exploremusic

There’s a reason why U2 hadn’t played Russia before last night.  Logistically, getting a tour the size of a typical U2 roadtrip—200 trucks and personnel, all requiring visas, work permits, government inspections and (ahem) certain special fees.  Then there’s the matter of the band’s political positions.  Things like, say, support for universal human rights, political freedom and freedom of expression and opposition of corrupt regimes (like Burma) who happen to be Russian friends.

But everything seemed to be hunky-dory.  Tuesday, Bono flew to the resort city of Sochi to meet with President Medvedev and between sparing over musical tastes (Bono championed Led Zeppelin; Medvedev defended Deep Purple), they talked about things like third world debt and funding for AIDS initiatives.

Then at the show, I was surprised to see booths for Amnesty International, One and Greenpeace set up outside the stadium.  And given the crowds around each of them, they were doing brisk business signing up new members.  Apparently, their presence had been cleared and approved ahead of time.

Alas, it was not to be.  The police and military soon moved in and shut them all down, calling them “unlawful pickets.”  I heard that at least two people were arrested.  If U2 knew about this, they didn’t say anything from the stage.   They did, however, stay on message with their appeals for the crowd to push for all the human rights and freedoms we take for granted in the West.  From what I could tell, nothing about the show was censored.  Some of Bono’s speeches were even close-captioned in Russian on the video screen.  I assume that the captioning was correct, although the crowd reaction was muted.  Maybe Russian audiences are still afraid to express anything that may be considered anti-government.

Back to the police and military presence for a second.  I have never, ever seen such security at a concert before.  There were hundreds and hundreds of military personnel with each solider outfitted with several truncheons and probably a pistol or two.  There were troop carriers, multiple security checkpoints with pat-downs and bag searches, sniffer dogs and metal detectors.  And the strongest drink you could buy was a Pepsi.  No wonder the crowd was so well behaved. No pushing, no shoving, no moshing. There wasn’t even a SINGLE scrap of litter anywhere.

Snow Patrol started the evening with a spirited 40-minute set.  By the time 9:00 rolled around U2, still hadn’t appeared.  Apparently the road crew knew something we didn’t because they started covering all the gear with plastic tarps.

At 9:05, we found out why.  The skies opened up, just as U2 launched into their set with “Beautiful Day.”  Naturally.

The rain pounded us mercilessly for the next 90 minutes.  I’ve been drier standing in the shower.  And because The Claw offers the band little shelter from the elements, U2 had to stick to the centre of the stage.  They could only make short trips to the outer ring without getting risk of getting shocked.  And the last thing Bono needed to do was slip and fall and screw up his back again.

Here’s the set list (Thanks, Larry!)

The Return of The StingRay Guitar

Beautiful Day (Rain snippet)

New Year’s Day

Get On Your Boots

Magnificent

Mysterious Ways (My Sweet Lord snippet)

Elevation

Until The End of The World

I Still haven’t Found What I’m Looking For

Pride

In a Little While

Miss Sarajevo

City of Blinding Lights

Vertigo

I’ll Go Crazy If I Don’t Go Crazy Tonight (remix)

Sunday Bloody Sunday (Get Up Stand Up snippet)

MLK

Walk On

One

Where The Streets Have No Name (Amazing Grace snippet)

Ultraviolet

With or Without You

Knockin On Heaven’s Door (with Yuri Shevchuk, singer of Russian band DDT )

Moment of Surrender

Less than 90 minutes after the show, the first YouTube clip appeared.  Yes, it really was raining this hard.

A few minutes later, another one appeared, The umbrella was a nice touch.

And finally, there’s this cover of “Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door” with Yuri Shevchuk that got a big reaction from the crowed.

Here are a few pictures from me:

What do you eat at a Russian concert?  A salmon caviar sandwich, of course!

Bono ventures out into the rain.

My best picture of the night was of Adam.

That’s it.  I’m cold, wet and tired.  Time for bed  It’s already 2:28am Moscow time Thursday morning.  I have to go see Lenin’s tomb in 7 hours.  They trot him out only a few days a week before they have to put him back in the fridge.