2006-11-07 - Brisbane, Australia - Queensland Sports And Athletics Centre
Sound
Pretty average. The band were very distant. Edge never really came out to play and Larry lacked penetration thoughout the whole recording. Even Bono was quite muffled. Only very audible band member was Adam. In fact, he was drowning Edge out on numerous occasions I felt.
However, arguably the biggest downer of the whole recording was the audience. This was much worse than the previous BRT show (Turin, Elevation). The crowd in the vicinity of the taper were just way, way, way, way, way, way too audible. Collective cheers and sing-alongs are a vital ingredient for an excellent audience recording but when you can clearly hear individual conversations it disintegrates the whole listening pleasure. This reached almost unbearable levels when two girls were bitching about not being able to see throughout Bullet the Blue Sky and Miss Sarajevo. "We need to get a bit closer...."The tall people are always at the front... "Can you see through there...I don't think this is gonna work..."There's so much space in that thingy (ellipse) down there" For goodness sake shut the f*ck up so we can listen to the goddam show! The taper must have been spitting chips!
Overall, between the audience in my ear and me constantly thinking "Edge where the hell are you?" this just scraped over the line as a 3-star.
Performance
It's a very surreal thing, listening to a show you attended and loved every second of. Obviously, objective reviewing is thrown out the window here.
I felt the boys delivered a solid show to kick off the final leg of the Vertigo Tour. The setlist had somewhat evolved into a 'Best Of' with an obvious focus on HTDAAB and ATYCLB to pay the fans back after not touring during Elevation
- the first Aussie show since Popmart. You could tell Bono in particular was pleased to take to the stage again after an 8-month lay-off. His voice was better than South America but was still warming up and a long way from reaching the beautiful heights of Saitama. His showmanship was on display also, even seeing fit to inject himself into the local political hot potato at the time: "Tonight we're calling for (former Australian Guantanamo prisoner) David Hicks to be brought back to Australia to face a fair trial" and during Streets "That's right, Mr Howard!"
While I'm quoting I can't go past this little beauty before One "Look at that beautiful moon. Oh, that's a spotlight...
"All classics were delivered proficiently with a joyous enthusiasm. Walk On in particular (not a fan of the song) was a refreshing addition and got the crowd going from the first note, opening set did the job and the War and Human Rights sets lifted the atmosphere to another level. It was rounded out by a very impressive encore performance including a vibrant rendition of Angel of Harlem (see highlights)
Highlights:
The whole show....
Out of this recording, I've got to say Walk On. It was really the bright spot in the first half of the show.
Angel of Harlem towards the end was a gem. It's a real crowd pleaser in Australia. Bono's rap around the middle was superb and the snippet was a nice touch.
Kite was a brilliant closer. I remember thinking "This is the very first time they've played it this way. What a treat" That it was.
The Streets Of Your Town snippets were surprising, yet touching, tributes to the late Grant McLennan, co-founder of legendary Brisbane band The Go-Betweens.
Lowlights:
None to speak of.
Overall
A brilliant fifth leg opener. Time to download the upgrade that Gerard posted. The sound on this one did not deliver the overwhelming potential the actual show clearly had.