Vertigo

Jul 2 2005
Vienna, AT / Ernst Happel Stadium
with The Thrills, The Magic Numbers
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After racing off from Live 8 in London, the band made it to Vienna and a pumped night in Austria.

Arriving a bit later than normal, due to the unusual circumstances (plane dash from London, biggest rock and roll show in history etc etc), for the first time on the European tour to date, the show opened in darkness.

'Larry Mullen Jnr' shouted Bono and with that the band were blasting out Vertigo for the second time in a matter of hours, this time to 50,000 Austrians. OK, so the audience was a few billion fewer than earlier in the day, but these Viennese know how to party: with I Will Follow it was clear that they were wired tonight and it was mutual. Witness the joy in Edge's eyes as he weaved his way along the b-stage playing up a storm.

As if there was any doubt in the singers mind, at the beginning of Elevation Bono wondered out loud if it would be ok to flirt with the crowd. (The decision seemed to be unanimous.) And with the Live 8 vibe permeating the proceedings, Beautiful Day was updated to mark the moment. 'A beautiful day

Live 8 right in front of you'

It finished with a timely snatch of Sgt Pepper:

'We hope you will enjoy the show

Sit back and let the evening go.'

In fact, no-one was sitting back tonight, the band didn't really need to be in the stadium for Still Haven't Found - the audience sang the whole thing, lighters aloft. And tonight it was All I Want Is You (which seems to view with Wild Horses) to follow, the stadium bathed in a stunning yellow light - and half the audience apparently on the shoulders of the other half!

Cardiff had a special atmosphere for being in the dark from the beginning, but that was because the roof kept out the daylight. Tonight was unique on the tour to date because from the off, there was the big, dark open sky above. Bono made friends with a young woman near the front, who, it turned

out, was not travelling lightly. She came onto the stage accompanied with the biggest backpack in the history of travel, suggesting she was about to set up camp for the rest of the show. It made no difference as she and Bono sang to each other: 'All I Want Is you...

'Thank you for coming out tonight, thank you for giving us a great life,' Bono said, taking a break after City of Blinding Lights. 'Through the miracle of flight, to the miracle of television we can be in two places at the same time.'

With Larry at the tip of one b-stage and Adam at the tip of the other for the opening of Love and Peace, wherever you are in the stadium on this tour you feel that one member of the band is playing just for you. And for this blistering quartet of songs - Love and Peace, Sunday Bloody Sunday, Bullet

The Blue Sky, Running to Standstill - the only way to finish is with the reminder of the human rights that most of us take for granted and so many are still denied. The 60th birthday of Aung San Suu Kyi

http://www.burmacampaign.org.uk is again lauded and the wailing harmonica ahead of Running To Stand Still sounds eerily poignant in the night.

Has Bono's speechifying for Africa ever sounded so potent as today, when a series of rock shows managed to get half the planet to stop and take notice ?

'From the charity of the old Live Aid

To the justice of the new live 8

From Charity to Justice

...so this is our year, this is our moment

To make poverty history

It's a t-shirt, it's a slogan but behind the t-shirt and the slogan is a very achievable dream.

We've come from Live 8 in London to play tonight in Vienna. A quarter of a million people there - and all of you here tonight - share our dream. That's the idea that we can stop dreaming and start doing - in 2005 that's what we're gonna do...'

Another great night of Vertigo.

All Because Of You
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