Review – U2 360 Tour – Toronto – Night One – Sept. 16, 2009

I have been following the 360 Degree Tour all through Europe both via YouTube and audience bootlegs, so I knew going in that the show was going to be good. But what I experienced was more than just a concert – it was a musical joyride.

You combine the monster stage – referred to by Bono as “the spaceship” – combine it with crisp clean sound – and throw in over 60,000 people in the Rogers Centre with the roof open and you get a journey that leaves you physically and emotionally spent, but still wanting more when it was all said and done.

Sure the show was laden with more songs from their current release No Line On The Horizon than I would have liked, but they mixed them up with enough of the U2 classics that earned them their place on the musical mantel for me to overlook the lopsided play list. The audience reaction to the classics like Sunday Bloody Sunday, The Unforgettable Fire, With or Without You and I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For was far more thunderous than for the newer tunes.

Luckily, the majority of the crowd liked to sing along as much as I did, so those around me were not just subjected to my singing/screaming. And during the band’s one verse/chorus of Stand By Me, Bono could simply stand back, take out his ear plugs and enjoy the sound of 60,000 fans singing loud and proud… while at the same time the CN Tower was illuminated way overhead with multi-coloured LEDs.

The guys were incredibly tight and polished… with The Edge commanding the attention of everyone’s ears with his off the hook guitar work at many time throughout the night. They all ventured off the centre stage at different times… walking across the two movable bridges and then around the outer circle of the spaceship’s launch pad. Even drummer Larry Mullen Jr. went for a stroll with a single bongo drum during I’ll Go Crazy If I Don’t Go Crazy Tonight.

Clearly we were all connected… if not One… for the entire evening. They said they designed the stage to be able to play big venues like the RC and still have the illusion of an intimate gig for those in the crowd jammed on the field right up to those looking down from the 500 level. Bono described it as ‘trickery’.

I call it a damn good show.

Set List

Breathe
No Line on the Horizon
Get on Your Boots
Magnificent
Beautiful Day
Still Haven’t Found
Elevation
Your Blue Room
Unknown Caller
Until the End of the World
Stay
Unforgettable Fire
City of Blinding Lights
Vertigo
I’ll Go Crazy If I don’t Go Crazy Tonight Remix
Sunday Bloody Sunday
MLK
Walk On
One
Amazing Grace
Streets
Ultraviolet
With or Without You
Moment of Surrender