U2 Vertigo 2005 Tour in San Diego! (obviously, spoilers included)

[dreamongypsydkm]

The Edge started playing the opening to City of Blinding Lights, and I was surprised! They didn't open with Vertigo? Very interesting, indeed. I was loving Bono during this song, but we couldn't hear him! Same troubles as Kings of Leon, I guess. He evidently couldn't hear himself either, because he was singing off beat. The band was a bit ahead of him. Aww I was so scared. But, when the song was over, I could hear incredible improvement in the next one: Vertigo! Hell yes, this was amazing. The lights went down, how appropriate, and the band had red spotlights on them, and the stage was lit all along Bono's runway, with lights that made it appear to be spinning. Needless to say, it was amazing. The whole crowd was singing every word, and Bono was writhing on the floor, dancing along the runway, etc. A lot of him crawling around on the floor in general. In the middle of the song, after "no one gets hurts", they slowed it down a lot, and Bono started singing Stories For Boys. Really quietly he started singing "Sometimes I can't let go... Hello Hello, Stories for Boys..." and then back into "Hello Hello, I'm at a place..." I was impressed with the cleverness of that. Gotta love Bono.
After the song, he said "let's take it back to where it started" and all the screens had the Boy cover on it. They played Cry - The Electric Co., An Cat Dubh, and Into the Heart. All in a row. All from their first album. I was again very intrigued more than anything. This was proving to be the most bizarre setlist of all time.
And after that, I started to cry when I heard the opening riff to Beautiful Day. I realized I was right in the heart of this concert. And Bono sang the whole song on the runway, which was lit in multicolors, mostly of blue and green. He was being very interactive with the audience, and when he sang "all the colors came out..." the whole arena was lit with the colors of the rainbow.. very lovely, really. At the end, Edge changed the chords a bit. What was happening? Then Bono starts doing Blackbird. Oh yes, a Beatles song in a U2 concert. Heaven! When Edge moved to the piano, I knew what was going to happen: New Year's Day! This was incredibly energetic, and extremely popular with the audience. This was great, sounded really great. After the song, the Edge played the opening riff to Miracle Drug alone and Bono said, "Thank you for waiting in line, and thanks for being here after all the trouble getting tickets, You've given us a great life... It's a Miracle!" And then he started laughing. He's so adorable. When he started singing, I was full on crying. I loved it, it was beautiful. And so was the next one, Sometimes You Can't Make it on Your Own. The lighting was beautiful for this one, again. All green along the runway, and in the background an image of a large man walking. This song was emotional. Bono started it by talking about how his father Bob wanted to be in show business.
After the sad emotional set, the lights went completely out, and I noticed the band got off the stage, and we heard the opening to Love and Peace or Else. Larry walked down the the end of the runway and sat in front of a smaller drum kit. Bono came out wearing the most incredble jacket, pictured here:

You can see Larry's little drumkit in that one too. This song was ****ing incredible. Larry sang with Bono during the "I need some release release release" parts, which the crowd loved. Bono was going insane! He got a bandana from somewhere and tied it around his hair. He looked like the evil karate kid. Larry got up to go back to his drums sometime in the middle of the song, and Bono took over on the other drums. But really he was just beating the **** out of it. All of us in the audience were loving that. The whole band stopped the song, but Bono kept going until Larry came in with his opening to Sunday Bloody Sunday. A beautiful transition. This song was a huge crowd-pleaser. The whole place was singing the chorus, and Bono was stomping and being his Bono self. Amazing. But not quite as amazing as the next: Bullet the Blue Sky. I'm biased because this is one of my favorite U2 songs in general. But, honestly, this was incredble. It went perfectly with the other two songs. In the middle of the song, instead of the whole speech as per usual, Bono started singing The Hands That Built America, holding his hands out and singing. I love Bono.
Oh, but I got truly emotional with the next song: Running to Stand Still. Lovely, lovely, lovely. Everyone had their lighters out. Blue lighting. mmmm.
Oh then here came my two favorites: Zoo Station and The Fly. Zoo Station - Bono literally shuffling across the runway and during "I'm ready for the push" he made sexual gyrations with his hips. These two together were incredble. The crowd loved it. And I even loved Elevation, which came next. I felt bad for it, to follow those two. But the real crying happened when they left. I was worried. They didn't play Where the Streets Have No Name. How can that be?
Oh, thank Christ an encore! Which was: Pride, Where the Streets Have No Name, One, All Because Of You, Yahweh, and 40. What to say? All amazing. Yahweh was really cool. Larry Mullen Jr. was on the piano??? Bono said, "Larry Mullen, multi-instrumentalist." It was sort of acoustic. While Edge was playing the first couple chords, Bono joked "if it's not a hit, just play it fast." It worked well. And the closer, 40, served as a good one. Bono got everyone singing "How long to sing this song", and then left, the crowd still singing. Next, Adam left, then Edge left, then there was Larry. He started playing quieter and quieter, but we kept singing. So he got loud again and played with all of us singing for a while, then he left. We all stood there singing until the lights came up. Oh no. I guess until Friday....
More pictures I didn't take:

