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This was my third time seeing U2, all on the 360 tour. I saw them in Gothenburg twice last year, and was actually not so impressed. Mainly because the claw stage makes it hard to get a good up-close and personal view of the band. So for this concert the wife and I bought Red Zone tickets. When we got to the stadium U2 was doing their soundcheck. We got to hear what turned out to be the new song Glastonbury, Miss Sarajevo, and City of Blinding Lights.

We waited in line with the other Red Zone people for maybe an hour before the gates opened, and then it was a mad dash in to the stadium. Luckily we got great spots right up against the catwalk on Adam’s side. This was perfect since we stood on The Edge’s side for both shows last year.

The concert was delayed for about 30 minutes due to problems with the screen (which I guess eventually couldn’t be fixed, since it didn’t extend during City of Blinding Lights). But that didn’t matter one bit, it just gave everyone more time to get excited. U2 took the stage at 21.20 to the tune of Space Oddity, as is customary on the 360 tour.

After playing the new, and very cool, Return Of The Stingray Guitar, the band launched in to Beautiful Day! This was such a great high energy way of starting the show! Bono was making his way around the catwalk and actually stopped right in front of us for the first chorus! This was probably one of my all-time concert highlights ever! It was amazing to just be a few feet away from Bono while he was performing. The missus took some great pictures, as you’ll see below this review.

New Year’s Day was next, keeping the energy going. Bono introduced the band, and after he introduced Larry he led the audience in the double-time clapping that I enjoy so much. This was followed by Get on Your Boots, and Magnificent – in my opinion the only songs I care to hear from No Line on The Horizon.

The highlight of the show for the both of us was when they played Elevation. We’ve wanted to hear that one live so bad, ever since we got the Boston Live DVD back in 2001. It was so much fun to sing along to the chorus while jumping up and down! Even The Edge was jumping like a mad man for the last chorus!

I was very happy to hear Until the End of the World, which is one of my all time favorite U2 songs. Bono was playing the devil/Judas on one of the bridges above the crowd, while the saintly Mr The Edge worked his heavenly guitar magic from the other bridge. The song ended with the two “deities” attempting to touch fingers across the bridges, evoking Michelangelo’s Creation of Adam. Oh, and the song sounded awesome too!

After the always wonderful I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For U2 played the new song North Star. The whole song was basically just Bono and The Edge, with that classic U2 guitar sound from the previous song. Next up was Glastonbury, which the band wrote for their subsequently cancelled Glastonbury gig 2010. A very good up-tempo rocker, with a great riff and an awesome solo from The Edge. It sort of felt like he was channeling Hendrix for a while. Personally, I think the new songs are miles ahead of their latest release, No Line on The Horizon, with the exception of Magnificent. Let’s hope that when the new songs are released they will stay in this raw form (lock up Eno and Lanois, and let Steve Lillywhite take full control for a change).

I really enjoy that they keep playing In A Little While. It’s such a great song, and it’s nice to hear one of the less famous songs from All That You Can’t Leave Behind. Miss Sarajevo was just fantastic – I got goose bumps when Bono sang the opera part! Vertigo was great as always. To me it was a treat to get both Elevation and Vertigo in one show.

It was fun to see that they kept the remix version of I’ll Go Crazy If I Don’t Go Crazy Tonight in the set. This was also the song when we got to see all band members up close. Adam, The Edge and Larry all came by right in front of us! Bono ended the song by singing a verse of Discothèque over the beat – very nice indeed, and perhaps an indicator that the song will join the set in the near future.

The encore was pretty much identical to the Gothenburg shows. It was funny to hear Bono struggle with the feedback of his Gretsch Irish Falcon during his beautiful version of Amazing Grace. One gave me chills as always – that’s one powerful song! Ultra Violet (Light My Way), with Bono in his laser jacket and steering wheel microphone, is just fantastic. For Moment of Surrender Bono asked everyone to turn on their cellphone lights, which made for a beautiful backdrop to the stage, making it look as if the band was surrounded by the milky way. Bono ended the song with a rather confused singalong that no one understood, which he proceeded to laugh off!

