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"30 Seconds For Ray Bourque"...U2 In Boston 6/8 and 6/9 2001Jun 10 '01 (Updated Jun 28 '01) Write an essay on this topic.
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The Bottom Line U2, Ray Bourque, and the Stanley Cup...a winning combination.
After Tuesday's show, I honestly wondered how U2 was ever going to top themselves for the final half of their Boston run (Wednesday's show was taped by HBO and the band for a special/DVD, and 2 songs of it were broadcast at halftime of the NBA game) of 4 sold out shows on Friday and Saturday nights. Originally Friday night was supposed to be the ONLY show I went to, but I lucked out with tickets for Saturday and Tuesday. Friday's show was much more personal for me, as I got the two remaining songs I knew I had to hear. Saturday's show was mind blowingly good, and the end of the night was fitting, touching, and celebratory. Each of the two shows opened with Elevation, just as every show has this tour. The album cut of this song doesn't do it justice, as it is a live monster. The jumping, the high pitched singing along on the "hooooooooooooooooooooooo"s, the Edge's bone rattling guitar, out of the songs I heard three times, I had no problem getting this one three times, it's too much fun. Friday's show continued with the basic opening trio of the whole tour, as Elevation was followed by Beautiful Day and Until the End of the World, both of which are just two more showcases for the Edge, especially UTEOTW, with Bono kissing the Edge on the cheek to the great applause of the 18,000 Boston fans in attendance. They changed the set up a bit from the first two nights, which were basically the same set, save for a fan getting up and playing guitar on a b-side. New Year's Day sprang free, as did 11 O'Clock Tick Tock, which was a pleasant surprise. Sweetest Thing didn't come across that well in a live setting. The band seemed off on this one, as Bono didn't sit at the keyboard until after the song had kind of kicked in. After Sweetest Thing, I saw Edge grab an acoustic guitar, and Bono ran to the tip of the heart. Edge started strumming the chords to Angel of Harlem and I exploded in the biggest girlie scream this side of kristinafh at an N'Sync concert. I love this song to death, I always have, it's one of the two songs that got me into the band. The whole crowd loved it, a perfect rendition, with Bono sounding much more confident than he did at any time Tuesday night. After a surprising Ground Beneath Her Feet, the Edge played the opening notes to All I Want Is You and by this time I'm in tears again. This song, to me anyways, is the best of U2 live. It rings loud, yet it's poignant and beautiful. The crowd participation is second to none. The rest of the set for Friday's show was pretty static, usual order and everything. Saturday's show was amazing. I think I have to do a bit of an explanatory interlude here. You see, last night was not only the last night for U2 here in Boston, it also was most likely the last night for Ray Bourque to win a Stanley Cup. For those of you who are clueless when it comes to sports, Ray Bourque was an all star defenseman for the Boston Bruins for over 20 years. Last year, once it was obvious he had no chance of winning a championship in Boston, he requested a trade to a contender. He was beat out last year, but this year, game 7 took place on the same night that U2 rocked Boston for the last time. After Elevation, the band started Pride, and from that moment on it's obvious the setlist is not going to be anywhere near the same. End of the World came next, and I have no complaints about hearing that song 3 times either. I love love LOVE that guitar riff. Keeping up with the Achtung Baby theme started on UTEOTW, the band played three more songs in a row from that album, The Fly, Even Better Than the Real Thing, and climaxing this opening salvo that I thought was gonna kill me with Mysterious Ways. Finally, they slowed things down with the 4 song stretch that was never touched for any of the 4 shows. Stuck In A Moment, Kite, Gone, and New York. The shows (all of them) kind of lost steam at this point. Stuck in a Moment keeps the momentum up, and Kite does a bit as well, but it seems the crowds don't care about Gone (one might call it the one refugee from the awful Pop album since that's all the band seems to be playing from it this tour, with the occasional Discotheque rendition thrown in), and I'm sorry, but any song called New York is not going to go over well in Boston, even with the line "The Irish have been coming here for years." Old favorites Out of Control, Sunday Bloody Sunday and Desire got things moving again, and then a request, Party Girl came out and that was an excellent moment, even though it seemed hardly anyone knew it. After a pair of ballads (Stay and Bad), Where The Streets Have No Name started and this song represented everything good about this week, each and every time it was played. This song is just a giant party in the crowd, and the band seems to love playing it even though they've probably done it at just about every show since it was released nearly 15 years ago. Then another surprise came out. Beautiful Day closed the regular set, with Bono screaming out at the audience to sing along that "the goal is soul," a completely anthemic and unifying moment that may have been the DEFINING moment of the week. For the encore, the Edge came out wearing a Bruins Ray Bourque jersey, which was the crowd's first clue that perhaps things were going his way. (Talking to people around us, everyone said the one thing that sucked about being at the show was not being able to watch game 7) It wasn't until right before With Or Without You that Bono gave us a clue: "It's looking good for Ray Bourque." The crowd erupted, and I do mean erupted. The cheer that went up in the Garden (because, if you've read my first review, you know that for 4 days U2 rebuilt the Garden brick by brick) blew anything else away from the 3 nights I was there. And then, right before the show and week closing Walk On, Bono once again spoke: "30 seconds for Ray Bourque. Ray Bourque is gonna walk on the only way he should, as Stanley Cup champion." From there, the celebration was on, and the crowd sang right along with Walk On, almost as a fitting tribute to Bourque, one of the most universally loved athletes ever on the Boston sports scene. As the crowd filed out into the various lobbies, the TV monitors were on and were tuned to ABC. Just as we were walking out, the Stanley Cup was being wheeled out onto the ice. After a short speech from Gary Bettman, he handed the trophy to Colorado captain Joe Sakic, who immediately gave it to Ray to the cheers of everyone in the lobby. It was a moment I can only say I'm honored to have watched from where I did, and as we left the building, the celebratory chant said it all: "Bourquie won the cup...Bourquie won the cup...Bourquie won the cup..." U2 setlist for June 8, Boston MA Fleetcenter (both sets courtesy of U2tours.com) Main Set: Elevation, Beautiful Day, Until the End of the World, New Year's Day, Stuck In a Moment, Kite, Gone, New York, 11 O'Clock Tick Tock, Sunday Bloody Sunday/Get Up Stand Up, Sweetest Thing, Angel of Harlem, The Ground Beneath Her Feet, All I Want Is You, Where the Streets Have No Name, Mysterious Ways, The Fly Encore(s): Bullet the Blue Sky, With or Without You, One, Walk On U2 setlist for June 9, Boston MA Fleetcenter Main Set: Elevation, Pride, Until the End of the World, The Fly, Even Better Than the Real Thing, Mysterious Ways, In My Life/Stuck In A Moment, Kite, Gone, New York, Out of Control, Sunday Bloody Sunday, Desire, Party Girl, Stay, Bad, Where the Streets Have No Name, Beautiful Day Encore(s): Bullet the Blue Sky, With or Without You, One/She's a Mystery To Me, Walk On For those interested, I am running a CDR tree that will spread recordings (audio) of all 4 of U2's Boston 2001 concerts around to whomever wants them complete info and sign up info can be found here: http://www.angelfire.com/ma3/matta75/u2tree.html  |
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