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!

(Fan) Review: No Line On The Horizon

Well sort of..

And I have to warn you, this is a fan speaking, so it shall be utterly positive :P
I wanted to write a normal album review, but I think I have read too many of them already… So this ‘review’ shall be a little bit different… :)

I have not consciously waited for a U2 album before, so I had no idea it would be so though… I read several mailing lists and because of that, I had read a lot of album reviews from lucky journalists who got a chance to hear the album weeks before I could! (maybe it’s better that I was not one of them, because I know it would be very hard for me to be content with only one listen to the album :P) I can now tell you from experience that it can be really annoying to read that No Line On The Horizon is being compared to Achtung Baby and The Joshua Tree, given 5 stars and read that Brian Eno thinks that Breathe is their best song ever, when you’re waiting for the album.

I heard the album much earlier than I thought I would be…  I heard the album at the day of the leak (how could anyone expect me to wait two more weeks?) and when I had it in iTunes and clicked on play, I really did not know how to sit anymore…  I had no idea that I could sit in so many crazy ways. When I could bear it no longer I grabbed my pillow and gave it a big hug XD Yes it’s really good that I was not one of those journalists, because me hearing a U2 album for the first time looks really really silly!!!
So, I survived the first listen and continued the next. I managed to loosen the hold of my pillow and my brain started working again.
I really really liked Unknown Caller after only one listen!  It was the only song I had an opinion of after the first listen. I knew not what to think of the rest…

My NLOTH listening history:
Beach Clips
30 second preview of Get On Your Boots
Get On Your Boots
30 second previews of the whole album
No Line On The Horizon version 2
Leak! :O
Box edition arrives!!! :D –> Winter!!!

Songs:
1. No Line On The Horizon
2. Magnificent
3. Moment Of Surrender
4. Unknown Caller
5. I’ll Go Crazy If I Don’t Go Crazy Tonight
6. Get On Your Boots
7. Stand Up Comedy
8. Fez-Being Born
9. White As Snow
10. Breathe
11. Cedars Of Lebanon

No Line On The Horizon
I heard the No Line On The Horizon 2 version first (a week earlier?) and I already loved that song. But when I heard the album, I was really blown away! The beginning is brilliant!!! I don’t know if I have said so in an earlier post, but I always wake up with the cd that’s in my stereo. So I wake up every morning with a U2 cd. The first song on the album is therefore the song I usually wake up with (I can program my stereo to start with another song, but I usually think that’s too much trouble :P). My favourite song to wake up with is Zooropa. When I listen to the song it just brings up an image of waking up in a big city, so I can imagine myself waking up in New York or Berlin. If someone would ask: “How does a city that wakes up sound?” The answer is Zooropa (remember! :P). Other favourite wake up songs are I Will Follow and Zoo Station. I used Vertigo for a long time, but it’s not as pleasant as Zooropa. Oh no, I’m rattling away :P What I wanted to say is that No Line On The Horizon is a brilliant song to wake up with! It is actually the best song of the album to wake up with! I tried Unknown Caller one morning, but it did not have a great effect :P I was still half sleeping and did not even notice that it changed to I’ll Go Crazy If I Don’t Go Crazy Tonight, while I’m almost immediately awake when I hear No Line On The Horizon…

Magnificent
A brilliant song! Already classic. More words needed? Nah… …  Maybe just one more: Magnificent!

Moment Of Surrender
I did not know what to expect after such positive reviews, but I absolutely love it! When Bono sings “I tied myself with wire!” I just melt on the spot… I hope that they shall play this on the tour :) hint hint :P

Unknown Caller
No matter what Edge and Bono said in the Absolute Radio interview, I did hear the OhooohhOOhhOOoohOho (if you have better spelling suggestions, please post them in the comments) from Unknown Caller in the beach clips… And that ohhohhoh has been stuck in my head months(!) before the album got released.

Fact:
It’s annoying to have a bit of song stuck in your head and don’t know how the song continues and have to wait months before you’ll know.

Anyway, I loved that bit and hoped that it would make it to the album. I hoped that the ohhohhoh would be from Sexy Boots, because that was most likely going to be the single. But alas, it was not from Get On Your Boots, so I had to wait for the album after all…
And I loved Unknown Caller after the first listen. It’s still among my favourites of the album. Sunshine! Sunshine!!! Edge I love your voice :)

I’ll Go Crazy If I Don’t Go Crazy Tonight
Hmm, it has a silly long title… I like it already!!! :P
I would not say that it’s too long, Question! What U2 song has the longest title (in letters)?
Haha no I’m not giving you a multiple choice on this one… :P

This song starts really good with the crazy “crazy tonight” from Bono. It is also brilliant after Unknown Caller.