The band seemed very pleased with the show and back slaps were exchanged. Both Adam and The Edge came up to the mike to say thanks. And to the tune of Rocket Man the band left the stage, and the best U2 concert that I have seen so far was over. I thought that Bono’s voice was fantastic – he sang much better than last year, and he also seemed to be much more in to the show, as did the rest of the band. Thank you U2!

Setlist: (from u2gigs.com)

Start: 21.20

01. Return Of The Stingray Guitar
02. Beautiful Day
03. New Year’s Day
04. Get On Your Boots
05. Magnificent
06. Mysterious Ways
07. Elevation
08. Until The End Of The World
09. I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For
10. North Star
11. Glastonbury
12. In A Little While
13. Miss Sarajevo
14. City Of Blinding Lights
15. Vertigo / Teenage Kicks (snippet)
16. I’ll Go Crazy If I Don’t Go Crazy Tonight / Discothèque (snippet)
17. Sunday Bloody Sunday
18. MLK
19. Walk On / You’ll Never Walk Alone (snippet)

Encore:
20. One
21. Amazing Grace (snippet) / Where The Streets Have No Name
22. Ultra Violet (Light My Way)
23. With Or Without You
24. Moment of Surrender

End: 23.25

Jump to: Setlist Pictures Videos

With Kiss, you know what you’ll get – and that’s both good and bad. Since the first time I saw them in 1996 up until now, I think they’ve used the same stage for their outdoor shows. The setlist changes somewhat with each tour, but all the gimmicks are the same – Paul flies out in the audience on a zip wire, Gene flies up in the rafters, and Tommy shoots fireworks from his guitar. Oh, and Eric’s drumkit raises off the stage floor like a spaceship! And every time Kiss plays in Sweden, Paul uses the phrase “Jag gillar din rumpa” (”I like your ass”). Wonder if he has a notebook with phrases for each country they go to that he memorizes before the show?

When we got to the stadium the space closest to the stage was already full, but after some finessing we secured great spots right up against the fence outside the inner circle on the right hand side of the stage. We only had a couple of really short girls in front of us, so the view was great.

This time around Kiss tours with a new album, Sonic Boom. The concert started with the opening track of that album Modern Day Delilah. It was a great opener, and I really like Sonic Boom, cause it sounds like classic Kiss. Gene, Paul, and Tommy appeared on this platform that rose from behind the drum riser, and traveled over it before touching down on the stage floor in front of it.

For the second song Paul announced that they were going back to the beginning, before launching in to Cold Gin. The song sounded great, as always. In fact, Kiss always sound great, probably because they don’t really take any chances with setlist variations etc. I’m not going to write about every song, just the ones that stood out to me. If you’re interested in what they played, just check out the setlist below ths review.

Say Yeah from the new album was real fun I thought. Everyone in the audience around where we stood were really in to the new songs as well. This song works great live since it has such a singalong-friendly chorus.

The first surprise of the night for me was when they brought out Crazy Crazy Nights! I love Kiss’ post-makeup phase and was really pleased to hear this song, a first time for me. And you could tell that the rest of the audience loved it too, cause the place went nuts! The only thing that surprises me though, is that Kiss doesn’t play Heaven’s on Fire – that song was huge in Sweden.

The only odd song choice of the night was I’m an Animal from Sonic Boom. This post-grunge rocker clashes heavily with the classic Kiss sound. Why not play Russian Roulette or All For the Glory instead?

