2015-10-05 - Barcelona
Tour: Innocence and Experience tour
Songs played: 27
Audio recordings: 3
  1. Mofos, Zooromancers, Lemons, and everyone else in between - I'm back!

    What a night it was. My excitement for this night was fairly minimal. Having heard all of the US leg and some of the European leg, setlists had me feeling a little disappointed. But my God, when People Have The Power came on and Bono's little fat body appeared right in front of me, all expectations were wiped clear. By the end of The Miracle, I'd forgotten most of what was to come. The Electric Co. was fantastic and it seemed to have a seamless transition into Vertigo which was amazing with the Spanish crowd shouting "Uno! Dos! Tres! Catorce!". Even I Will Follow took me by surprise.

    Iris provided the break for me to stand back and take it in. I started singing along but it just too awkward. It's not a personal song for me and the direct connection to his mother (unlike Tomorrow or Sometimes) is too strong for me to think of it in any other way. But, taking it in and watching the screen, I appreciated the song a lot more. Although I covered most of the tour for our social media channels, I hadn't watched much footage, so to see Iris running on the screen for the first time with Bono kind of reaching out to her was quite a moment.

    Cedarwood Road and Song For Someone were great. I actually really loved Song For Someone, partly because fans around me were singing their hearts out and partly because Bono had just emerged from the screen right in front of us.

    Sunday Bloody Sunday wasn't that good, but it does only serve as precursor to Raised By Wolves which I guess it does well. I think next time I'll just take it in rather than try to sing along. Raised By Wolves into Until The End Of The World was a highlight. I've always wanted to hear UTEOTW live, so that was a great moment. But of course, it's yet another moment when Bono comes down to the e-stage for "Comfort me!" and to play with little Edge on screen. We also got splashed with Bono water.

    The intermission is a spectacle as the extensions to the screen drop down and the pages are still falling from the roof. The whole length of the staging looks magnificent at this point.

    Invisible and Even Better Than The Real Thing was another highlight (sorry Ross). Again, I've always wanted to hear the latter live and I absolutely love the visuals for it. Mysterious Ways and Elevation were fun. We could see two guitars under the stage before the show started, but I could only make out the body of an acoustic and I wasn't sure what the neck of the other guitar was for. I don't know where the acoustic went, but it certainly wasn't for Volcano. Wow, I wasn't expecting that one. When he said "we don't play this one every night" I turned to my brother and said "Thank God, it's about time..." - he looked kinda puzzled. It sounded great. I couldn't fully concentrate on it though because Bono was hanging on for dear life just to the right of me towards the end. I'm not sure what his intentions were, but it looked like he reached out to the fans there and they just pulled him in He shared a comment with Larry at the end which made him laugh, but I couldn't make out what he said.

    The audience ate up Every Breaking Wave around me which made this version much better. As you'll know, I want to hear the full band version or at least this version with Larry and Adam, but with a crowd like that I can't complain. October was cool, but it's powerful when you watch the images on the screen at the same time.

    Bullet was ruined by that megaphone. I can't stand it, it's awful. The visuals are great though and again, there's something for the e-stage fans as Bono runs down the catwalk to sing Zooropa. Zooropa into Streets is something else. Incredible.

    After Streets, fans started to shift around me and I managed to get on the rail (I was only 2 rows deep to start with). I had a better view of the main stage as there were no heads in front of me and I really enjoyed the hits. I did groan at the first sounds of City of Blinding Lights, but The Edge made his way up to the e-stage and played right in front of me which was amazing. I don't know if he does it regularly, but I do recall Bono saying "That was quite something. What is going on with The Edge? That was pretty special.". Towards the end of Beautiful Day I was thinking "please be Moment of Surrender, please be Moment of Surrender.." how wrong I was. Ultraviolet! I know it's only a snippet but wow, I loved it. One closed the show and I'm glad that I got that instead of Still Haven't Found (even if the the crowd messed up a line or two).

    Overall, it really blew me away. Having sat at Wembley I and stood further back in Sheffield, it was really amazing to be so close to the band. They really do seem to be having a lot of fun out there and it's great to be a part of it. The set could be improved I think, but the vast majority of attendees probably don't care. The crowd around me were great. I didn't make any friends as I don't speak a word of Spanish and I didn't want to risk looking like a fool. However, mentioning fools, there was a guy right in front of me filming the entire concert with a selfie stick

    Now for a few images taken with my phone to show where I was (my lens got sweaty for the last one, so forgive the blur):


  2. Love your review Tim
    Good to hear you were in fact quite overwhelmed, despite "knowing" from a setlist point of view what was to come

    Being on the floor is great!
  3. Well, as soon as Bono appeared I pretty much forgot the setlist. It wasn't until Iris that it started to come back to me, but even then I wasn't quite sure because I totally forgot about Cedarwood Road and the whole screen thing. I just got lost in it all and that's the difference between being there and being here. I'm sure it'll wear off a little bit by London 6, but it'll still be a lot of fun.
  4. PS: Can I be both in between and still stuck in the 80-ies?

