Los Angeles, Show Three
April 26th, 2001 The Arrowhead Pond
The Third Los Angeles Concert - Your Questions Answered
What T-Shirt Was Edge Wearing ?
Edge was wearing a No.23 t-shirt tonight.
Tell Me Something Unusual About This Show ?
Well, Edge broke a couple of strings and then Bono forgot some of his words, but, word is, this was the best of the three LA shows.
What signs were fans carrying tonight ?
To Better Days, Play It With Pride;
It Pays To Advertise (following comment from Bono on Tuesday when the girl who danced with him had an Angel Of Harlem sign); Meow!; St Bono; Hail Lord Adam; Schoo Too (reference to Dallas Schoo, Edge's guitar tech); Thank you For The Moments; Noooo, thank you for taking our money.
Any Dedications Tonight ?
Stuck In A Moment is, as always, dedicated to Michael Hutchence.
And then Stay arrives and Bono admits that while he cannot always remember how to perform it, he can remember who it is for. 'One more song, it's a tune we very, very, very rarely play because I very
rarely can remember it, for an extraordinary man who I love very much, it's his movie we wrote this for so tonight I'd like to thank Wim Wenders.....' There was another dedication too, see below.
How did those band introductions go tonight ?
Something like this.
'How are we doing out there?,' asked Bono. 'Thank you all for coming out this evening, I'd like to introduce you to the family business so to speak. So our hit man on the drums tonight and every other night, Larry Mullen Jnr. These are my brothers, know what I'm saying, if you're looking for trouble Larry Mullen is going to find you some.
'The Ladies man, still a batchelor boy, the musical conscience of our family business, Lord Adam Clayton.
'On my right, he's the complex one, he takes sexual pleasure in collecting data, the newest resident to LA, father of Sian and Levi who are here tonight bringing peace to Malibu, a card carrying genius The Edge.'
It's Los Angeles where the famous people live. Anybody turn up that we might have heard of ?
Cher; Cameron Diaz; Rick Rubin; Wim Wenders; Bobby Shriver; Neil Diamond; Clem Burke (Blondie's drummer); Joe Elliot (Def Leppard); Jonas Ackerlund; Meg Ryan; Paul Oakenfold; Depeche Mode; Dennis Hopper; Melissa Etheridge; Alicia Silverstone; Herb Ritz; Queen Noor of Jordan; Counting Crows....
That do?
Any juice on the songs?
During The End Of The World Bono gets on his hands and knees and bows to Edge in 'we are not worthy' style. He ends the song kicking at Edge and then kissing him.
'We're gonna get airborne,' explains Bono, at the start of I Will Follow. 'Know what I'm saying, gotta get right off here into another place...'
For The Fly the singer monkey-walks along the catwalk, turns in circles, steps into the audience, clutches the hands of fans, pulls them to and fro - and even ends up biting someone's hand. Will it ever be washed again?
Wearing the Irish flag with pride for Pride, Bono wraps it around his face, and walks the catwalk with it. 'That was madness,' he says at the end,
'You're amazing...'
For Bullet The Blue Sky, Bono has his arm over his face and lamp in hand marching slowly down the catwalk. He turns the light on Edge, points it at the audience, around the entire venue starting a huge Mexican wave.
What About Those Mistakes ?
Inexplicably, the guitarist plays a wrong note in Sunday Bloody Sunday and the singer can't believe it: 'Edge made a mistake!' he exclaims, as the audience go wild. 'We sang this a long time ago, explains Bono, introducing the opening chords of Angel Of Harlem, but then Edge breaks a string. 'He never breaks strings
the Edge, that's two this evening.' There's further technicals for All I Want Is You: 'I sometimes forget that
he's human,' admits Bono.'Dr Spock are you with us?'
How did it all end ?
With Walk On, as ever, rapidly becoming the show-stopper to top all U2 show-stoppers. 'Thank you for paying your hard earned dollars on a rock show, and thanks for giving us a great life...
'Happy Birthday to Joe O'Herlihy (U2's veteran sound man) 'cos he's driving the train down on the mix desk tonight... 'Thank you for just so much really, for following us down the road for Jubilee 2000.'
And then that other dedication.
'There's someone here tonight from a great family, whose birthday it also is, a great and extraordinary man who really helped us out with the cause here, Bobby Shriver - Thank you.
'We will not stand by while an entire continent gets flushed down the toilet. I don't know what rock'n'roll is but if it means anything it's being free. You can't be free when you've got no food in your
belly and no water in sight, you've got no dignity. Call your congressman and call your senators, you could really, really make a difference.'
Walk On.