Love Gun is a favorite of mine, and Paul had the audience singing the first verse acapella before starting the song. But the highlight of the show for me, as always, is Black Diamond. The giant mirror ball in the ceiling of the stage starts spinning while the spotlights cast a purple light on Paul and his guitar as he starts playing the familiar haunting intro. After a while it turns in to the Led Zeppelin classic Whole Lotta Love, and Paul sings the first verse and chorus with no other backup than his guitar. This was just fantastic! Then he makes the audience sing the first verse, just like on Love Gun, before the rest of the band joins him and they launch into the song for real. Eric Singer does a great job on the vocal duties, just as he does on the first encore of the night, a surprise appearance of Beth, with the entire band at the front of the stage and Paul and Tommy playing acoustic guitars.

Lick it Up is the second encore, and man this is good! I really didn’t think we’d get to hear this since they did Crazy Crazy Nights, but I was sure happy to be proven wrong!

For I Was Made For Lovin’ You, Paul Stanley flies out in the audience on a zip wire system, and performs the song on a platform out by the mixing desk facing the stage. I remember when he did this at Stadion back in 1997 and the zip wire was a much more simple construction, causing Paul to dip very close to the audience and people actually grabbing hold of his platform shoes.

Now it was time for the biggest surprise of the night: God Gave Rock and Roll to You II. Last tour Kiss played this song over the PA after they left the stage, and I remember the missus and me saying how great it would be if they actually played it, and now they did! I really like this last vestige of Kiss’ post-makeup reign, and it’s such a crowd pleaser with a great chorus for everyone to sing along to.

After the final song Rock and Roll All Nite, the night came to a close with an amazing fireworks display, easily rivaling any fourth of July fireworks I’ve seen. I don’t remember the fireworks being this long on the last tour. It was probably about five minutes long.

The concert lasted about 2 hours and 10 minutes, and I was happy to see that instead of bumping some of the classics for new Sonic Boom songs, the set was simply longer. Very nice indeed. The only odd thing was that they didn’t play Strutter and God of Thunder. If only they’d switched I’m an Animal for Strutter, and the night would have been perfect. But I’m not complaining – I wanted the best, and I totally got what I came for!

By the way, I should also mention that Sweden’s biggest rock band, eighties rockers Europe, opened the show. They played the following set: 1. Last Look at Eden 2. Love is Not the Enemy 3. Superstitious 4. Scream of Anger 5. Let the Good Times Rock 6. New Love in Town 7. Rock the Night (w/ snippets of Another One Bites the Dust and Heaven and Hell) 8. The Final Countdown

Setlist:

Start: 21.15

01. Modern Day Delilah
02. Cold Gin
03. Let Me Go, Rock ‘N Roll
04. Firehouse
05. Say Yeah
06. Deuce
07. Crazy Crazy Nights
08. Calling Dr. Love
09. Shock Me
10. I’m an Animal
11. 100,000 Years
12. I Love it Loud
13. Love Gun
14. Black Diamond
15. Detroit Rock City

Encore:
16. Beth
17. Lick it Up
18. Shout it Out Loud
19. I Was Made for Lovin’ You
20. God Gave Rock N’ Roll to You II
21. Rock and Roll All Nite

End: 23.27

Kiss Pictures (Click on an image to enlarge it)

Europe Pictures (Click on an image to enlarge it)

Swedish newspaper reviews:
Expressen | SvD | DN | Aftonbladet

Jump to: Setlist Pictures Videos

I went to my first Joe Bonamassa concert a couple of nights ago. I’ve been into blues rock since Kenny Wayne Shepherd released his Trouble Is… album, but this was the first blues based concert I’ve been to, as far as I can remember. Aside from my recent foray in to Gaga-land, I usually stick to rock shows, and so the step over to the blues isn’t that big a deal.

Cirkus is a pretty small venue, with maybe 2500 seats or so. The wife and I had seats in the first row on the stands directly opposite the stage, so we had a great view. After warming up the crowd with Black Sabbath’s Heaven and Hell (no doubt in tribute to Ronnie James Dio), and 2 Minutes to Midnight by Iron Maiden, Joe and his band took the stage, and launched straight in to The Ballad of John Henry. This autobiographical story of heartbreak is probably my favorite Joe Bonamassa song, so it was the perfect start to the show. Joe was playing a double neck guitar and for the solo he was using a Moog Theremin and delay to create some astonishing feedback.

