them went at 3:30. turns out they got to sit inside the whole time haha. i didn’t get there til around 5:30 and leighanne didn’t get there til around 6. she found me in line, and we had both forgotten our u2.com membership info so we had to go in the regular loser line hahaha. anyway. we ended up right behind adr and kate on the floor anyway, so it was all good.

then we almost got in a fight. at a fucking u2 show LOL. and it was not just us, it was the 4 of us, and 2 other girls who almost got in a fight with this girl and guy. here’s the story. la la la we’re all standing on the floor waiting for u2. and suddenly this girl gets up in front of the people next to us and she has big signs. then suddenly she’s in front of kate with the signs. kate starts getting pissed as well as this blond girl next to leighanne. kate finally says something to the girl, who says something back (i couldn’t hear) but it ends up with the girl not moving. well the story is that this girl has a friend being held hostage in iraq…and i guess this gave her the right to get up front at a u2 show so bono could see her sign…cuz bono can call over to iraq and have prisoners freed. ok whatever. so then we’re all being bitchy and making comments about iraq and having friends there blahblahblah. catty girl stuff haha. then for some reason the security guard talks to the girl, and this guy who is apparently with her pushes up to talk to him. then stays there. so the blond girl freaks out and is like “are you going to go back there now” and the guy just says no. so blond girl is PISSED and goes to find a security guard to get the guy out. well this leads to more of all of us being catty and bitchy. lei said something, and the guy just starts staring at her. so i start staring at him. he finally looks at me and we talk all snotty to eachother about how we’re having such a good time. then he goes back to staring at lei, says something to her, and she just snapped. “just shut the fuck up, do you know how fucking annoying you are being and how much you’re pissing everyone off….” it continued with more fucks etc. we’re all laughing. then theres this red haired girl next to the blond girl who is all pissed too. as soon as u2 came on pretty much, red head got security to finally get these people to move. so they did, but stopped right next to me, out of sight of the security guard. whatever. they weren’t in front of us anymore.

ok so that’s the fight. the opener was institute, gavin rossdale’s new band. and him just walking on stage with all his hotness was enough to make them better than the other u2 openers hahaha. the music was bush-ish, and they played 2 bush songs. so it was alright. and he was just so hot gah. hahaha

u2 was good. of course i can find something to complain about but i’m not going to, because surprise surprise we got “until the end of the world” back into the set and “mysterious ways” and both fucking rocked. that achtung baby encore again. they replaced “miracle drug” with “original of the species” which was a nice change. added “stuck in a moment” to one of the encores…and since u2 was in buffalo 25 years ago the day john lennon was killed there were alot of references and beatles/lennon song inserts into the show…sgt peppers, some christmas thing, and the entire “instant karma” song during the encore. it was a fun show. no one has ever accused bono of not talking alot at shows haha. he was typical bono in that regard. but yeah. good show. “until the end of the world” was great, and funny cuz bono started chasing edge around the ellipse. they brought a belly dancer girl from the crowd up on stage for “mysterious ways”, and kept her to dance with for all of “with or without you”, which occured directly in front of us haha. “yahweh” was still awful, but i completely tuned it out and didn’t even realize when the song was over LOL. i can’t think of anything to mention at the moment.

went to pearl street brewery after the show, cuz this guy on myspace has a u2 cover band which were playing there after the show. so we got dinner and drinks, and i had the best beer ever. it wasn’t guiness but it was their own guiness type beer, and it seriously was so good. could be bad news in the future hahaha. jk.

*edit 4-22-09* setlist from u2gigs.com…i SO don’t remember gloria or original of the species

1. City Of Blinding Lights
2. Vertigo / Help (snippet)
3. Elevation
4. Gloria
5. The Ocean
6. I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For / In A Little While (snippet)
7. Beautiful Day / Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band (snippet) / Happy Christmas (War Is Over) (snippet)
8. Original Of The Species
9. Sometimes You Can’t Make It On Your Own
10. Love And Peace Or Else
11. Sunday Bloody Sunday / Rock The Casbah (snippet)
12. Bullet The Blue Sky / The Hands That Built America (snippet) / When Johnny Comes Marching Home (snippet)
13. Miss Sarajevo
14. Pride (In The Name Of Love)
15. Where The Streets Have No Name / All You Need Is Love (snippet)
16. One / Help (snippet)

encore(s):
17. Until The End Of The World
18. Mysterious Ways
19. With Or Without You
20. Stuck In A Moment You Can’t Get Out Of
21. Instant Karma!
22. Yahweh
23. 40

my GOD was this show better than wednesday.

