U2 return Montreal’s love


U2 fans take note! If you want to experience a spectacular U2 concert, be a spectacular audience. Last night (Nov. 28), U2 rewarded the Montreal audience for its enthusiasm (wow, those people are loud!) and embrace of the band with a special concert.

Following “With or Without You,” U2 invited opening band Arcade Fire to join them on stage to perform Joy Division’s “Love Will Tear Us Apart.” Songs that have been retired for a little while returned (“All Because of You,” “Miracle Drug”). Larry Mullen addressed the audience when a “technical error” occurred at the beginning of “All Because of You,” causing Bono to comment that he couldn’t remember Larry ever doing that before.

Near the end of the concert, Bono provided a sincere declaration of the band’s love for the city, which was received with much enthusiasm.

Review:

  • Montreal Gazette
  • Photos ©Ruth Barohn/U2log.com. Please do not use without permission.

    Montreal – C’est magnifique!

    The U2log.com staff is having so much fun in Canada right now that we can’t bother with filing proper reports. We’ll distract you with these great pics of Arcade Fire and U2 in Montreal instead and hope you’ll forgive our lack of tour updates at the moment. What could we say now that you probably don’t already know? Arcade Fire is fabulous — three-ring circus fabulous. U2 remain rock’s hottest ticket. Canada is cold.

    Click on pics for enlargement.

    For U2 pics, click on the following link. More pics will be posted in our Flickr group in the near future. All photos ©U2log.com. Please do not use without permission.

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    Lenny Kravitz: Proceed to Floor

    Celebrities are so lucky. Not only do they have fame and fortune, they have luck too. Well, most of them have luck.

    For U2’s second sold-out show at the Garden this November, a large number of celebrities scanned in Lucky Vertigo and packed the ellipse. Our non-celebrity staff (she’s a star to us!), who was also lucky and landed a spot in the ellipse, identified Lars Ullrich, Michael Stipe, Helena Christensen, Jimmy Fallon, Guggi, and Charlie Rose enjoying the show from inside the ellipse. (For the record, Rose doesn’t rock out. He studies the performance. With a beer in hand.) Bono’s wife Ali and brother Norman were also spotted rubbing shoulders with the celebrities and peon fans at the show.

    Meanwhile, back at the mix desk were Lenny Kravitz, Josh Brolin, and “a lot of models” whose tickets apparently did not scan Lucky Vertigo. Awww!

    The show was similar to the previous evening’s performance with one difference — the dedications. Bono dedicated “Sometimes You Can’t Make It on Your Own” to his brother, whom he referred to as “Normal” and credited as being the co-writer of the song; “MLK” was dedicated to JFK; and “Stuck in a Moment” was performed in recognition of the anniversary of Michael Hutchence’s death.

    As with the previous night, show opener Patti Smith joined U2 to perform a long version of “Instant Karma.” At one point, Bono and Smith left the stage as The Edge began a spotlight guitar performance. It seemed the audience were expected to finish up the song with The Edge, but when that didn’t happen, Edge left the stage (still playing) and returned with the singers to close the song.

    Although “Yahweh” and “40” were listed on the setlist, they were not performed.

    Instant Karma for NYC

    Instant Karma’s gonna get you
    Gonna knock you off your feet

    U2 knocked the audience at Madison Square Garden off its feet this evening (Nov. 21) by performing a full version of John Lennon’s “Instant Karma” with Patti Smith, who opened the show. Bono introduced the song by saying the band wanted to do “something special for New York City.”

    The Lennon tune was followed by the show’s final song, “Bad,” for which Bono led the crowd to sing “People Have the Power” by Smith.