Although he chose not to speak very much, Joe was great at interacting with the audience. He mentioed how they’d been coming to Stockholm for the past 4-5 years and how he was enjoying starting the tour here. Everything about the concert was great, but two songs that really stand out in my mind are Happier Times and Blue and Evil. I really love the haunting sound of Happier Times and the Kashmir-esque synthesizer arrangement for Blue and Evil.

Another highlight was when they played Sloe Gin. This is such a powerful song that builds from a very subtle beginning to a soaring solo at the end. Right as Joe was about to start the solo he turned around to face his amps and held up his right arm, doing the devil horn sign. I was wondering if this was perhaps an homage to the recently departed Ronnie James Dio, who came up with this classic moniker used by heavy metal fans all over the world. Joe did write on Facebook earlier in the week how he’d opened up for Dio about ten years ago, and how Dio had been very kind and given him advice about the music business. If you look through the pictures below, you can actually see Joe doing the devil horn sign, and also in the video of Sloe Gin that my wife filmed.

But the absolute coolest moment of the night was when Joe was left alone on stage with just an acoustic guitar, and played an amazing ten minute version of Woke Up Dreaming. The only drawback was the drunk in the audience who kept shouting nonsense during the quieter parts. If you watch the amazing video that my wife filmed you can actually see Joe shushing the dude!

For the encore Joe played a powerful version of Bird on a Wire, followed by what I consider one of the best concert finales I’ve ever seen – a ten minute jam of the ZZ Top classic Just Got Paid, topped off with the main riff from Dazed and Confused that got the entire audience on its feet.

Wonder if I should make the drive down to Gothenburg in October to see Mr. Bonamassa once more…

Be sure to check out the pictures and videos below. All credit goes to my wife Irma who did a great job of capturing this amazing show.

Setlist:

Start: 20.19

01. The Ballad of John Henry
02. Last Kiss
03. So Many Roads
04. So, It’s Like That
05. If Heartaches Were Nickels
06. Further on up the Road
07. Sloe Gin
08. Lonesome Road Blues
09. Happier Times
10. Blue and Evil
11. Three Times a Fool
12. Blues Deluxe
13. Young Man Blues
14. Woke Up Dreaming
15. Django/Mountain Time

Encore:
16. Bird on a Wire
17. Just Got Paid

End: 22.21

Pictures (Click on an image to enlarge it)

Videos:

Jump to: Setlist (w/ video links) Pictures

I woke up at 5.30 this morning from a terrible cramp in my leg. The reason – all the jumping at the Lady Gaga concert in Stockholm last night! The missus and I have seen both Madonna and Kylie, and both of us thought that Lady Gaga had them beat. The concert started with Dance In The Dark, with Gaga’s silhouette projected on the curtain covering the stage. Surprising song to start with, I had thought Just Dance would open the show. But when she did play it as song number three the crowd went nuts! Gaga played the intro to Just Dance on a keyboard that was mounted in the hood of a futuristic looking Rolls Royce on stage. We were standing about halfway down the arena on the floor, and we had a great view. For once there weren’t so many tall people in the audience, the benefit of seeing an artist with a lot of young female fans.

For The Fame, Gaga played a futuristic bass/keyboard instrument which made me think of the strange creations Matt Bellamy from Muse use on stage. LoveGame was next, which is probably my favorite Lady Gaga song. She brought out her “disco stick”, a much larger version than what I’ve seen in early performances. It had a spotlight that she used to shine on the audience. Gaga refers to her fans as little monsters and kept urging everyone to hold up their arms while shaping their hands into claws. We kept doing that the whole concert and it was tons of fun, like a disco version of the heavy metal sign!

