U2 concert in Brussel – 23 September 2010 (in pictures)

This review consist mostly of pictures, because I lack the amount of adjectives to describe the songs properly. And I’d be saying lovely, brilliant and genius over and over again. So I’ll just say it once: Everything was LOVELY, BRILLIANT and GENIUS!

I went to U2 in Brussel on 23 September! My third U2 concert ever (I went to the 2 concerts in Amsterdam last year).

I live in The Netherlands and had to go to the concert by train (took 4 hours). If it were closer I would have loved to have gone to both concerts, but now I just went on Thursday.

Long before the concert I said that the ONE song I really wanted to hear was Hold Me, Thrill Me, Kiss Me, Kill Me. Of course I like every U2 song and would like to hear every song I haven’t heard live, but that was THE song I wanted to hear.

I arrived at +- 17:45 in Brussel and took the underground to the stadium and bought two U2 posters there :)

Poster 1

Poster 2

I had a ticket for the section 1H so I was up high, but with a really good view (better than at Amsterdam).

Stadium at 18:17

Interpol went on at 19:45 and played until +- 20:30. I did not know Interpol at all before the concert, but when I got a ticket (in August this year) I listened to some of their songs.

19:45

It rained so there were these tents on the stage

To me almost all of the songs they played sounded similar, but it was a nice rocking sound :) The crowd was pretty quiet unlike with Snow Patrol last year. Snow Patrol was way better, but Interpol was nice to hear too.

At the concert in Brussel the day before the full moon was visible and Bono sang about that, but on Thursday the only time I saw the full moon was during Interpol and it was only for about half a minute. The rest of the time it was cloudy and raining (I had a roof above me).

The moon and the Atonium

When Interpol was over some time later the screen had to be fixed (some parts were black instead of giving light). You can see that in the picture (the 4th purple bit in the middle from the top is not working properly). There were 2 guys who did some magic and it worked again after that :)

Two guys fixed the screen

At around 21:00 there were waves going round the stadium and soon after that died out I suddenly realised that I sat very close to where U2 were going to get out! I really hadn’t thought of it before and the next 30 minutes went by SLOWLY! Also 1 seat behind me and 3 seats to the left of mine were empty (so I had more room for me to make crazy movements! ;) ) The people in front of me were almost all sitting during the entire concert (the guy in front of me didn’t even clap!!!), but I was standing and singing my lungs out. I have never clapped harder in my life :P

U2!!!!!!!!!

The setlist (from www.u2gigs.com):

1. Return Of The Stingray Guitar
2. Beautiful Day / Rain (snippet)
3. New Year’s Day
4. Get On Your Boots
5. Magnificent
6. Mysterious Ways / Private Dancer (snippet)
7. Elevation
8. Until The End Of The World / It’s The End Of The World As We Know It (And I Feel Fine) (snippet) / Singing In The Rain (snippet)
9. I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For / Many Rivers To Cross (snippet)
10. Angel Of Harlem / Don’t Stop ‘Til You Get Enough (snippet)
11. Bad / Singing In The Rain (snippet)
12. In A Little While
13. Miss Sarajevo
14. City Of Blinding Lights
15. Vertigo / It’s Only Rock ‘n’ Roll (But I Like It) (snippet)
16. Can’t Stand The Rain (snippet) / Crazy Tonight / Relax (snippet) / Life During Wartime (snippet)
17. Pride (In The Name Of Love)
18. MLK
19. Walk On / You’ll Never Walk Alone (snippet)

Encore(s):

20. One
21. Rain (snippet) / Where The Streets Have No Name
22. Hold Me, Thrill Me, Kiss Me, Kill Me
23. With Or Without You / Shine Like Stars (snippet)
24. Moment of Surrender / Singing In The Rain (snippet)

I really love Return Of The Stingray Guitar as an opener! Breathe was also pretty good, but I like Stingray better.

Bono walking around during Return Of The Stingray Guitar

I'm fairly sure this is during Mysterious Ways

Mysterious Ways is one of my favourite favourite U2 songs and just LOVE it live. I’m really glad this was in the setlist! Bono also took a girl from the crowd on stage and walked/skipped with her on the stage :)

Bono in the crowd and I think taking a picture

It rained a lot! (I think this is during Angel Of Harlem)

After I still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For Bono said: “Let’s play a new song… This could be a hit *harmonica*” Me: SOMETHING NEW? A new  song that starts with harmonica?!!!! I LOVE it when Bono plays Harmonica! This is my lucky day! :D But then Edge started playing guitar and realised that it wasn’t something completely new, but Angel Of Harlem. But it was still completely awesome :)

This is Bono with guitar during Bad

I was incredibly happy when I heard the first notes of Bad. Bono played guitar and it was a mind blowing live version. At the end you could see that Bono wanted to snippet something, but then Larry ended the song. Bono turned round and kept playing his guitar and Edge quickly joined him. Bono sang Singing In The Rain and Adam and Larry also joined in again. It was incredible.

