U2start.com | Shows | 2017-09-10 - Indianapolis, Indiana

"SP-CMC-08s - R05"

Origins: Audience microphone
Credits: ironchef (Audio Taper)
Equipment: SP-CMC-8 (Microphone), SP-SPSB-10 (Power supply), Roland R05 (Audio recording device)
Lineage: [master] > CoolEditPro > CD Wave > TLH > .flac > fre:ac > mp3
Quality based on reviews:
Downloads: 428

Audio / MP3

Bit rate: 224, bit depth: 16, sample rate: 44100, channels: 2

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Here you can find and post reviews of this show. We encourage everyone that either attended or listened to this show to write a review. Currently we have 3 reviews for you to read.

review by Hoosier2012

6 years ago

Performance

This performance would have been a perfect 5/5 from the band if it hadn't been for some fairly serious technical issues during ISHFWILF and some more issues during WOWY. Bono and Edge just *could not* pick a key during Still Haven't Found, which made for kind of a cringe-worthy listening experience. That said, they got their act together somewhere around Bullet the Blue Sky, and the rest of the show was great. Larry turned around and pointed at the camera and mouthed "I believe in you" during the break in Elevation, which was fantastic. Bono was on fire from Exit through the end of the show, and the It's Only Rock 'n' Roll (But I Like It) snippet during Vertigo was stellar. It felt to me like Bono was close to Vertigo Tour-level energy during the encore (especially during Vertigo), which was great to see. (Maybe Bono was trying to get everyone amped up for the tour debut of the new single? I don't know. But it was great.) You could see the band (especially Bono and Edge) shoot looks back and forth with each other during the show, acknowledging that they had some tech problems, but they pushed through it and finished strong.

Sound

(I've not listened to the recording yet. I'll come back and finish this when I listen to it!)
Recording: "SP-CMC-08s - R05" - 3.5 stars

Audience

This crowd was great. The band really fed off of the crowd's energy (or maybe it was just @guykirk9's energy...who knows), especially during the encore, and it made for a great show. As far as I could tell, the crowd really responded well to the debut of YTBTAM, especially the GA section. Vertigo also got a monster crowd response--more so than Elevation, which surprised me a little. I also didn't see any sort of negative response to Hillary Clinton appearing on the screen (in Mike Pence's old stomping grounds/solid Trump country, unfortunately), which was a little surprising to me. Good to see, though. Bono was also really feeling a connection with the crowd, talking at length during Trip Through Your Wires about their appearance as the Dalton Brothers back in 1987, and I think the crowd reciprocated appreciation for his connection with the city. I saw more jumpers and more hands up here than I remember seeing in DC. Again, maybe not like a European or Latin American crowd, but I thought we did pretty damn well for a North American crowd.

Overall

Well, the day started quite early. It was quite dark and cold in the wristband line at 5 AM, and the venue didn't get us our GA wristbands until about 7 AM instead of the promised 6 AM. That said, after we got those, life was great. We all came back at about 2:00. I met some fantastic people in line, and we all had a good time hanging out until about 5:30, when we finally got onto the field. Seeing the Joshua Tree stage on my football team's field was really a thrill.

Beck kicked off the show at 7:30 and really rocked the place. I think his opening set really paved the way for U2 to come out and give an energetic performance. I don't dance, but I was definitely dancing during part of his set. He was great.

I was by the tree stage, so the first four songs of U2's set were when the whole band was closest for me. Much as in DC, that was stellar. The segment of Bad in which Bono had the crew kill the lights was really breathtaking. Bono led into Pride with a nice speech about how Robert Kennedy was in Indianapolis the night that MLK was assassinated and how Robert Kennedy's words that night were still applicable to the country now. (Indianapolis was one of the few major cities not to have riots that night, and it was largely credited to RFK's speech during his campaign rally that night.) As a result, I thought Pride sounded great.

Since I had taken pictures during the DC show, I was able to put my camera down during the lead-in to Streets and really just take it in, which was really breathtaking. There are few things in the world more epic than seeing U2 play through the first 2 minutes of Streets live.

As I mentioned, Bono and Edge struggled to find the key they were looking for during ISHFWILF, and Edge sounded off during the first half of WOWY. They pulled it together in time for Bullet, though, which was fiery. (I thought it was more fiery than the first time I saw it, though maybe it was just because I was on my phone less? I don't know.)

The latter half of The Joshua Tree was excellent--Bono dedicated One Tree Hill to people who had been taken from our lives too early, which was really emotional for me, since I lost a good college friend back in June. Trip Through Your Wires was fun because of the aforementioned discussion of the Dalton Brothers. And Exit...Exit was Exit. You know the drill by now. Disorienting, blistering, fierce...damn near blew the building apart.

I think I've covered the encore pretty well above--the tour debut of YTBTAM was definitely a highlight, and so was Vertigo. I'd have still liked to see Mysterious Ways instead of Ultraviolet (I've seen UV 3 times now and MW none...*sigh* ), but UV was good. And the lengthy Drowning Man snippet at the end of One was a nice touch.

All in all, there's nothing like being on the front rail for GA for U2, even if you're a little tired and sore at the end of the day. I'm glad I made the trek home for the show, and wouldn't have missed it for the world.