SAN DIEGO -- "Oh, you look so beautiful tonight!" sang U2 frontman Bono as the Irish rockers kicked off their much-anticipated Vertigo world tour on Monday night in San Diego.
Backed by astonishing visuals that complemented their larger-than-life music without overwhelming it, the band itself looked pretty smashing, too.
The evening's opening song, City Of Blinding Lights, from their How To Dismantle An Atomic Bomb, was an inspired choice to kick-start the hour-and-55-minute show, which reached dizzying visual heights but managed some more subdued, emotionally charged moments.
Interestingly, the most spiritually uplifting song came via audience participation, as the band dredged up the gorgeous "40" -- from 1983's War -- as their closing song of the night.
One by one, group members left the stage, leaving drummer Larry Mullen Jr. to provide a beat until the crowd eventually sang the chorus -- "How long to sing this song," -- a capella for another five minutes, hoping for their return.
It felt like Easter Monday all right.
The concert was far from musically perfect -- they messed up Elevation -- but as the ever-charming Bono said: "We can screw up a little bit, right? We're amongst friends!"
About 17,600 friends made up the sold-out audience at the San Diego Sports Arena, recently renamed iPay One Centre.
The band, rounded out by guitarist The Edge and bassist Adam Clayton, first appeared admist a sea of glittering confetti, a moment normally reserved for the end of a show.
But if U2's Vertigo stage initially recalled that of their Elevation 2001/2002 tour -- the heart-shaped catwalk has been replaced by a larger, oval one -- there was a mighty impressive addition in the form of large light panels that dropped down from an enormous lighting and sound rig above the band.
Resembling beaded curtains, the light panels changed colours or had striking images or words projected onto them.
"We've taken the best bits of the last tour and added stuff that no one has ever imagined before," said Bono.
The singer, a naturally gifted performer, made good use of the panels, gingerly walking through one while introducing Sometimes You Can't Make It On Your Own, saying, "This is for my father Bob; he would have loved to have been in show business."
It was a clever bit of performance art that quickly turned into an emotional high point as Bono removed his trademark tinted glasses, wiped the sweat from his brow and sang from the heart.
Ever the hambone, Bono also made good use of that longer catwalk, crawling on all fours and even turning over and lying down with his hands behind his head at one point, much to the delight of photographers.
"Spanish lessons in San Diego? -- I don't think so," said the singer, launching into the night's second song, Vertigo: "Uno, dos, tres, catorce!"
The moment was memorable but U2 didn't stay stuck in the present for very long, immediately following two new songs with material from their 1980 debut, Boy. It included the beautiful instrumental Into The Heart, while Bono threw water at the crowd or roared like a lion.
Bono's antics aside, some of the best songs were the most unadorned: Crisp, clean versions of Beautiful Day, New Year's Day, Miracle Drug, Pride (In The Name Of Love), which all provided particularly great guitar moments from The Edge, and such crowd singalongs as Sunday Bloody Sunday (even if Bono sounded out of breath.)
Mullen played a stand-up set of drums at the front of the catwalk during the new song, Love And Peace Or Else, which Bono, now wearing a white headband, would eventually take over.
He later pulled the headband over his eyes, and dropped to his knees with his hands raised to simulate a prisoner of war during Sunday Bloody Sunday. They also touched on his well-known battle to fight the spread of AIDS and poverty in Africa with Where The Streets Have No Name and One.
The singer talked about having to postpone the tour -- it was originally going to start March 1 in Miami -- after someone in a band member's family became seriously ill. (Clayton explained the delay in an interview with the San Diego Union-Tribune.)
"It's a great, great, great, great, great night for us," said Bono. "Putting on a tour that we didn't think we would. It's a miracle!"
What it is is a damn fine rock show that's only bound to get better by the time it reaches Toronto for four sold-out shows at the Air Canada Centre in September.
Setlist:
City Of Blinding Lights
Vertigo (w/Stories For Boys)
Cry/The Electric Co.
An Cat Dubh/Into The Heart
Beautiful Day
New Year's Day
Miracle Drug
Sometimes You Can't Make It On Your Own
Love And Peace Or Else
Sunday Bloody Sunday
Bullet The Blue Sky (w/Hands That Built America)
Running To Stand Still
Zoo Station
The Fly
Elevation
Encore:
Pride (In the Name of Love)
Where The Streets Have No Name
One
All Because Of You
Yahweh (acoustic)
40