we didn’t head up to toronto til adr1’s plane arrived, and we got up there around noon. we ended up being in line behind the same woman we were behind on wednesday, who is named sandy. talked with her alot today, which was cool. and we were maybe 10 feet behind where we were in line on wednesday. they had already split the lines up – and this time, since there had been no presale for this show, you could be in the u2.com line without having presale tickets. great, i left my membership at home thinking we couldn’t use it. good thing kate and lei had their’s, cuz you were allowed to bring a friend. so that allowed us to be much farther up in line than we thought when we first saw it. nice. it rained all day, and was chilly. eh whatever.

so doors open, lei scans first and takes off when she didn’t get into the ellipse. my ticket scanned for inside. i was probably the least enthusiastic about scanning for inside the ellipse ever, cuz it didn’t really matter to me. but i took adr1 inside with me, and we ended up barrier right in front of edge. nice. kate was outside on adam’s side, and lei was same place as wednesday on the outside. let’s find the setlist…

City Of Blinding Lights
Vertigo
Elevation
Electric Co.
The Ocean
Beautiful Day
Miracle Drug
Sometimes You Can’t Make It On Your Own
Love & Peace Or Else
Sunday Bloody Sunday
Bullet The Blue Sky
Miss Sarajevo
Pride
Where The Streets Have No Name
One (w/Daniel Lanois)

The Fly
With Or Without You

All Because Of You
Fast Cars
Yahweh
Out Of Control (with 4 fans playing, band took over at end)
40 (with adam playing guitar and edge playing bass)

ok i wanna say, bono was way friggen hot tonight. haha. his voice has sounded pretty good most of the time, especially considering he’s doing a bit of opera. daniel lanois came out at the end of “one” and took over bono’s guitar, which was cool. he’s still dorky tho haha. “the fly” was much better tonight than wednesday. bono had way more energy, way more of a stage presence, almost like zootv bono. it was hot haha. “fast cars” 2nd time ever playing (first time was monday), and it was way cool. it’s an extra track on the new album, if you bought the special book release. very very cool. nice mariachi dancing from bono and guitar from edge. i’ll say it again..way hot haha. where’s the cardboard?! haha of course, out of film by that point cuz i forgot my digital and went and got a disposable from lei when i got barrier inside. oh well. “out of control” was a nice surprise, and they brought up 4 guys who had a sign that their band wanted to play with u2. so they started the song and then u2 took over, which was awesome. “40” was great, as they weren’t going to play it, but bono asked the rest of the band if they could play one more. so they did that, then one by one left the stage, larry being last. it was a really nice way to end the show. apparently there were cameras taping the whole show, as reported by lei, but adr and i only saw them up front filming the audience between songs once, and then onstage for “all because of you” and “fast cars”…bono said something about us being on tv. i dunno what that was all about. it’d be nice to see a video of fast cars, cuz…it was hot 🙂 from u2.com: “No sooner had the band caught their breath than director Lian Lunson – she of
the acclaimed Leonard Cohen documentary I’m Your Man,
premiered in the city earlier this week – is up on stage with a film crew. The
band are playing Fast Cars again, only the second live performance ever (Don’t
laugh!’ says Bono) and it is being committed to film. (Who knows what for ?
Guess we’ll find out soon enough.) The director gets a kiss on the cheek as she
takes her crew off stage and it’s a time for celebrations – this being the
eightieth birthday of the one and only BB King.
”

oh yeah. before “yahweh” bono starts talking about how it’s somebody’s birthday…bb king’s birthday. so at this point everyone starts freaking out that bb king is there, and that they’ll play “when love comes to town”. bono’s such a tease. but it was bb’s birthday, so bono CALLED HIM from the end of the ellipse and everyone sang happy birthday to bb. he definitely needed my horns at that point, macphisto throwback moment. haha.

oh, and yeah i got a guitar pick. it’s black with a shiny red target on it. it’s either from the tour, or sold by Target stores hahaha (that was a joke).

yeah. i don’t have much to say about the show, but it was just so much better than wednesday. the little add ons, the (slight) change in set list, it was just better. i’ll still be pissed if they play something from pop tomorrow. the idea of calling in and going up again tomorrow passed through us, but rumor is tickets are running 500$ from the scalpers. yikes. i can wait a month til detroit.

in other news, adr2 decided to go to san diego for nin. she text me from the show that they stopped because of a medical emergency – jerome was having chest pains. the show was cancelled and rescheduled for november some time. scary.

