(a) setlist

1. The Miracle (of Joey Ramone)
2. The Electric Co.
3. Vertigo
4. I Will Follow
5. Iris (Hold Me Close)
6. Cedarwood Road
7. Song For Someone
8. Sunday Bloody Sunday
9. Raised By Wolves
10. Until the End of the World
11. Invisible
12. Even Better Than the Real Thing
13. Mysterious Ways
14. Elevation
15. Ordinary Love
16. October
17. Every Breaking Wave
18. With or Without You
19. City of Blinding Lights
20. Bullet the Blue Sky
21. Pride (In The Name of Love)

Encore:

1. Beautiful Day
2. Where The Streets Have No Name
3. One

(b) highlights

• this was my first time seeing them!!!
• U2 is INCREDIBLE, haters may proceed to the LEFT, BYEEEE
• so so SO many great ass songs, like look at that encore, LOOK AT IT
• making fun of Bono while also worshiping Bono is like my favorite thing to do ever
• their production notoriously costs about $2947203 million dollars but damn, it is so worth it – I can’t even describe how intricate and unique the use of art and screens and projections was during this show, like wow
• “Ordinary Love” was dedicated to Nelson Mandela because it was his birthday; then Bono just started naming people like Desmond Tutu and Yo-Yo Ma and like Angelina Jolie or whoever, saying they were all in the crowd tonight; like can you imagine what the U2 VIP guestlist must look like
• Bono was top-notch Bono-y, I loved it

(c) lowlights

• would’ve liked to hear “I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For” 😦 but damn that setlist was so good, so this complaint is a very minor one

(d) overall thoughts

I fell in love with U2 the summer of 2005 pretty much on accident. They, like the Beatles and the Beach Boys, had kind of always existed in the world I grew up in, but I somehow became enamored with their Best Of (1980-1989) when I was 14. I’ve heard for years that their live shows are next-level and with crazy cool production, so I was freaking psyched for this. And I totally was not disappointed.

I feel like a minority in saying that I actually enjoyed U2’s last album Songs of Innocence (and not just for the William Blake reference!) because most of the songs were genuinely great and, oh, sorry, I’m not gonna hate on a super popular band for literally GIVING ME THEIR ALBUM FOR FREE. (Why was everyone such a dick about that Apple thing? I really don’t get it. You got a free album. It’s a standard setting on iTunes for albums to NOT download, so you had to go OUT OF YOUR WAY to make sure iTunes put that album on your phone. Everyone is a douche, bye.) The newer material told a beautiful story that not only Bono spelled out for the audience between and sometimes during songs, but the visual story-telling with the projected artwork and jumbo screens was seriously awesome.

My friend and I were the youngest people in the crowd who weren’t there with their parents, but the crowd – for the most part – was pretty damn into it. Belting out the appropriate numbers (“Pride,” “Where the Streets,” and “With or WIthout You”) with everyone cheering and waving their arms made me wanna close my eyes and just listen to the individual notes. It was impossible to not smile throughout.

Also, hearing “One” for the first time almost exclusively reminded me of my favorite Noel Gallagher quote of all time: “(to Bono) Shut the fuck up about Africa and just play ‘One’!!”

Bottom Line: U2 is amazing, providing true evidence that showmanship is not dead, and everyone wants to be a hater for no reason because people don’t want to be reminded that their stupid lives are inherently better than poor kids in Africa, so everyone shits on Bono when he’s a wonderful man and his band is great, so SUCK IT.

Note: I took 14,283,382 photos, you’re welcome.