And after listening to it for the first time it has succeeded to end up stuck in my head with the lines:
“Every beauty needs to go out with an idiot
How can you stand next to the truth and not see it?”

Really stuck in my head. I could not (well ok, let’s be fair: barely) sleep the night after I first heard the album. I was turning and twisting (I even tried to turn 180 degrees (to no succes)), but I just could not sleep…

Tell him what a dreadful state I am in, — that I am frightened out of my wits; and have such tremblings, such flutterings, all over me, such spasms in my side, and pains in my head, and such beatings at heart, that I can get no rest by night nor by day.
Pride and Prejudice

Ok, it was not as bad as that from Mrs. Bennet, but pretty bad enough I grant you. (Hahaha, you probably didn’t get it, but that was very funny for a Jane Austen fan like me :P)
So you could say that I had a lot of time to think about the album, but unfortunately my thoughts went more in the direction of “What is the meaning of life?” Haha no kidding! That would be too easy a question. It is a well known fact that the answer to life, the universe and everything 42 is. In fact I do not think I had any useful thoughts that night, only things like “I’m tired” or “I’m very *yawn* tired”. And all the while bits of the new song ring through my head (my only comfort). Hmm, I now realise that I have written this ((not very) interesting) bit of not having had much sleep under the song I’ll Go Crazy If I Don’t Go Crazy Tonight… Oh no! In a certain sense I went crazy that night, because I could not sleep… So what would have happened if I had not gone crazy? Yes I would have gone crazy! In my dreams, because I would not have done something crazy before that and therefore I would have been asleep and dreaming! So I would have gone crazy in my dreams! Oh, I’m very sorry to have missed that! Very very sorry if this would have been my crazy dream:

U2 knock on my door and ask if I’ve got a television. I’m very shocked and surprised that U2 should knock on my door, so I stare at them for a few moments. Then I say: “Yeah, I’ve got a television… Do you want to see it?” Larry: “No, well actually we want to use it. You see, Edge said in the Letterman show that he sucks at guitar hero, well that was a joke, but we sort of made a bet that we can all be better than Edge at guitar hero.” This is the last thing that I expected, but I say: “Well, you’re more than welcome to test that here!” So they come into the house, install the wii thing and the guitar. Edge has to go first and is a bit nervous, because he has never played guitar hero before and really wants to beat the rest at it. Edge picks a Jimi Hendrix song. Bono and Adam are making a lot of jokes “If you play Jimi Hendrix you’ll have to demolish your guitar at the end of the song!” Edge tries not to laugh at these jokes. He made a few mistakes, but he has a very high score (86%). It’s Adams turn and he is really really good at it. He’s about halfway through and has not yet made any mistake, but then Edge stands up and whispers something in his ear and they just can’t stop laughing. Bono and me are very curious after that joke, but they can’t speak any sense for minutes, so it’s Bono turn. Bono is playing really well, but he’s also very distracted by Edge and Adam rolling over the floor, so Bono scores 78%. Now Larry says to me that it’s my turn, so I play a song and score 95%!  Larry is not very much impressed by my score and is ready to beat it. Bono and me are now watching Larry play the song flawless and Bono says to me: “we have to distract him, but with what?” Edge and Adam are obviously not distracting him so we’re both thinking of a better joke. Then right before the end I say: “Wenn ist das numstuck git und Slotmeyer? Ja… Beiherhund oder die Flipperwalt gersput” Larry survives The Killer Joke, but he does make some mistakes at guitar hero, so in the end he has a score of 92% I realise I have won and I am cheering. Larry congratulates me and makes a bow and Bono says to me “Thank you so much! It’s almost impossible to bear a Larry who has won a game.” Adam and Edge have stopped laughing and everyone is leaving. I’m at the door waving at them and then Edge walks back and whispers into my ear: “Beachball…”

Hahahahaha Oh no, :’D I think it’s better that I did not have that dream… I think I would have woken up the whole street with my laughter XD

I know I know, my theory is not really correct, because it would imply that everytime that you CAN sleep, you have crazy dreams… And although dreams are often crazy, there is always a (small) chance that you have non-crazy dreams, so I’m sorry, but the theory above is a waste of time :P

Get On Your Boots
GOYB
Gravy On Your Broccoli?
No thank you.
I already made a post about this earlier in my blog :P
link

Stand Up Comedy
What to expect with such a title?
“Stand up to rock stars, Napoleon is in high heels
Josephine, be careful of small men with big ideas”
??? Who on earth could he mean? ;D
Sorry Edge I know you’ve heard it more than any fan ever could, but it’s not my favourite song of the album… But I think that in time we shall grow more alike I shall like it more. (Hurrah! I think I’ve just made the first U2 review with 3 Jane Austen references in it… )

Fez-Being Born
I was very very curious about this song, after I listened to the 30 seconds previews.  It sounded of all the previews the most new. When I did hear it, it was not as I expected, but very good! very good… yes… <— (a Lady Catherine de Bourgh imitation)

White As Snow
My least favourite song at first. I did not like the title very much, but I love it now so very dearly… (Hah! that makes 5!)