Edge joins Bono again with the guitar during Bad

Frank de Winne during In A Little While

After In A Little While was Miss Sarajevo which I hadn’t heard live before and it was beautiful! The Italian verse gave me chills. Bono

Claw Of Blinding Lights

The Claw at its prettiest

Vertigo had a tiny bit of Harmonica in it

I LOVE the Crazy Tonight Remix!

Edge on the screen during Crazy Tonight & Larry walking around :)

Adam looking lovely during Crazy Tonight

Walk On

Bono amidst buffalos during One

I don't need to tell you what this song is ;)

Planet Earth is blue and there's nothing you can do

Light, microphone, action!

I spot 4 wheel microphones!

Love.

Even more Hold Me, Thrill Me, Kiss Me, Kill Me

Bono is the king.

Moment Of Surrender

The end.

And then it was over. It was magical and I want to go again!

Larry

Larry

Larry Mullen

Larry Mullen Jr.

Larry is a drummer

The best drummer there is

And it is his birthday today!

So, celebrate! Sing him a song :)

Preferably a birthday song, but others will do…

As long as it has 48 “Hurrahs” in it! :P

Adam or Larry?

I had another U2 dream this morning :)

Adam and Larry are in a limousine. I open the door of the limo and they invite me in! I have to choose who I’m going to sit next to… I can’t sit in the middle, so I ask if Bono is coming. He’s not, so I really have to choose where to sit. They are both smiling very kindly and I decide to sit next to Adam, because he was sitting a little bit closer to where I was standing. I sit down and think “Wow! I’m actually sitting next to Adam!!!!!” I could not say anything, but then Adam asks me what risk factors are. I start talking about insurances and cars and I’m perfectly happy! :P

After that dream I’m in a helicopter with House and I’m talking about the fact that I didn’t get tickets for the U2 concert in Paris. I somehow think it was his fault (?) and I’ve written him about 50 letters because of that. He had replied at last with a letter and I guess that it said that I should come to the helicopter. He looked me in the eyes and gave me tickets for all the U2 concerts!!! :D When my first shock was over and I begin to worry about how I’m going to get to all of the concerts, he says to me that the helicopter will always bring me! :D

House is always so kind in my dreams! :)
Always?
Well, I’ve had 8 dreams with House so far and he was always kind :)
Maybe I’ll post them another time, some are just too funny/adorable not to :)

Personal Record!

Today I achieved a U2 related personal record. Can you guess it?

Today I had the longest and most U2 dreams in one night.
When I woke up I could remember 5! U2 dreams!
I could remember 3 very clearly when I woke up, but almost forgot the other 2!

1. In the first dream I’m at the U2 concert around 19:00 (I’M GOING NEXT MONDAY!!!). There was no one on the stage and I was staring minute after minute at the gigantic stage. It was bigger than I ever imagined it to be and I just can’t believe my eyes. At 20:00 Snow Patrol starts, but they showed Bono on the screens who was pulling funny faces. XD
2. I was standing backstage at a U2 concert behind a curtain from where I had an excellent view. I stood there watching for a couple of songs and just admired them :) However, the concert was almost over and they were about to play their last song. They wanted the curtain to be closed when they were going to play the last song, so I could not watch them play it if I stayed there. I walked on to the stage so I could see them and had to choose where I would sit: next to Adam, Bono, Edge or Larry. I quickly made my choice and sat next to Edge. I did have a logical reason for choosing to sit next to Edge: I saw that Edge had 4 U2 T-Shirts and the rest had 3, so it was obvious for me to choose Edge who had the most T-Shirts. :P
3. In the next dream the same curtain is there, but now they’re walking to the stage to start the show. It looked a bit like the Elevation Tour dvd, but in my dream they had to walk past the curtain to enter the stage. At the last moment before they open the curtain Louis Theroux joins them. He’s making a documentary about U2 and he had to walk with them on stage.After the show Edge, Louis Theroux and Bruce Springsteen are sitting in a room. Bruce Springsteen has just arrived and Edge wants to shake his hand. He holds out his hand to Bruce, but before he can take it Louis Theroux takes it as if it was ment for him. Bruce and Edge are a bit surprised, but think it very funny. Bruce says to Theroux that he saw him walking with U2 on stage. He also says that he had not thought that he knew U2 personally. Louis Theroux answered that he knew U2, especially Edge, for ages. Edge invents a funny story about him and Theroux knowing each other for so long. Bruce thinks it a very funny story of Edge and plays along with the story. He plays that he is a bit offended that Edge has not told him so before, because he and Edge are spies and calls Edge by a code name: 028. Edge calls Bruce M278 and Bruce laughs very loud at the code name Edge gave him. I thought that if Bruce would carry on laughing like that he would fall of his chair, but Bruce’s mother walks into the room to see why they’re making such noise and that was the end of my dream.Yesterday I also dreamt of U2 with Bruce Springsteen. It was actually very short. There’s this photo of Bono with Bruce Springsteen
   

