U2 – Like A Hurricane (Godfather Records GR 566/567/568)

Like A Hurricane (Godfather Records GR 566/567/568)

CD 1, Zurich, Switzerland, Letzigrund Stadion, September 12, 2010:  1. Intro: Space Oddity 2. Return Of The Stingray Guitar 3 Beautiful Day / Rain 4. I Will Follow 5 Get On Your Boots 6 Magnificent 7 Mysterious Ways / Can’t Stand The Rain 08 Elevation / Singing In The Rain 09 Until The End Of The World 10 I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For / Singing In The Rain 11 North Star (New Song) 12 Mercy (New Song) 13 In A Little While 14 Miss Sarajevo 15 City Of Blinding Lights / Singing In The Rain 16 Vertigo / Teenage Kicks 17 I’ll Go Crazy If I Don’t Go Crazy Tonight / Two Tribes / Relax

CD 2:  1 Sunday Bloody Sunday 02 Mothers Of The Disappeared 3 Walk On / You’ll Never Walk Alone 4 Desmond Tutu Speech 5 Like A Hurricane / One 6 Rain / Where The Streets Have No Name 7 Moment of Surrender.  Zurich, Switzerland, Letzigrund Stadion, September 11, 2010:  8 Intro: Space Oddity 9 Return Of The Stingray Guitar 10 Magnificent 11 Beautiful Day 12 Get On Your Boots 13 Mysterious Ways 14 Until The End Of The World 15 I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For 16 Every Breaking Wave (New Song)

CD 3:  1 Elevation 2 In A Little While 3 Miss Sarajevo 4 City Of Blinding Lights / Follow The Yellow Brick Road 5 Vertigo 6 Relax / I’ll Go Crazy If I Don’t Go Crazy Tonight / Discotheque 7 Sunday Bloody Sunday 8 MLK 9 Walk On / You’ll Never Walk Alone 10 Desmond Tutu Speech 11 One 12 Amazing Grace / Where The Streets Have No Name / All You Need Is Love 13 Hold Me, Thrill Me, Kiss Me, Kill Me 14 With Or Without You 15 Moment of Surrender

The U2 fans from Switzerland were lucky to get a two night stand at the Letzigrund stadium in Zurich. The first gig was sold out after a few minutes, so they added a second gig.

As Godfather is the only label at the moment which is documenting the tour with several releases, I was hoping they would also produce a fine set of one of  the Zurich shows. I first thought they would release only one of the two gigs in its entirety and fill the second disc with some tracks from the other night. But they had the glorious idea to release the two complete gigs on a three disc set. This is possible because the Zurich shows were not among the longest of the tour. So they fit perfectly on three discs.

The Letzigrund stadium was completely rebuilt for the the 2008 European Football Championship. So everybody was curious how the new Letzigrund would be for big concert events. The sound in the new arena is now better than it used to be some years ago.

I was at the first show on Saturday September 11. Fans who were at both shows all prefered the second one on Sunday. The photographs on the cover are from this second gig. You can see the band playing in the rain. Also the title „Like a hurricane” is referring to the hard rain that was falling during the whole gig. But the rain made the gig in some way special, as the fans were saying. The band was really on fire to give their fans in the pouring rain something more. This phenomenon we have also seen in 2003 when Bruce Springsteen was playing in Milano under waves of water and he did one of his best gigs ever.

Highlights oft he Sunday concert which is documented here in a very good audience record were the new songs. The first was „North star”. This quiet song is sounding wonderful on the tape Godfather is using. This one was already played in Torino (see „The Prodigal Son” on Godfather Records 558/559) For many fans, the real highlight of the evening was the first live performance of „Mercy”, one of the most popular among the band’s unreleased tracks from the « Atomic Bomb” sessions. These two tracks are together with  „I Will Follow” and „Mothers Of The Disappeared” (only second performance of this rarely played song from the Joshua tree album during the 360 Tour!) were the songs not performed during the first Zurich gig.

Bono was also singing some of his famous rain snippets during the concert.

At the end of « Moment of surrender », Bono is thanking the enthusiastic audience for a « special night ».

Then comes fhe first gig. The sound quality on this one is also very good. This concert was more standard than the second night. But also here we have a new song: „Every breaking wave”. This is a long talked about but as yet unreleased song left over from the sessions of the latest U2 studio album. As with « North star » from the other night, this ballad played solo together with the Edge, sounds beautiful on the tape Godfather is using. Finally, I’d like to mention „Until The End Of The World”. On this one, the Edge is proving what a fantastic guitar player he still is.

The package is once again top-notch ! Inside the trifold cardboard sleeve, there is a review of the magic second night from the U2.com homepage. We get also a miniature 8 pages booklet with many nice photographs from the two nights (p.e. the guests from the public that had the privilege to join the band on stage).

U2 is still touching the hearts of many people. This can be demonstrated with the fact, that after a not too positive review in a big Swiss newspaper, over 160 (!) readers’ comments were posted on the homepage of the newspaper. Afterwards the newspaper even published an article on how a review of a rock concert should be and why opinions from fans and professional rock critics about a gig can be like from two different planets.

This new Godfather set is highly recommended !