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!

U2010 :D

Wow! :O

Today U2 have confirmed that their 360° Tour will continue in 2010! :D

It came as a total surprise to me when they announced that today!! It was long before I expected it!!! It would be great if they could do the same with the new album: Release it before the fans are waiting for months for it to come out! :D

There are no concerts for The Netherlands mentioned, but that could come… It says: “Additional dates and cities to be confirmed.” And why would they skip The Netherlands? The two concerts in Amsterdam were absolutely MAGNIFICENT!!!!!

And if they’re not coming to The Netherlands than I’ll go to another concert in Brussels or Paris or perhaps one in Germany :)

Date	Venue	City	Country	PRESALE	PUBLIC ON-SALE
10 August, 2010	Commerzbank Arena	Frankfurt	DE	TBA	TBA
12 August, 2010	AWD Stadium	Hannover	DE	TBA	TBA
15 August, 2010	Casa Arena	Horsens	DK	Sept. 29 – Oct. 01	Oct. 3
20 August, 2010	Olympic Stadium	Helsinki	FI	Sept. 29 – Oct. 01	Oct. 5
25 August, 2010	Luzhniki	Moscow	RU	TBA	TBA
30 August, 2010	Ernst Happel Stadium	Vienna	AT	Sept. 29 -  Oct. 01	Oct. 3
3 September, 2010	Olympic Stadium	Athens	GR	TBA	TBA
6 September, 2010	Ataturk Olympic Stadium	Istanbul	TR	TBA	TBA
15 September, 2010	Olympic Stadium	Munich	DE	TBA	TBA
18 September, 2010	Stade De France	Paris	FR	TBA	TBA
29 September, 2010	Olympic Stadium	Seville	ES	TBA	TBA
2 October, 2010	Stadium	Coimbra	PT	TBA	TBA

CONCERT REVIEW!!!!

(actually it are more just thoughts… and I have so many thoughts about these 2 concerts that I doubt it will be readable :P )

I have been to both the U2 concerts in Amsterdam! :D

I had seat tickets for both shows: (remember this picture? It feels like I made it years ago! :P)

At both the nights I sat in the middle and almost at the back (on tuesday I sat on row 26 of 27), so it is a good thing that I’m not afraid of heights :P

I went alone monday (yeah, all alone in a stadium with 60.000 others there XD)

MONDAY 20 JULY

On monday 20 July U2 give their first show in Amsterdam. I’ve never been to a U2 concert before so I did not really know what to expect… It was in fact my first concert at all! I’ve never even been in a stadium before :P

I was very very excited and could not wait to get there, so I arrived way too early :P Ah well, more time to admire the beautiful Claw :P

The Claw is HUGE! This is what the stadium looked like around 19:00 on monday:

This is what the stadium looked like at 19:00 on monday

The traffic was stuck, so it took a long time before everyone was in their seats…

At 20:00 Snow Patrol started and they were really great! I’m very happy that they were the support act. I am going to listen more to Snow Patrol, but it hasn’t converted me into a fan… they’re just a nice band :)

They played all their famous songs, but I did miss Take Back The City…

And then, at 21:30 Space Oddity played… That song is absolutely the best opening track imaginable for this tour! I absolutely love it! (I already did, but now even more :P) And then Kingdom! :O :D Can’t wait until the next album comes out! :P

Setlist 20 July (from U2gigs.com):

1. Breathe
2. No Line On The Horizon
3. Get On Your Boots
4. Magnificent
5. Beautiful Day / Blackbird (snippet)
6. Mysterious Ways
7. I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For / Movin’ On Up (snippet)
8. Angel Of Harlem / Don’t Stop ‘Til You Get Enough (snippet)
9. In A Little While
10. Unknown Caller
11. The Unforgettable Fire
12. City Of Blinding Lights
13. Vertigo
14. Let’s Dance (snippet) / I’ll Go Crazy If I Don’t Go Crazy Tonight
15. Sunday Bloody Sunday
16. Pride (In The Name Of Love)
17. MLK
18. Walk On / You’ll Never Walk Alone (snippet)
19. Where The Streets Have No Name / All You Need Is Love (snippet)
20. One

encore(s):