   Bono and Bruce

   and in my dream I was in that room with Bruce and U2 when that picture was taken (I was dreaming in black and white!) I don’t remember anything about what they were talking about, but I remember Larry and Edge smiling a lot :)

4. I’m watching a program about the Tour de France in the drawing room. Suddenly Bono’s being interviewed. I instantly turn up the volume and I see Bono painting his jeans pink! I was shocked to see that he was being interviewed in a program where I had not expected him, but seeing him painting his jeans pink did not at all shock me. I actually thought it a very pretty shade of pink. He talks and continues the painting and then the program shows Bruce Springsteen who is also being interviewed at a little distance. Bruce is talking for a few minutes and the last he says is: “But I have to admit that Bono is a better singer than me.” The program switches back to Bono and I hear “But I have to admit that Bruce Springsteen is a better singer than me.” It was however not Bono who said that, because it was someone else’s voice, but the program makers wanted it to look like Bono said it. It was not very convincing and was actually very funny to hear it.
5. U2 are in a room discussing things and Larry is shirtless! :O He was extremely muscled and good looking! Adam also pulled of his shirt, but he was not nearly as muscled as Larry, in fact it looked quite weird… like he was made out of clay… :S Hmm, weird :P

Now I’ve written down the dreams I still have a few questions about them:
Why on earth was Louis Theroux in my dream?! :S and more importantly
Have I ever seen Bono wearing pink?! Because it looked awesome!!! :D

Wow! Almost 50 U2 dreams! And Bono is once again in the lead :)

Total U2 dreams: 49
Adam: 11
Bono: 15
Edge: 14
Larry: 10
U2 concert: 7
Bono drumming: 2
U2 & Bruce Springsteen: 3

You’ve Got To Dream Out Loud

Dreams Part II
Part I

1. U2 are in a theatre on the stage. They are sitting on simple chairs facing the audience. From left to right: Adam, Edge, Bono and Larry is immediate next to Bono, so it looks like this:
   ……Adam………….Edge………….Bono..Larry……
   Bono is interviewing Adam and it is pretty funny. Then Adam starts whistling birdsongs and it sounds very real. (they were probably real birds from outside, because when I woke up I heard the same birds :P)
   The interview is over and Adam and Bono start a song. Adam is playing Happy Christmas (Baby Please Come Home) on guitar and has a long solo. Edge does not have a guitar so he pretends he has a guitar and plays that one (imitating Adam). Bono is singing and Larry is sitting very quietly next to him. They finish the song and then Bono suddenly takes of a mask! (sort of like the red nose video) Bono wasn’t really Bono, but Larry with a Bono mask on!
   I was shocked as the rest of the audience! Then Adam takes of his mask and reveals that it was actually Edge! Edge had a lot of fun in seeing all those astonished faces from the audience.
   Edge=Adam and Larry=Bono
   So all the time it was actually this:
   ……Edge………….Adam………….Larry..Bono……
   I now think it was genius and I add this interview to one of the reasons why U2 is the best band in the world. When I woke up I realised that Larry had been singing Happy Christmas and that he could sing brilliantly!!! And I saw that it made sense that Adam had that guitar solo, because it was actually Edge with a mask!
2. I see that I have the phone number of Edge in my phone, but I don’t feel like calling him…
3. I am in a zoo and go into a shop there. I am looking around and then I see my dad with a huge War poster (on wood)! And with huge I mean 2,5 meters long… I am very happy and carry that poster around for the rest of the day :)
4. Edge has been kidnapped (well sort of… it was all very weird), but I saw him and we could just walk away and then we are sort of holding a picnic :S
5. I see the Breathe videoclip. Bono is running (like loose electricity?) next to a train. I remember thinking that the video was totally different than I expected.
6. Larry has broken something and Adam is with him at the hospital. The doctor is not in the room and Larry is showing me the x-ray. He told me he broke it because of an “overflow”. Suddenly another Larry is sitting next to Larry… I am confused, but also convinced that they are both really Larry. It did not seem to confuse Adam :P
7. On my last.fm my top 3 looks like this:  1. U2, 2. Passengers, 3. Bruce Springsteen. In my dream however, Bruce Springsteen is number one of the last three months followed by Passengers. I did not see U2 in that list, so I did not believe it was my list.

Overall Score:
Total U2 dreams: 41
Adam: 8
Bono: 11
Edge: 12
Larry: 6
U2 concert: 5
Bono drumming: 2

The last time Bono and Edge were tied, but now Edge is number one! Congratulations!