U2 rolled into town yesterday to play a few shows at Giants Stadium. Lots o' Facebook posts about people enjoying the show. They're a great band, no doubt, but I really can't bring myself to going to a concert with 80,000 people (unless I'm in the front). For this tour, U2 is schlepping a $100 million erector set stage that looks cool but I don't understand what it adds to their music. Spectacle for spectacle sake I guess....when you sell as many tickets as they do you can do what you want. I've seen U2 a few times - Madison Square Garden for the Achtung Baby tour, Brendan Byrne Arena (now Izod, after being Continental for a while) for the Zooropa tour. But far and away the best show I saw them perform (and one of my top 10 concerts ever) was when I saw them for the "War" tour in 1983. Amazing show, they were just breaking in the US. They played Ritchie Coliseum (University of Maryland) which was directly behind the frat house I lived in. I think the place held about 1500, with no seats, just concrete "bleachers" and an open floor. I remember Bono running right by me waving a flag, and the energy they brought was amazing. I saw some great shows at that venue while at school, but none better than the U2 show, after that show it was obvious they were going to be huge. Here's the setlist from that night:
4/25/83 Ritchie Coliseum, University of Maryland
- Gloria
- I Threw A Brick Through A Window
- A Day Without Me
- Seconds
- Surrender
- Sunday Bloody Sunday
- The Cry
- The Electric Co. / Send In The Clowns (snippet)
- I Fall Down
- October
- Tomorrow
- Two Hearts Beat As One / Let's Twist Again (snippet)
- Twilight
- Out Of Control
encore(s): - 11 O'Clock Tick Tock
- I Will Follow
- New Year's Day
- 40
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