Reflective countdown to U2 show in the ATL, 6 Oct. 2009

New blog project. Something to do with the ol' noggin. Output rather than input. You get the picture.

The fam and I have tickets for U2's 360 tour show at the Georgia Dome in the ATL on Tuesday, 6 October. Sweet. I'll get to see the band for the first time in 8 years (twice in 2001 at Philip's Arena), and *finally* the boys will make their first U2 show, after the sad fall of 2005 when we had to sell our 4 tickets to the Cleveland show (Vertigo tour) after changing seminary venues at the last possible moment. Austin was simply too far away to make the trip. Sold the tix on eBay, and making a killing on them was not that much consolation, believe me.

So, the plan: grab a set list from the tour as it has gone down thusfar, and over the coming days, post the lyrics to each song and a short reflection on each. As simple and as hard (for me, allergic to projects) as that.

So to start us off, here's tonight's setlist from the tour's third and final show at Croke Park in Dublin. It's a damn good one, and what an incredible thing it must've been to be there in a Dublin audience for a U2 show, whether tonight or Friday or Saturday.

Main Set: Breathe, No Line On The Horizon, Get On Your Boots, Magnificent, Beautiful Day - My Hometown, New Year's Day, I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For, Stay (Faraway, So Close), Unknown Caller, The Unforgettable Fire, City of Blinding Lights, Vertigo, I'll Go Crazy If I Don't Go Crazy Tonight, Sunday Bloody Sunday, Pride, MLK, Walk On - You'll Never Walk Alone, Where the Streets Have No Name, One, Bad

Encore(s): Ultraviolet, With or Without You, Moment of Surrender

For now it's enough just to try and take in this amazing list of songs from the 30+ year career of four guys from Dublin, guys that wrote much of the soundtrack to my formative years and continue to do powerful things musically and otherwise. The beauty and spiritual and experiential depth behind this list boggles the mind. More soon...