[strandinthewind]

I am sooooooo going to the Atlanta concert. I have my tickets in hand and counting the seconds until the Fall, esp. after reading this and seeing those pics.!!!!!

Thanks for posting!

[CreepingDeath]

Wow! Great pics! Thanks for posting those.

I really want to see U2, but unless they add a Vegas date, that probably won't happen. I was going to try and see them in the U.K. since I'll be there this summer, but those tickets went extremely fast.

[hayley]

I'm going to three of the Chicago shows! YAYAYAYAYAY!

I had a friend at the show last night call me and leave me a message during Zoo Station. I almost crapped my pants a few days ago when I heard that Zoo Station AND The Fly (my favorite) were going to be in the setlist.

[Stephanie]

Have been trying to get tickets for Madison Sq Garden but no luck. Looks like a broker or scalper situation. But I absolutely can not miss it!!

[xdreamsunwindx]

Aw. Great review. I'm so glad you had a good time! I can't wait for my show - I have GA's for Pittsburgh. <3

[77Rumours77]

I am hoping to get tickets for Kansas City in December, Its not an offical date yet but the rumors look promising!
I am glad you had a good time! Great images! U2 FREAKING ROCKS!
The show is already up for download! Whooot Whoot

MP3 Version....
http://www.u2exit.com/vt/20050328/

Lossless version
EZTREE SHOW U2 San Diego, CA. Mar 28, 2005

U2
March 28, 2005
San Diego, CA
San Diego Sports Arena

Source: Sound Professional AT933 Hyper Cardioids >
Sound Pro Battery Box (Roll off @ 107Hz) >
Sony PCM-M1 (@ 44.1khz)

Location: GA (20 feet from Elipse)

Transfer: Sony PCM-M1 >
Core-Sounds 7 Pin to Coax >
Zoltrix Nightingale Pro 6 >
Cool Edit (Normalized and fades) >
CDWav (for track splitting) >
Flac Frontend (FLAC)

Taper: [email protected]


****************************************************************
I DON'T CARE WHAT YOU DO WITH THIS RECORDING.
MP3, FTP SERVER, DC, WEB, REMASTER, WHATEVER,
I CAN'T STOP YOU ANYWAYS!
****************************************************************

Disc One:

01. "Everyone"
02. City of Blinding Lights
03. Vertigo
04. Cry - The Electric Co
05. An Cat Dubh
06. Into the Heart
07. Beautiful Day
08. New Year's Day
09. Miracle Drug
10. Sometimes You Can't Make It On Your Own
11. Love and Peace or Else
12. Sunday Bloody Sunday
13. Bullet the Blue Sky / Hands That Built America

Disc Two:

01. Running to Stand Still
02. Zoo Station
03. The Fly
04. Elevation
05. Pride
06. Where the Streets Have No Name
07. One
08. All Because Of You
09. Yahweh
10. 40

I did not put fades at the mid point in show.

Screamers Suck.

Visit www.u2preservation.com

[dreamongypsydkm]

Originally Posted by 77Rumours77

I am hoping to get tickets for Kansas City in December, Its not an offical date yet but the rumors look promising!
I am glad you had a good time! Great images! U2 FREAKING ROCKS!
The show is already up for download! Whooot Whoot

**** - thank you thank you thank you