Breathe
At first this was not my favourite song of the album, I did not see why U2 fans called this their favourite song, but I do like it now :P
The image of Bono walking with his arms out on the streets or running down the road like loose electricity is very appealing ;)
I’m very curious what the clip for this song is going to be like. Bono, if you’re reading this, I would like to see you running down the road like loose electricity :) please? I am willing to play as one of the extra’s on that street :P

Cedars Of Lebanon
A very nice slow song to end the album with. I did not like the album cover very much, but I must say that it has grown on me after hearing the album. Yep, it’s a good cover.

I just noticed: This song has in my opinion the nicest last word of a song on a U2 album: “friends”
And if you’re now wandering what the other last words are here they are (quiz! connect the words with the right album =P):

1) all                                                                      a) boy
2) blindness                                                       b) october
3) break                                                               c) war
4) everything                                                    d) the unforgettable fire
5) friends                                                             e) the joshua tree
6) he                                                                       f) rattle and hum
7) man                                                                 g) achtung baby
8) rainfall                                                            h) zooropa
9) song                                                                  i) pop
10) tall                                                                  j) all that you can’t leave behind
11) wandering                                                   k) how to dismantle an atomic bomb
12) you                                                                 l) no line on the horizon

Bonus question: What is the last word from Original Soundtracks 1?

Download:
No don’t download, buy the box edition! It’s worth it!

Rating:
42!
the answer to everything…

I have had A LOT of fun writing this and I want to thank you for reading this! You shall have to wait a few months before you can read another lengthy review from me, because over exactly 3 days and 4 months I’m going to a U2 concert!!!

2450 words! We’ve got a new record!

Getting On Your Boots

This could be a very short entry, because my personal experience with Getting On Boots is very small: I haven’t had boots (just shoes) for a long long time… Now that we’re (or just me) are (am) talking about Boots, it puts me in mind of a song called Get On Your Boots by the famous Irish band U2. Luck would have it that I’m an enormous fan of them so I could tell you a lot about it and their song…

I dreamt about it! Twice! In the first dream (13 January) I heard it in my dream and when I woke up a tried to put it into words and I described it as: Quick! Very U2ish and similar to Vertigo. I remember that I really liked it. But in the second dream I heard it again (about 2 days later) and I didn’t like it any more, so I did not know what to expect after all…

Now the title, I think it is similar to I Threw A Brick Through A Window. Both are things that you can do, and yet they are not so very clear, because I Threw A Brick Through A Window is not about throwing a brick through a window, but seeing your reflection in a window and wanting to smash it. This is what Edge said about Get On Your Boots (in Hot Press)

“It’s based around the idea that men have fucked things up so badly, politically, economically and socially that it’s really time we handed things over to women. We had our doubts when we saw a rough cut – but the finished video is brilliant. He’s [director Alex Courtes] really nailed it.”

“Women of the future
Hold the big revelations”

I’ve read comments on how people (U2 fans) don’t like the lyrics, but I think they’re great. Look at this:
“I got a submarine
You got gasoline”
If men have the submarines they wouldn’t get very far if they don’t have gasoline. Luckily for them the women have it (would be very unlucky if no one had it…) and so they have to work together to get the submarine working. So the submarine could also stand for the Earth (weirdest metaphor for the Earth I’ve ever heard, but hey! this is U2, they can do anything). So what have we learned from this?
Earth = a Submarine! :D
Ok, and that we, not only men and women (aliens are not excluded), but everyone has to work together to get our planet functioning properly :) And this are only 7 words from the whole song… XD

I now realise that I have not yet mentioned that I really like this song (you could have guessed)… It is very catchy and although it is different from the classic U2 (ATYCLB) it is still very U2ish. When I first heard it, it put me in mind of Vertigo and Xanax And Wine (not bad :P)

Maybe I’ll post ((my thoughts on) the video) in three days…

And last but not least, in case you have momentarily forgotten it and need a reminder… Only 1 month more to go!!! (Well if you live here, it could also be 3 or 4 days later (poor you))