For Money Honey, Lady Gaga came up through the floor playing a keytar, and she played a really cool intro solo.

Throughout the concert I counted a total of 17 costume changes, if you count every time she would alter her costume with a mask etc. Because of all the costume changes there were a lot of downtime between songs, while they would play remixes over the PA and show short video installations of Lady Gaga on the curtain. Telephone was one of the major highlights of the night, which she performed in a studded leather bikini. I think this is the first concert where I’ve seen someone play a harp on stage. The choreography for Telephone was awesome, as most people have already seen from the music video. There was catwalk from the stage that went out to a platform in the middle of the arena that was used for almost every song, which was great since we were standing close to it. All of Telephone was performed on the platform.

The banter between songs was funny. During LoveGame Gaga joked about how everyone knows she has “a pretty humongous dick”, alluding to the ridiculous hermaphrodite rumors. She also talked about how she hates money and the truth.

Then it was time for the slow songs. Gaga did Brown Eyes and Speechless sitting at a grand piano engulfed in flames – a very nice effect, especially for Speechless where there was a tornado-shaped pillar of fire rising up out of the piano. Made me worried her hair was going to catch fire. I think it’s good that she includes a couple of slow songs in the set because it gives her an opportunity to show off her amazing singing voice. I actually met a guy at a bar after the concert who works on Lady Gaga’s sound production for her live shows and he was saying how she, unlike someone like Britney Spears, sings almost everything live. Quite an accomplishment when you consider all the choreography that’s involved.

Now it was time for the most fascinating costumes. During So Happy I Could Die Gaga wore a white dress with angel wings and a crown that that kept expanding and contracting. She performed the entire song on the platform in the middle of the arena, and halfway through the song, the platform rose up 15-20 feet to the delight of the crowd. For Monster Gaga wore an outfit that can only be described as a giant white mushroom! It looked hilarious when she was dancing. I have to say that Monster is a great song, and I would be surprised if it’s not released as single.

Then Gaga surprised at least me by performing Teeth, the last of the new songs on The Fame Monster. I love this song because it’s so different from all her other songs, very organic and stripped down. During the song Gaga’s entire chest is covered in fake blood, and it looked really creepy from a distance. Teeth was followed by latest single, Alejandro, a song that is not a favorite of mine, but that worked really well in a live setting. The backdrop on stage for Alejandro is Central Park, complete with a replica of the Bethesda fountain where the angel is shooting fire from his wings.

The last three songs of the night were a display of why Lady Gaga is an amazing performer and song writer: Poker Face, Paparazzi, and Bad Romance. It’s hard to come up with a better ending to a concert, and this was the source of my previously mentioned leg cramp. What makes these three songs so good live is the fact that they’re structured as rock songs which make them great for audience participation. During Paparazzi, the monster finally appears in the shape of an angler fish that moves its head and tentacles to the music! Gaga does a costume change mid-song and appears wearing a bra that shoots fire!

Poker Face, with its Boney M sample has the crowd going nuts. Gaga spends the entire song out on the platform. For the awesome closing number of Bad Romance, Gaga appears center stage inside a giant version of the sphere that can be seen in the video. Bad Romance is one of the best pop songs of the 21st century and it’s the perfect end to a great night! Thank you Gaga and please come again!

Setlist: (with YouTube video links)

Start: 20.40

01. Dance In The Dark
02. Glitter and Grease
03. Just Dance
04. Beautiful, Dirty, Rich
05. Vanity
06. The Fame
07. LoveGame
08. Boys Boys Boys
09. Money Honey
10. Telephone
11. Brown Eyes
12. Speechless
13. So Happy I Could Die
14. Monster
15. Teeth
16. Alejandro
17. Poker Face
18. Paparazzi
19. Bad Romance

End: 22.30

Pictures (Click on an image to enlarge it)

Swedish newspaper reviews:
Expressen | SvD | Aftonbladet