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.

u2 – hamilton, ontario – october 13, 2001

best show i’ve ever seen

I got up at 7:30 to get ready to leave for Hamitlon. Wanted to leave at 8:30, cuz i needed to get there by 10:30 to pick up my ticket from the person i bought it from. Yahoo directions said it would take me close to 2 hours to get to Copps from NT, plus the border hassel due to all the crap going on, i left around 8:15….what time did I get to Hamilton? 9:30….haha. it took me an hour. border was no problem, i stopped and exchanged money, all that…the way home my trunk got searched at the border, had to show ID…good to know they’re protecting us!! 😛

so i got in line, and got a number (314) and then later got my ticket. I didn’t get lost, it was all good. Ended up talking to these 2 girls and a guy in line, played cards with them etc. I let the girls store their crap in my car since they had taken the bus and had no where to put it.

So after about 8 hours we got let into Copps. Well before that we had gotten wrist bands that guaranteed a floor spot…dunno what the difference is if you have a GA ticket but whatever. I got a cool wrist band! So…we got frisked, etc, got into Copps. It’s really small in there, probably the size of the Rochester arena…the first 350 people got let into the heart, which although my number was 314…yeah didn’t get in the heart. NOT A PROBLEM!!! I ended up barrier on outside of the heart, on edge’s side….probably halfway from stage to tip of the heart. could see perfectly (when the security guard wasn’t in my way)
sooo…garbage played, yeah. (i totally forgot they had played until i was about 10 minutes from my house on the way home lol). they were good….1323534635 times better than PJ Harvey. They played their hits…only happy when it rains, stupid girl, #1crush… i was happy they played that, cuz i totally forgot it was their song and i really like it. yeah shirley manson is perfect looking.
so after that, waited around more, painful lol but whatever. u2 came on around quarter to 9. opened with “elevation” and “beautiful day” like in buffalo (they had done something different earlier in the week, so no one knew what to expect for our show). they changed the set list up ALOT, which is good, cuz it means i didn’t see the exact same show. While I prefer the buffalo setlist, this show was by far better. there was so much extra “special” stuff that made it way better.
1. bono hugged an american flag for a good 2 minutes. a girl at the outside tip of the heart had an american flag. i forget which song was ending when bono took the flag and hugged it for a very long time. he hid his face in the flag as he hugged it, and stood there. (someone said he was crying, and was wiping his tears with it) millions of pictures were taken obviously, need to find some. it was really special. kinda sad that it takes 4 irish men to spark a bit of patriotism in me… there were also other people with american flags, a sign that had a flag on it and said “thank you for caring” on it…..i dunno. the whole fact that i was an american in canada, and ppl being so supportive..it was really touching.
2. bono brought up some kid who had made a sign that said he wanted to play guitar with the band. they brought the kid an acoustic guitar and bono and the edge stayed at the tip of the heart with the kid as he played. however, the kid had no idea what he was doing! he sucked badly cuz he was so nervous, he was shaking, so bono was telling him what chords to play, where his fingers should be, the rhythm etc as edge played it and the rest of the band played….then bono and edge left the tip back to the stage and the kid followed them, and then bono gave him the microphone, and took the guitar and the kid sang the song as bono played. it was so great!
3. they played “out of control”…and while i don’t see how great of a thing this is, i guess it’s rare for them to play it, since it was their first single ever….so that was cool
4. yeah ok, i admit, i cried…I SAID I WOULD! but not for the reason i said i would… almost cried during “kite”….was too dehydrated to form tears LOL. bono was talking about how he originially wrote the song for his children, but now he thinks his dad wrote it for him…sad…but i did cry during the last encore…they played “one”, and the screens behind them read off the names of all the people who died in the 4 hijacked planes a month ago…which went into “peace on earth” and “walk on”…yeah…cried…it was bad. but i wasn’t alone so hehe
5. bono shined the spot light right in my face during “bullet the blue sky”….like, he was standing right in front of me, light in my face, could not see…not like just the edge of the spotlight kinda shining on my face, no like THE DIRECT BEAM! lol….oh and while singing “jacob wrestled the angel and the angel was overcome” he was all hugging himself, and i was like omg you are so beautiful.

