U2 finally came to town last Saturday night. I’d got tickets for the original April gigs, which were then cancelled due to a serious illness affecting one of The Edge’s family members. I wasn’t sure whether they’d get back here before I left for Canada, so when they announced November dates it was a big relief.

Jacqui decided not to go as it was Anna’s 30th on the same night, but as I hadn’t seen them live before and it’s probably the last time they’d come to Oz, I was definitely going. I headed out to Stadium Australia with John, Sarah and a whole gang of their mates nice and early, hoping to avoid the crowds. It was still pretty busy, but we had a couple of hours to kill once we got there.

Kanye West was the support act, which was a bit odd. If you look at the support bands for Europe and the US, they’re all bands that fit pretty well with U2 – The Killers, Franz Ferdinand, Snow Patrol, The Thrills, Kings of Leon… how Kanye West fits in with that lot is beyond me. Anyway, we’d no interest in seeing him but were inside the stadium while he was on stage and he was crap. The sound was pretty awful, presumably because the acoustic setup for a bass-heavy hip-hop artist is markedly different from a rock band’s requirements? Anyway, he was only on stage for 40 minutes or so, which was a relief.

Once U2 came on stage everything changed. It was dark, almost 80,000 people waited expectantly, the stadium lights went down and it was on! The atmosphere was incredible! I’m not a regular concert goer, but I’ve been to Robbie Williams with Jacqui before, which was a pretty big concert, but this was a whole other league and just underlines how massive U2 really are. Even Kylie, who’s playing Sydney right now as well, only fills the Entertainment Centre with a capacity of 21,000. I can’t think of another rock band who could comfortably fill an 80,000 seat stadium three nights in a row in Sydney. No-one else even comes close.

The night’s song list:

City of Blinding Lights
Vertigo
Elevation
Until The End of the World
New Year’s Day
Beautiful Day
I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For
Sometimes
Love and Peace
Sunday Bloody Sunday
Bullet The Blue Sky
Miss Sarajevo
Pride
Where The Streets Have No Name
One
Zoo Station
The Fly
With or Without You
The Saints Are Coming
Desire
Kite

A good mix there, and not too biased towards the more recent stuff, which was something I was a bit concerned about. Nevertheless, myself, John & Sarah sang our heads off and I for one ended the night almost hoarse.

Overall an amazing night and well worth the wait. My only regret was that I took the “No Cameras” warning on the ticket seriously and left mine at home. I saw at least one punter taking pictures with a good camera, so I’d love to have had mine there, however, I certainly didn’t want to arrive at the gates with my Canon 350D and be told I couldn’t go in with it!