Main Set: City of Blinding Lights, Vertigo - Rockaway Beach, Elevation, The Electric Co., The Ocean, Beautiful Day - Sgt. Pepper's, Miracle Drug, Sometimes You Can't Make It On Your Own - Dirty Old Town, Love and Peace or Else, Sunday Bloody Sunday, Bullet the Blue Sky, Miss Sarajevo, Pride, Where the Streets Have No Name, One - Ol' Man River
Encore(s): Discotheque - Relax, The Fly, With or Without You, All Because of You, Fast Cars, Yahweh, 40
Woo! Well, it was a tough task to top Monday and Friday's magical performances. Tonight's show, while fantastic in its own right, didn't quite reach that level, but it was still an awesome show, and a great way to close U2 Insanity Week 2.0. Bono seemed a little distracted tonight, twice losing his place in the set--once, quite noticably, before Yahweh (he had to confirm things with Larry "Ok, where are we now? Oh, Yahweh."), and the other before SYCMIOYO. However, he also seemed to be in a playful mood, joking with the stage crew and striking poses for the audience. It seemed the band wanted to make sure that the last night in Toronto would be the most fun!
There weren't too many changes to the main set compared to Friday night (however, part of the show was being filmed again, so that could be the reason for sticking to the same material). The Ocean appeared again, sounding even more haunting that last night, with the beautiful ringing guitar filling the arena. A snippet of Sgt. Pepper was played at the end of Beautiful Day, which I was simply thrilled about, and it got the crowd rocking. Daniel Lanois once again joined the band for an extended version of One, but Eddie Vedder was also in the house tonight, and he joined U2 + Lanois on stage to sing Ol' Man River. Vedder got a rousing ovation from the crowd, and even seemed a little reluctant to leave the stage! (Then again, if I was on stage with U2, I wouldn't want to leave either *LOL*).
The biggest surprise tonight--other than Vedder's appearance--came at the start of the first encore. The television screens lit up, and all of a sudden, it's Popmart deja vu! Pop Muzik blared over the speakers as Bono strutted around the ellipse, crow-stepping and mocking for the crowd. When he reached the stage again, the band launched into Discotheque, a new extended version of the song, intersparsed with lyrics from Relax, by Frankie Goes to Hollywood. I'm not sure, but this might be the first time anything from Pop has been played on the tour. Anyway, the revisitation of Popmart was a nice surprise, and a lot fun, just another testament to the lighter air of tonight's show.
A humourous moment came during Yahweh, when Edge began playing the song with a guitar that was out of tune. While Edge sorted out his technical difficulties, Bono told the audience that "in the future, they still tune guitars;" an extension of the theme that has been running through the show all week: that of Edge being from the future. It got a good laugh from the crowd.
Highlights for me tonight, among other things, included Discotheque (didn't expect to hear it; was quite thrilled, especially with the Pop Muzik bit!), Sunday Bloody Sunday (which has only gotten better with each show here; tonight's rendition shook the house), Streets (out of all 4 Toronto shows, this was definitely the best version), Fast Cars again (both Edge and Bono were Spanish dancing tonight), and 40 (I left the ACC with a great group of people who sang "how long to sing this song" all the way to Union Station).
I hate to throw something negative in here, but one thing that somewhat marred part of the show was the behaviour of a group of people 2 rows in front of me. During Miss Sarajevo, some sort of argument broke out, seemingly in regards to a party of 3 or 4 who were constantly leaving to get beer and coming back, climbing over others in the process. This was quite distracting and eventually involved the usher to break it up. While I couldn't hear much of what was said, the point was pretty clear: if you're going to come to a concert to spend half the night at the beer stand, you're probably better off going to a pub. Give your tickets to someone who gives a damn.
But enough of that.
After Yahweh wrapped up, Bono thanked the crowd profoundly for a wonderful week in Toronto. In that regard, I'd like to thank U2 for a wondeful week. It has been simply unbelievable--from me at first not even being sure I could make the shows, to Monday and Friday's magical performances, to actually shaking Edge and Bono's hands Friday afternoon. I'm on a great high, but a little sad now that it's all over... I wanna go again!... um, Buffalo, anyone?