6. acoustic version of “staring at the sun” by bono and edge… so great.

i was SO happy they played “bullet the blue sky” and “new york” because i was unsure they were going to…esp bullet, cuz they didn’t the other night…i am obsessed with that song as of late, so i was really happy i could see it from the front of the stage and not the back. they changed the intro to the song, took out the singing, and the NRA/Heston part…just went right into the song…it’s so haunting…the spotlight bit is a nice touch…during “new york”, bono comes on to the heart, stops right in front of where i was, where he sings in front of a screen thing. well they changed the words to the song, and the security guy came and put them on the stage in front of where bono would be since he doesn’t know them…so it was kinda rad to see bono reading the words from the sheet….bono kissed edge during “until the end of the world” haha it was so cute

didn’t play “mysterious ways” or “the fly”….the fly, not so much a shock as mysterious ways…i figured that was a staple of the show…but that’s ok. whatever.

setlist:
elevation
beautiful day
until the end of the world
new years day
out of control
sunday bloody sunday (i believe this is when bono took the flag)
when will i see you again/stuck in a moment
kite
angel of harlem
people get ready (with the kid on the guitar)
staring at the sun (acoustic)
bad
where the streets have no name
still haven’t found…
pride

encore 1:
bullet the blue sky
what’s going on
new york
with or without you (with extra verse)

encore 2:
one
peace on earth
walk on

that might not be right….the u2tours.com setlist was missing new years day…so tried to find another one, this one came from ppl on the interference board

i totally just remembered (10-22-01) out of no where, that bono was doing this ultra cute thing, making his hands into a heart shape and holding them in front of his chest…for an example, click here for a photo – don’t think from hamilton…. it was TOO cute…love bono…

ok thats all i can remember right now…

the 2 girls are supposed to send me the pictures they took…will post them if/whenever i get them. not looking like i am getting them.

U2 – buffalo,ny – 5-31-01

Incredible show. I don’t even know what to say. Carolyn and I had seats in 300 level behind the stage. We had a perfect view of the stage, even if it was from behind. The stage was heart shaped, with people inside and outside the heart. PJ Harvey played first. I dunno….I guess she was good. I don’t like chick singers, all the songs sounded the same, I so don’t like that kind of music, and it was boring. But if you like her, I guess she was good. U2 came on at quarter to 9 ish. They started “Elevation” with the house lights on, which was cool. After that they played um…”Beautiful Day”, then “End of the World” and then I think “Mysterious Ways”….ok so I totally don’t remember the set list, I’m trying to find one….They played a really good mix of old and new stuff I thought. I was only unfamiliar with 2 songs, that I guess were from Zooropa, which I’ve only heard once, and of the 2 songs I know from it, I don’t think I’d even be able to recognize them…

At one point in the show Bono started talking about how the 3rd show they ever played in the states was in Buffalo, opening for Tallas (Tollas?), and it was on the night that John Lennon died…then he started singing “In My Life” by himself. He dedicated “In A Little While” to Joey Ramone. I missed the dedication to Michael Hutchence, I don’t think he did one, but he has in every other show so maybe he did and I wasn’t paying attention.

They did 2 encores…one, maybe the 1st one, was “Bullet The Blue Sky” that had an intro (I was told, we couldn’t see the big screens) of Charleton Heston talking about guns, and a little girl picking up a gun…I think some people missed the point they were trying to get across, that guns were bad, cuz a kid was on the radio talking about how he agreed with the Heston thing…

Um…I dunno what to say. It was just an amazing show. Bono brought 3 people on stage at different points. During “The Fly” he brought this girl onto the catwalk and laid her down on stage. I couldn’t see this part too good, but what I saw, Bono was laying/sitting on her, and she was laying/sitting on him for a while. Then he stood up and stood over her laying on the cat walk. I’d have died…what a concert memory.

woo hoo I just found the setlist…

Elevation
Beautiful Day
Until the End of the World
Even Better Than the Real Thing
Mysterious Ways
In My Life/Stuck In a Moment
Kite
Gone
New York
I Will Follow
Sunday Bloody Sunday/Get Up Stand Up
In A Little While
Desire
Stay
Bad/40
Where the Streets Have No Name
Pride
Encore(s): Bullet the Blue Sky
With or Without You
The Fly
One/She’s a Mystery to Me
Walk On

It was so worth the money…the hassle of not having tickets, trying to find tickets, buying shitty tickets LOL….it definitely places in the top 5 concerts I’ve ever seen. I don’t think it quite knocks off NIN toronto…it’s close tho…i think it doesn’t place in top 3 because the top 3 have alot more personal meaning to me, even though the concerts/shows themselves weren’t as good. Pure music/performance wise, this show is #2 after NIN….but overall, it’s probably #4….definitely need to see them again (from a better position haha)

this is the buffalo news review from buffalonews.com….

