When U2 Comes to Town...

Yup, they finally made it, a year after buying the tickets...
The camera (<1mega pixel) really doesn't do them any justice (surprise, surprise!), but here's some shots of the Friday night concert.

Queuing at the gate to get in.

Descending the steps to the grass "General Admission" area.

Nearly at the bottom of the steps.

Hmm... long way to go to get near the stage!

And that was about as close as I got!

Kanye West comes on stage, with much bass and little else...

Kanye brought his own lights...

His backup singer came out on the stage and filled in time boogieing...

And then the roadies came on and cleared it all away for U2!

Crowd to my right.

Crowd behind me.
(jeepers, my hand holding my camera/phone is higher than the girl on her man's shoulders!)

Crowd to my left

Crowd in front of me.

Oh yeah, I was there! Really!

Spot the crowd surfer

His second attempt after hitting the ground head-first.

The Edge opens to an otherwise pitch black stage

More of The Edge and we get a hint of what the big wall is for.

And then the stage goes nuts!

Visual effects in the middle,
while four cameras follow the band on the "big" screens (top left, top right)

Wazzy visuals on the big wall

My camera/phone really doesn't cope

You'll just have to trust me that it looked really cool!

I probably should have noted down the song order..

Adam headed out into the crowd.

"One Tree Hill" is "our" song,
so U2 took the opportunity to insert some Kiwiana...

Then we discover what the wall is really capable of,
as Bono walks out into the crowd and the wall displays his camera feed

Meet the walking man.
Song dedicated to Bono's dad.

Too much for my camera/phone

Should have taken my real camera,
not that it does much better in the dark...

More big screen imagery

U2's political statements aren't always subtle.

The older tracks often had the band in B&W or Sepia tones

Crowd goes wild!

Bono not only personalised some of the lyrics,
but also the visuals

Guess which song this is.

Um...

I suspect this is "With or Without You"
While Bono is serenading a girl from the crowd.

"The Saints Are Coming" was a huge hit

Shout-outs to Tim (who went back Saturday too!), Rick, Chris, Ben, Pete, Kate, Adele, Mike & Karen who I saw from a distance (only 10m) but didn't manage to see you all afterwards (caught Tim, Rick, Chris and Ben).

U2 are now on to Japan and then the finale in Hawaii.

I missed them last time they came to NZ (early 90's), so I've been waiting a long time for this and it rocked!

Stay tuned for (probably crappy) videos from that night.