The first of two concerts at the MGM Grand Garden Arena was what every U2 fan could hope for - sponteneity, fan interaction, and an appearance from the King himself. Bono reminded everyone that he knew where he was - from incorporating Nevada into City of Blinding Lights to various Elvis Presley references.

The 14,000+ audience was full of energy, proving that they could sing just as loud as a sold-out 18,000+ arena could. I had heard from various different hotel sales and concierge professionals that the casinos had held over 1,000 tickets for their own inventory for this night’s show, and based on the scattered empty seats through the arena, it appeared that they couldn’t give the tickets away. That didn’t stop the enthusiasm of all who were in attendance to make up for the lost voices.

Most of the highlights have been covered on U2tours.com, but the biggest highlight for me was being able to hear Who’s Gonna Ride Your Wild Horses with mostly drum and bass. Edge had an unfortunate encounter with a guitar string that decided it didn’t want to be part of the guitar anymore, so his trusty guitar tech, Dallas Schoo, had to make a quick mend of it. The first attempt to fix it proved futile, so Dallas tried something else. All the while, Bono’s giving the audience updates on the progress while creating new lyrics incorporating Dallas Schoo (and trying to find something that rhymes with the name too). I’m a huge rhythm section fan, and while it’s nice to have the full band, it’s very rare when you just get the rhythm section on a song. That was a big highlight for me.

It was a surprise to see Stuck in a Moment placed after Sometimes You Can’t Make It On Your Own and before Love and Peace. The song starts off acoustic and then builds at the end where Larry and Adam join in. At the start of the song, Larry and Adam exited the stage only to return towards the end when they pick up the song. It seemed odd that after getting Larry all settled back behind the drum kit that he’s have to unsettle himself again to head out to the ellipse for Love and Peace. It’s like he *just* got back behind the drums only to turn around and leave them.

Both an Irish Flag and a Polish flag with the artwork for “Coexist” made their way onto the stage, with Bono draping each over Larry’s drums during the show. A blonde woman was pulled up on stage during With or Without You for the nightly dance with Bono segment of the show. Bono joked with another woman on the outer tip of the ellipse that he had promised to wear a scarf given to him from the woman that Elvis wore and gave to the woman’s mother. Throughout the GA area, there were various signs fans created to communicate with the band in some way. Even outside the arena, one fan had her trusty sign asking Bono if he remembered her from Phoenix. The fan creativity with signs has been fun to see evolve on this leg of the tour. Of the names appearing on the screen during the 2nd encore break from the One Campaign sign-ups, one stood out: Ron Jeremy. Could it be the same Ron Jeremy who has revolutionized the pornography industry?

Bono’s speeches before Miracle Drug, Sometimes You Can’t Make It On Your Own and One were relatively short. Arcade Fire’s “Wake Up” started at around 9:20ish, and the show ended around 11:30ish.

Oh - ironic change of lyric of the day: “I want to take shelter from the hurricanes…where the streets have no name”….I’m sure that’ll make its way into the shows next weekend in Miami.

I do have to commend the staff and security at the MGM Grand Arena for keeping both the GA line and the “i need to buy a ticket” line orderly and well organized. Even though fans were disappointed when they found out the GA tickets they wanted were all gone (they only released 91 GA tickets about 5 hours before show time) and all that were left were the most expensive tickets, they were still upbeat about it all.

There was hope that they’d pull out Mofo to commemorate the start of the PopMart tour in Las Vegas 7 years ago, or that BB King would hurry over to the arena to join the band on stage, but that was not meant to be. There’s always Saturday’s show!

Great meeting everyone throughout the night - Evy…I hope they saw your sign!

For more photos from behind the stage, visit here.

The November 7 issue of Time Magazine has an article written by Bono on the debt relief efforts in Africa. An article is available online here. The main topic in this issue of Time appears to be dedicated to global health.

In a recent issue of The Boston Herald, it was reported that the chances of U2 playing Fenway Park was slim-to-none for 2006. Actually, it’s slim-to-none for any major rock band. According to the Inside Track article on October 24, “Word is, the Red Sox got a little spooked after last summer’s Stones concert tore up the outfield, forcing a delay in the start of a Sox-Tigers game. That means that it’s not likely that U2 will get to play the old ballyard. They’ll probably end up at Gillette Stadium when the big-box portion of their tour comes through town next year.”

Unfortunately, when this article was written, nothing had been signed for 2006 yet by anyone within the U2 organization. So, the Herald’s report was a hopeful one at best.

So far, there still has been no official word from U2 or TNA as to their plans for 2006. We’ve been told that if anything does happen, it’ll be announced on U2.com first.