Musical Mission
Bono and U2 deliver a message of faith
By CRAIG SEYMOUR News Pop Music Critic 6/1/01

Irish rockers U2 brought its blazing brand of secular gospel to the HSBC arena Thursday night, marking the first time the band has played Buffalo since 1987. The band was on a singular mission to restore the audience’s faith in the importance of rock, humanity, of life itself. A large chunk of the two hour show paid tribute to the group’s late friends and fallen rock icons. Bono paid homage to John Lennon, who was
murdered on the night of U2’s first gig in Buffalo, by singing a verse from the Beatles “In My Life.” He also worked bits of classics by
Marvin Gaye (“Sexual Healing”) and Bob Marley (“Get Up, Stand Up”) into the set.

The band performed “Stuck in a Moment That You Can’t Get Out Of,” from their latest album, “All That You Can’t Leave Behind,” which is
dedicated to ex-INXS fronman Michael Hutchence who committed suicide in 1997.

And the Southern Soul-inflected “In a Little While” was delivered by the band in recognition of New York’s own Joey Ramone, the former lead
singer of the seminal punk group the Ramones, who died from cancer last month. Bono stated that “In A Little While” was the last song that Ramone listened to before dying. “Now when I hear this song, I don’t hear it as a song about a hangover. It’s become a gospel tune. That’s
how cool Joey Ramone was.”

This song represented one of the night’s many moments that were devoted to the importance of people needing each other. “If I crawl/will
you be there,” he crooned like an Irish Al Green.

He introduced his bandmates before bringing them down front for a rattling version of “Desire.” And there was something touching about him
delivering introductions for people whom everyone in the audience knew. It served to represent another of the night’s inspiring themes: Don’t
take anything you hold dear for granted.

It was called the “Elevation” tour, and the band’s intent was to uplift and enlighten. (Although, given the $130 tickets, $45 T-shirts and $20 programs, the tour’s name had an unintentional double meaning.) Even the background music played before the show had a spirit raising theme: Jackie Wilson’s “(You’re Love Keeps Lifting Me) Higher and Higher,” Stevie Wonder’s “Higher Ground,” and Curtis Mayfield’s “Move On Up.”

The stage had a breathtaking simplicity. It was a hollow heart made with curved red catwalks. You almost expected to see a fashionista strut down the stage, and indeed Bono did ape the moves of a male supermodel at one point in the show. The earnest set-up could have come off as corny, but the stylish design made it work.

Fans stood in the middle of the heart and also surrounded the stage. And the people on the floor seemed to enjoy being physically close to a band with whom they’ve felt such a close emotional connection.

Despite initial concerns about the show’s general admission seating policy, the crowd was very well-behaved. There were some body surfing incidents. At one point, Bono even had to tell a particularly hefty crowd surfer: “You weren’t designed to fly, friend.” But, overall, you’d see more pushing, shoving and beer-spilling on any given night on Chippewa.

The last time U2 played Buffalo, Bono was having vocal trouble, but he was in fine form Thursday night. He growled, crooned and even worked up some sanctified falsetto swoops. His voice has the intimacy of a storyteller. He doesn’t so much sing a song as weave a heartfelt tale.

The rest of the band was also in top shape, as evidenced by the Edge’s propulsive guitar licks; Adam Clayton’s throbbing, sometimes funky, bass; and Larry Mullen Jr.’s steady, unfussy drumming.

Opening act P.J. Harvey delivered several hard driving tunes from her latest album “Stories From The City, Stories From The Sea,” which is all about falling in love. “Do you remember your first kiss,” she sang on “One Line,” with her voice sounding as edgy and straight-forward as the music. And the black and white projection of Harvey on the overhead monitor only added to the raw power of her set.

A lot of the thrills in U2’s show came from the backdrops and light displays. Large drapes that evoked skyscrapers came down during “New York City.” Rays of light splayed like blooming flowers. And the video screens showed silhouetted dancers swaying during “Mysterious Ways,” and flickering images of gun violence and grief during the impassioned “Bullet in the Blue Sky.”

Although U2 played their other social change anthems “Sunday Bloody Sunday” and “Pride (In the Name of Love,” which was followed by an impassioned plea from Bono on forgiving Third World debt, the night wasn’t really about politics. It was less about changing the world than treating life and other people more preciously….