PITTSBURGH, The Mellon Arena
MAY 6 2001 - Song by Song by Some of Those Songs
Tonight MacPhisto is here. Not on stage, but in the audience. Irish flags are everywhere of course, and the signs from fans are multiplying exponentially.
'Take me to The Edge' reads one, while lots of fans in the heart have cut out lemons with song titles on, notably Ultraviolet, 11 O'Clock Tick Tock and Lemon. There's a muppet puppet tonight, and a sign reading, 'Larry
sing to me Dirty Old Town' as well as 'Larry: Adonis'.
One ten year old girl has a sign that reads 'Happy Birthday Bono, May 10'.
Edge has a different sign tonight to, no number for this show, but instead a 'Viva Zapata' t-shirt.
The arena is home to the Pittsburgh Penguins ice hockey team and on U2's last three tours they have always played Three Rivers stadium, which has since been demolished.
'This is a great city to play,' says Bono introducing Stuck in A Moment.
'Hope you don't mind us shrinking it down from the Three Rivers. We had some amazing and special nights there.
'At one point we were thinking of taking up a residency bar thing in the Three Rivers stadium every Monday. Thanks for coming out and seeing a rock show and paying these high prices.
'This is for Michael Hutchence, Australians are like Irish who can't drink...'
Beautiful Day
Bono breaks into The Beatles' Baby You Can Drive My Car and Twist and Shout.
New York
In a stetson at the point of the heart, Bono leans into the audience and plays 'paper, scissors, stone' with a fan. This must be some kind of rock'n roll first. The fan wins with his stone to Bono's scissors.
Sunday Bloody Sunday
Bono spots a fan with an Irish flag and gets him to throw it to him.
'There was a time when we couldn't hold the flag so high.'
He drapes the flag over his arm, carries it across the stage, breaks into Get Up, Stand Up, stands at the top of the catwalk with the flag and puts it over the piano amp. 'Sing in the presence of love,' he sings. 'Sing in the presence of peace.'
Sweetest Thing
'For the missus.'
Introducing......U2
'I'd like to introduce you to the rest of the band. Before we were called U2, we were called The Hype - long before we lived up to it. Before that we were called for a whole lunch break, the Larry Mullen Band.
'I'd like Larry Mullen to stand up, come up and 'fess up, our first employer, our only employer, Larry Mullen Jnr.
'Our first manager, the jazz man, the musical conscience of the group, a sandal wearing hippie under that punk rock stance, the poshest member of U2, Lord Adam Clayton on the bass. The first time I saw him he had a curly blond afro and a '76 afghan coat and he was using words like 'gay' and 'action' on the bass so I knew he was a true musician.
'Bringing what looks like peace to Mexico City, Zapatista himself. He could have come to Pittsburgh on the space shuttle but no he chose a Gibson Les Paul. A card carrying genius, The Edge.'
In A Little While
'One of the reasons we formed a band was 'cos we heard another group out of New York City called The Ramones. An incredibly, amazing, extraordinary band, their singer Joey Ramone died a couple of weeks ago, this was the last song he loved. He turned this song about a hangover into a gospel song, that's how cool he is...'
And for this song Bono dances with the 10 year old girl with the sign wishing him Happy Birthday. 'It's a family show...'
Angel Of Harlem
'This is for Billie Holliday...'
Stay
'This is called Stay. You know that period when you went all party on me, we went to Berlin and started out on two extraordinary albums from my point of view, Achtung Baby and Zooropa. Then we thought we were geniuses and we just started floating out there. This is a diary of that float, you find some extraordinary things when you're floating out there though...'
Tonight the lyrics change to include Miami, London, Belfast and the audience yell, 'Pittsburgh'
Where The Streets Have No Name
A man in the heart is passed over the heads of everyone else. Was it you ?
Mysterious Ways
The singer is dancing with a girl who even gets his glasses for a keepsake.
Bullet the Blue Sky
Including a segment of Whole Lotta Love.
Pride
During which the audience alone sing the lyric 'They took your life, they could not take your Pride...'
One
'We might have topped ourselves tonight here in Pittsburgh. Thank you, thank you for spending your hard earned on a rock show, thank you so much.
'Thank you for giving us a great, great life, also thank you for support on the Jubilee 2000 campaign, it's extraordinary that a subcontinent gets flushed down the toilet in our lifetime, Africa, in our lifetime. It's not right, call your congressmen, call your senators and tell them Bono is gonna get really mad with you...'
Walk On
'This is for Aung San Suu Kyi, Amnesty people have stands on the way
out, this is Walk On. Thank you Pittsburgh, thank you Pittsburgh and to
the Almighty thank you...'