21. Ultra Violet (Light My Way)
22. With Or Without You
23. Moment of Surrender / 40 (snippet)

Larry is the first to walk onto the stage and starts Breathe. Breathe does not give the same feeling as Elevation or Zoo Station, but I do think it is the best song of the album to open with. It was very impressive! And I know it was very very predictable, but I loved it when Bono opened with “20 July, nine-oh-five”! It immediately made the smile that I already had into a much bigger one ;P

Bono also said something in Dutch: “Fijn dat jullie er zijn!” It’s always good to hear Bono say something in Dutch! :)

No Line On The Horizon is surprisingly good live! And so is Get On Your Boots! I have to say that I did not like the Get On Your Boots performances from the Brit Awards and the David Letterman show. I knew that Bono really looked forward to playing it live so I hoped that it would turn out ok… And it really did!

Actually every song of the whole concert was great, so I think I’ll stop naming every song :P The beginning of Beautiful Day was BEAUTIFUL!!! I can’t wait for this show and the next to turn up on U2start.com! Before the first notes of Beautiful Day started I could have guessed they were going to play it… not because I knew the other setlists out of my head, but because of the fact that the Claw was now green and blue and what do they sing in Beautiful Day? Yep, “See the world in green and blue” Haha Bono sang: “See the world in green and blue/ Larry Mullen right beside you” :P I almost forgot! Bono did a very funny sort of robot move with his arm at the end of the song! XD

And then, my favourite of the evening! They played THE song I wanted to hear!!!! :D Mysterious Ways! It was so beautiful… *going into dreamy mode* :) Edge did not do his funky dance, but I could imagine it, so it made me smile ;P

I don’t know Movin’ On Up, so I wondered what he was singing, but it sounded great, just because Bono was singing it :) Oh and In A Little While was so great!!! I might have said before that I became a U2 fan thanks to the Elevation Tour dvd and In A Little While is one of my favourites from that show (together with Bullet The Blue Sky). I thought that this In A Little While was just as lovely :)

Edge’s solo on Unknown Caller was also one of the highlights of this show for me. Unknown Caller together with Mysterious Ways made me reconciled to not hearing Love Is Blindness.

Unknown Caller

The Unforgettable Fire was simply lovely and the Claw was so pretty with City Of Blinding Lights! :) City Of Blinding Lights is actually not really one of my most listened U2 songs, but oh it was so pretty! :P

The Unforgettable Fire

City Of Blinding Lights

The I’ll Go Crazy remix was so much more fun than I expected!!! I really really liked it No, I LOVED IT! Those heads were just too funny! Hahaha how could you not have fun when you see Adam, Bono, Edge and Larry like that! XD It was really hypnotising! And the bass and the djembe were also delicious!!! This was the moment when the most people went to buy drinks (ignorant people!) and hurried to get back when they heard Sunday Bloody Sunday…

LARRY! during I'll Go Crazy If I Don't Go Crazy Tonight

MLK was very beautiful… and Walk On too, but it made me think of the Elevation Tour where it was the last song, so I started fearing the concert was coming to an end… The You’ll Never Walk Alone snippet was also great! I’ve wanted to hear that sung by a full stadium for some time, but never thought I actually would! Thanks Bono! :)

One

What happened next came as a total surprise to me… I had read that Bono was wearing a suit of lights during the encore (very beautiful!), but I did not know there was a microphone coming down from above which Bono used to s(w)ing :P  I was very confused at first (Hahaha that was the right way to Confuse-An-Anna) but I still enjoyed it :) Do you know what it made me think of? Drowning Man! “HOLD ON! Hold on tightly! Hold on…”

I think That Moment Of Surrender is a great song to end the concert with. It’s long and beautiful… It made me go away very peacefully :)

Lovely, lovely, lovely!

When I was lying in my bed what songs do you think were stuck in my head?

Space Oddity and some Snow Patrol songs! XD

TUESDAY 21 JULY

I went home very happy on monday and very glad that I had tickets for the next day!