  5. Brilliant read Tim, really great! Completely agree that the setlist is less of an issue when you are actually there. They could play anything really and still be fantastic!
  6. Your post has gotten me all pumped up for this weekend in Cologne, Tim. Glad you had such a great show!
  7. Originally posted by iTim:Mofos, Zooromancers, Lemons, and everyone else in between - I'm back!

    What a night it was. My excitement for this night was fairly minimal. Having heard all of the US leg and some of the European leg, setlists had me feeling a little disappointed. But my God, when People Have The Power came on and Bono's little fat body appeared right in front of me, all expectations were wiped clear. By the end of The Miracle, I'd forgotten most of what was to come. The Electric Co. was fantastic and it seemed to have a seamless transition into Vertigo which was amazing with the Spanish crowd shouting "Uno! Dos! Tres! Catorce!". Even I Will Follow took me by surprise.

    Iris provided the break for me to stand back and take it in. I started singing along but it just too awkward. It's not a personal song for me and the direct connection to his mother (unlike Tomorrow or Sometimes) is too strong for me to think of it in any other way. But, taking it in and watching the screen, I appreciated the song a lot more. Although I covered most of the tour for our social media channels, I hadn't watched much footage, so to see Iris running on the screen for the first time with Bono kind of reaching out to her was quite a moment.

    Cedarwood Road and Song For Someone were great. I actually really loved Song For Someone, partly because fans around me were singing their hearts out and partly because Bono had just emerged from the screen right in front of us.

    Sunday Bloody Sunday wasn't that good, but it does only serve as precursor to Raised By Wolves which I guess it does well. I think next time I'll just take it in rather than try to sing along. Raised By Wolves into Until The End Of The World was a highlight. I've always wanted to hear UTEOTW live, so that was a great moment. But of course, it's yet another moment when Bono comes down to the e-stage for "Comfort me!" and to play with little Edge on screen. We also got splashed with Bono water.

    The intermission is a spectacle as the extensions to the screen drop down and the pages are still falling from the roof. The whole length of the staging looks magnificent at this point.

    Invisible and Even Better Than The Real Thing was another highlight (sorry Ross). Again, I've always wanted to hear the latter live and I absolutely love the visuals for it. Mysterious Ways and Elevation were fun. We could see two guitars under the stage before the show started, but I could only make out the body of an acoustic and I wasn't sure what the neck of the other guitar was for. I don't know where the acoustic went, but it certainly wasn't for Volcano. Wow, I wasn't expecting that one. When he said "we don't play this one every night" I turned to my brother and said "Thank God, it's about time..." - he looked kinda puzzled. It sounded great. I couldn't fully concentrate on it though because Bono was hanging on for dear life just to the right of me towards the end. I'm not sure what his intentions were, but it looked like he reached out to the fans there and they just pulled him in He shared a comment with Larry at the end which made him laugh, but I couldn't make out what he said.

    The audience ate up Every Breaking Wave around me which made this version much better. As you'll know, I want to hear the full band version or at least this version with Larry and Adam, but with a crowd like that I can't complain. October was cool, but it's powerful when you watch the images on the screen at the same time.

    Bullet was ruined by that megaphone. I can't stand it, it's awful. The visuals are great though and again, there's something for the e-stage fans as Bono runs down the catwalk to sing Zooropa. Zooropa into Streets is something else. Incredible.

    After Streets, fans started to shift around me and I managed to get on the rail (I was only 2 rows deep to start with). I had a better view of the main stage as there were no heads in front of me and I really enjoyed the hits. I did groan at the first sounds of City of Blinding Lights, but The Edge made his way up to the e-stage and played right in front of me which was amazing. I don't know if he does it regularly, but I do recall Bono saying "That was quite something. What is going on with The Edge? That was pretty special.". Towards the end of Beautiful Day I was thinking "please be Moment of Surrender, please be Moment of Surrender.." how wrong I was. Ultraviolet! I know it's only a snippet but wow, I loved it. One closed the show and I'm glad that I got that instead of Still Haven't Found (even if the the crowd messed up a line or two).

    Overall, it really blew me away. Having sat at Wembley I and stood further back in Sheffield, it was really amazing to be so close to the band. They really do seem to be having a lot of fun out there and it's great to be a part of it. The set could be improved I think, but the vast majority of attendees probably don't care. The crowd around me were great. I didn't make any friends as I don't speak a word of Spanish and I didn't want to risk looking like a fool. However, mentioning fools, there was a guy right in front of me filming the entire concert with a selfie stick

    Now for a few images taken with my phone to show where I was (my lens got sweaty for the last one, so forgive the blur):
    [image]
    [image]
    [image]
    Nice review, Tim! Great to know you had such an amazing time

    Love the photos, by the way!
  8. Well spoken! Especially about the setlist! Had the same feeling in Amsterdam. When you are at the concert you forgot all about static setlists.
  9. Originally posted by ferrari:Well spoken! Especially about the setlist! Had the same feeling in Amsterdam. When you are at the concert you forgot all about static setlists.
    This.

    Good to know you had a great time Tim
  10. 100 new high-res pics for the final shows.

    And one new audio recording for the final one.





  11. Big girl, sorry to reply that late lol No i didn't kept the bass As Dallas said later on Dub, Penelope Cruz was there... But no worries at all, i had the best moment of my life getting there on stage. It's enough for me