Merry Christmas, Boston!

Tonight’s show in Boston had U2 feeling a little ho-ho-ho, and it was all Santa’s doing. Early in the show, Bono spotted a fan dressed as Santa Claus, which inspired the U2 frontman to sing a snippet of “Baby Please Come Home” during “Beautiful Day,” shout out Christmas caroles and messages (Jingle bells, war is over), and then tell Santa what he wanted for Christmas: 5 million people to sign up for the One campaign, a fire truck, more time to spend with his children, and for The Edge to get a train set.

Santa was later pulled on stage, as was Elvis, during “Mysterious Way.” The strange trio — the U2 singer being the strangest one of them all — danced around the ellipse while wishing the audience “Merry Christmas.”

Toronto 4: The week ends with disco balls

Gee, we don’t know what more to say about Toronto 4 than what our editor-in-chief had to say. Yes, U2 played “Discotheque.” (Audio/video to come soon now available.) We think we liked Willie’s light show for the song more than we liked the musical performance. (Oops, did we say that aloud?) Pretty, colorful disco balls displayed across the curtain lights as Bono sang a snippet of Frankie Goes to Hollywood’s “Relax.” Très eighties!

Once again, Daniel Lanois performed “One” with U2 for their final Vertigo show in Toronto. We suspect that the band might like him or something.

Later in the show, Bono proved our suspicions about Lanois correct by giving special thanks to the Canadian producer for his musical guidance through the years.

Hmm, what else is there to say about Toronto 4? U2 brought an American on stage: Mr. Eddie Vedder from a lil band called Pearl Jam to sing “Old Man River.” (See video link below.)

It would have been more entertaining to hear Vedder add his vocals to a U2 song, but we won’t complain.

Eddie Vedder – Old Man River
Discotheque – part 1
Discotheque – part 2
Postage stamp sized video, audio ok

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