U2 360° Tour Live In Sydney - 13 December 2010

Who: U2

What U2360° Tour

When: 13 December 2010, Monday

Where: ANZ Stadium Sydney

The second concert I caught in Sydney was U2's massive 360° Tour at the 60,000 seat ANZ Stadium. This concert was the primary reason why my friends and I embarked on this Sydney trip, and it was an experience like no other.

Once you step into the stadium, you realise how enormous the whole concert is going to be. The Claw is right in front of us, and massive as it is, it looks kinda small cos it's so far away. I thought The Claw structure would be more metallic and silver, but it was light green and looked like some cheap plastic toy frame. That was before it came alive as the sky turned dark of course.

Jay-Z opened the show at about 6:15pm, when the stadium was only about one-third full. It was a Monday evening and most people were still making their way to the stadium after work. As good as Jay-Z was, we didn't really get into it as the sound on our side of the stadium was really bad. Jay-Z was muffled and we couldn't make out any of the song lyrics at all. It was rather bad.

However, our friends who were seated on the oppposite side of the stadium told us that the sound there was quite clear, just that it was a little loud. So it seems that we got the short end of the stick. Such a pity, because even for U2, the sound wasn't much better. And this was the most expensive concert among the three!

I was expecting a grand entrance by U2, but they simply strolled out from one of the entrances on the ground, with the stadium lights fully on. They were surrounded by security but walked in plain view of everyone. After walking about 60, they then hopped onto stage and started playing. Bono's mic seemed to be faulty while the rest of the band played. Only towards the end of the song was his mic replaced. Besides this initial technical guffaw, the rest of the night went smoothly.

As the night grew darker, The Claw demonstrated its full power and put on a dazzling light show. You needed a massive structure like this to match the grandiose of U2's anthems, which filled the huge stadium adequately. It would have been even more cool if The Claw was able to move or had more surprises in its body, like raise its mechanical arm or something. I was thinking along the lines of Transformers...

U2 played almost all of their hits, and the crowd lapped it all up. My favourite song of the evening was I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For. Jay-Z made a cameo appearance during Sunday Bloody Sunday as well. I thought it was strange that they decided to do Hold Me, Thrill Me, Kiss Me, Kill Me as one of the encore songs. It wasn't that big a hit for me, and certainly not one of their most classic songs. By the time U2 finished the last notes of Moment Of Surrender, it was about 10:15pm and all 60,000 of us started to make our way home.

All in all, it was definitely something to remember. A U2 concert is on a whole other level. Something like a National Day Parade kinda level. It's a spectacle. It's huge. And when Bono asks everyone to put up their mobile phones in the air, you don't see stars - you see a galaxy. It's that massive and magical. You got to give credit to them for being at the top of their game for so long, and still managing to pull in the crowds night after night. It's amazing. If only they'll come to Singapore one day.

Here are some of my best pics from the night, enjoy!

(There seems to be some problem uploading pics now. I'll try again another time and upload more pics)

The massive ANZ Stadium

(taken with my camera's panoramic mode)

Jay-Z opens the show

The concert is about to begin...

The CLAW!

Bono!

Bono picks a girl from the audience and she laps it up

Jay-Z returns for a guest spot

Bono needs a little elevation

A galaxy of stars