This is not a rebel song.... It has been a number of years since I last saw U2 play live and me, Bono, The Edge, Larry and Adam have all aged some. In fact Bono is 45 today, and it is an astonishing 25 years since the release of Boy.

Last night lacked something from my youthful memories of Hammersmith Palais, Wembley and a wet Milton Keynes Bowl even if the album How To Dismantle An Atomic Bomb is very retro. One thing for sure though is they still know how to put on a show.

The play-list was a mix of the nostalgia and the new which went against Bono's comments during the show that they "were only about the future."

Of course we had the normal Bono party political broadcasts. He wore a blindfold adorned with religious symbols during Bullet the Blue Sky, shouted that "Jesus, Jew, Mohammed are one," told 30,000 fans to text their support to the Unite Against Poverty organization - "we need a million Americans to register their support" - and scrolled the words to the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights on the huge TV screens. Very Bono-esque of course and we wouldn't have had it any other way!

We were told before the show started that the night was being filmed for a future DVD, this clearly accounted for the mass of camera's and according to some reviews this did bring out the best of the band not seen so far on the American part of this tour.

Old classics like An Cat Dubh and Electric Co were mixed in with Vertigo and City of Blinding Lights early in the show. We also had crowd pleasers such as Beautiful Day and New Year's Day and the impressive backdrop was even more so during excellent renditions of Pride (In The Name Of Love), Where The Streets Have No Name and One.

Cue the first break which lasted only a matter of minutes and a costume change for Bono who reappeared for Zoo Station goose-stepping around the huge oval catwalk in a mock fascist uniform!

The final encore which was preceeded by continuos clapping and cheering began with All Because Of You and ended, as it should, with the spine tingling 40. However, my moment of the whole night was when a girl was pulled out of the audience and given a guitar and was asked for a request. She chose one of my all time favourite U2 numbers, Party Girl. It took me back and showed my age but I didn't care.

All in all they were on stage for 2.5 hours, the crowd spanned the generations and the demographic (me being polite!) but were generally up for it. My only disappointment was the crappy Kings of Leon support band. Even more disappointing knowing that Snow Patrol, The Killers and Franz Ferdinand, all of whom I love, are sharing the responsibility on the European leg of the tour.

This was last night's play list (the 2nd of six they will play in Chicago). If you don't want to see it, look away now!


1) City Of Blinding Lights
2) Vertigo / Stories For Boys snippet
3) Elevation
4) The Cry /Electric Co
5) An Cat Dubh
6) Into The Heart
7) Beautiful Day
8) New Year's Day
9) Miracle Drug
10) Sometimes You Can't Make It On Your Own
11) Love And Peace Or Else
12) Sunday Bloody Sunday
13) Bullet The Blue Sky / When Johnny Marching Home / The Hands That Built America
14) Running To Stand Still
15) Pride (In The Name Of Love)
16) Where The Streets Have No Name
17) One
Encore #1
18) Zoo Station
19) The Fly
20) Mysterious Ways
Encore #2
21) All Because Of You
22) Yahweh
23) Party Girl
24) 40  ¶ 22:51