  U2 in Toronto (Jack Boland/QMI Agency)
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It was a little more than 360 days of waiting but U2 proved the third time was the charmer Monday evening at a sold-out Rogers Centre on their nearly finished 360 Degree world tour.
Originally scheduled for last July but postponed due to Bono's back problems, the Dublin quartet awed the audience almost as much as “The Claw,” the mammoth stage which seemingly had one portion in the 416 area code and another in the 905 region.
Sauntering onstage to David Bowie's Space Oddity, U2 dove into Even Better Than The Real Thing with the leather-clad Bono alongside bassist Adam Clayton before diving back into Achtung Baby with The Fly as the sold-out crowd from the floors to the nosebleeds stood.
“Let me see those hands in the air,” Bono shouted during the groove-soaked Mysterious Ways before meeting up with The Edge on the circular walkway.
Sparingly relying on tracks from 2009's No Line On The Horizon, U2 basically made the 130-minute show a hits package, initially dipping into the last album with Get On Your Boots.
“Thank you for your patience, some of you were two years younger when you bought tickets for tonight's show, feeling much better thank you,” Bono said, adding Mullen was starring in the new film Trainspotting III before saying The Edge had a new idea for a musical: a superhero bitten by a spider and turns into a nerd.
“Where are we? Who are we?” Bono quipped before the first notes put him and the sold-out right at home with I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For. Here the crowd took over the first verse while Sunday Bloody Sunday had the same effect with one massive sing-along.
Dedicating Beautiful Day to Arizona Congresswoman and shooting victim Gabrielle Giffords, U2 shifted into another gear with Elevation as Bono crammed a Canadian flag tossed onstage into his rear pants pocket. “I got Canada shining from my backside.”
From there Pride (In The Name Of Love) had its spine-tingling moments as the lights along the CN tower glowed and rose, looking like an applause meter. The same could be said for City Of Blinding Lights, another highlight with Bono taking a young boy from the audience, walking the circular walkway and harmonizing with him.
If there was one slight lull it might have been the one-two combination of Miss Sarajevo and Zooropa, but even this was striking with the screen expanding and elongating from the claw's floor to ceiling. The dance-meets-disco medley featuring with I'll Go Crazy If I Don't Go Crazy Tonight and Discotheque was also okay but slowly grew on the crowd.
After Walk On, the group returned for more warhorses in One, an epic Where The Streets Have No Name and a memorable With Or Without You.
“Noisy, noisy folks,” Bono said.
With stadium anthems like those, no wonder.
SETLIST
Even Better Than The Real Thing
The Fly
Mysterious Ways
Until The End Of The World
I Will Follow
Get On Your Boots
I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For/The Promised Land (snippet)
Stay (Faraway, So Close)
Beautiful Day/Space Oddity (snippet)
Elevation
Pride (In The Name Of Love)
Miss Sarajevo
Zooropa
City Of Blinding Lights
Vertigo
I'll Go Crazy If I Don't Go Crazy Tonight/Discotheque
Sunday Bloody Sunday
Scarlet
Walk On
One
Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow (snippet)/Where The Streets Have No Name
Hold Me Thrill Me Kiss Me Kill Me
With Or Without You
Moment Of Surrender