This day I went with my mother. We had better tickets, because we were now much closer to the Claw. We were seated exactly in the middle of the stadium (I was surprised to find out how well you could follow the soccer if there would have been a soccer game!), but when we arrived at the seats I instantly feared we could not see Larry! One of the legs of the Claw was in the way so that we could not see the middle of the stage! Snow Patrol started with Take Back The City (the song I wanted to hear!) and played again very good! I could just see the drummer, but I wasn’t comforted by that, because he wasn’t in the middle of the stage, like Larry probably would…

This is Snow Patrol, you can see the drummer on the left of that leg...

Setlist 21 July:

1. Breathe
2. No Line On The Horizon
3. Get On Your Boots
4. Magnificent
5. Beautiful Day
6. Elevation
7. Desire / Billie Jean (snippet) / Don’t Stop ‘Til You Get Enough (snippet)
8. Stuck In A Moment You Can’t Get Out Of
9. One
10. Until The End Of The World / Break On Through (snippet)
11. City Of Blinding Lights
12. Vertigo
13. O Come All Ye Faithful (snippet) / I’ll Go Crazy If I Don’t Go Crazy Tonight
14. Sunday Bloody Sunday / Rock The Casbah (snippet)
15. Pride (In The Name Of Love)
16. MLK
17. Walk On / You’ll Never Walk Alone (snippet)
18. Where The Streets Have No Name
19. 40 (snippet) / Bad / Fool To Cry (snippet)

encore(s):

20. Ultra Violet (Light My Way)
21. With Or Without You
22. Moment of Surrender / Drowning Man (snippet)

Larry walked on stage, and… disappeared behind the leg! :(

No Larry...

I was disappointed for a little while, but when I could see Bono, Edge and Adam so much better than the day before I got over it… Beautiful Day was  very beautiful just like the day before, but Elevation really blew me and everyone there away! IT WAS INCREDIBLE!!! For me THE highlight of the two shows! And then it was followed by an acoustic Desire! Oh, it was so lovely! sigh :) I did now hope that they would play Staring At The Sun next, but Stuck In A Moment followed and was just as lovely as Desire! Edge sung his bit so great!!! Oh, I love his voice! And then they played One!!!! I can’t remember the last time that I have been that much surprised! Did you know that with the exclusion of the 16 May 2001 show, this is the earliest One has appeared in the setlist since 1993? No I didn’t either :P And Bono added the “Hear us come in love” verse!!! (or is it “Hear us coming Lord?” I’m not sure…) I loved that from the PopMart and ZooTV dvd and now he also sang it here!! :D

And then Until The End Of The World! It was just as brilliant as the one from the Elevation Tour Live From Boston!

City Of Blinding Lights 2

The setlist now returned to the songs they’ve played the day before. The songs were again brilliant and I’ll Go Crazy was again very funny :P

Wow… and then they played Bad! :) It’s getting a bit boring, but I have to use the same words again! It was beautiful, brilliant and lovely!!!

On monday they had a milkyway during One and tonight that happened during Moment Of Surrender:

The Milkyway

At first I did not know what concert I thought better, but now I do! Monday was brilliant, but Tuesday was simply incredibly crazy!!! :D I’m very very happy that they decided to have a big setlist change on the second night!!!! :D

I’ve heard a lot about the bad sound of the Amsterdam Arena, but U2 really fixed that! It was really good! :)

I can’t think of a negative thing to say… well, I couldn’t see Larry, but that did not spoil the concert…

I loved every single minute if not second of both shows! U2 is truly the best band in the world!

Orange!

A couple of days ago U2 changed their logo for the tour.

The new and old logo for the U2 360º tour

Hmmm, I do not like them really much…

And I’m not even sure I like the new one better… It looks like a car logo to me and I can’t stop thinking that the thing in the middle is a moustache… :{D
A good thing of the new logo is that it has not lost all it’s orange :P

Being Dutch, I love the colour orange :P

:D

I’ve got tickets!!!!

:D
To both 20 and 21 July!
It was nerveracking to buy tickets and I shall not be surprised if I get a nightmare in which I have to buy tickets al over again… although I hope I shall dream of actually going to the concert ;)
Everyone who has to buy tickets for another show, I wish you the best of luck, because you shall need some :P

So now you’re probably very curious as to what kind of tickets I have :P I have made a special drawing to illustrate it (yes I know, I’m green!):

Amsterdam I’m coming! :D