Special thanks to our special Vertigo Tour correspondent Pat Hurley for his reports and photos. Pat - sounds like you picked the right locations to be at! You can see his photos here.
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Sorry for taking so long to file this report, got back from Hawaii yesterday, has taken me some time to gather my thoughts from all the events of the extended weekend. And what an amazing experience it was surrounding this tour-ending concert! A chronological summary:

FRIDAY: Touch down in Honolulu around 8PM local time, our driver asks us right off the bat if we’re in town for the big U2 concert, he’s been picking people up all day who are going to the show, also ferrying people to Bono’s rental house as well as our hotel which some of the band members are staying at (are you kidding me!).

SATURDAY A.M.: Before heading downstairs for breakfast, took a look at an article in the local paper describing how some fans started camping out in the GA line on Thursday night, and how accommodating the venue was in opening up some concession stands and providing portable toilets. Sit down at our table, look up and guess who is sitting two tables away……. Billie Joe from Green Day! I’m thinking he must be here to play “The Saints are Coming” with the boys tonight, right ? Also spotted him later in the day doing some of the normal things a family does while on vacation, kind of cool to see him as a regular father as opposed to the famous lead singer we see on stage or on TV.

SATURDAY P.M.: Just from hanging out around the hotel all day, and noticing all the people with U2 shirts or “ONE” wristbands, it seems many of us have traveled a long way to see this show. Waiting out front to catch a cab to the stadium, wearing the “INSPI(RED)” T-shirts my wife picked up from the Gap before we left the mainland, another couple comes up to us and comments on the shirts. After chatting for a few minutes, the valet brings their car around, at which point they offer us a ride to the concert. Now I’m originally from NYC, so I’m not in the habit of accepting rides from perfect strangers, but given they’re U2 fans and sympathetic enough to our situation to offer, we hop in and enjoy the ride with the radio tuned to a station that is just playing blocks of U2 and PJ (Deb and Mark – thanks again).

THE CONCERT (Pre-U2): Arriving at about 6pm, there were still plenty of people in the parking lots tailgating, but you couldn’t tell that from the size of the crowds surrounding the 4 merchandise tents. Sorry Rocko, I missed most of your opening act while waiting to buy a few T-shirts and a poster, but you sounded like you were having fun. Finally we reached our seats, 3rd row - stage right - killer view (thanks to @U2 reader Becky M. – your package will be in the mail soon) and waited for the arrival of Pearl Jam. Knowing they only had about an hour for their set, Eddie & Co. were on fire from the start, playing many of their songs (Corduroy, Elderly Woman…, Evenflow, Betterman) that would be recognizable even to the audience members who were there just to see U2. The native islanders in the crowd got a treat as PJ also played a song “Hawaii 78” written by a Hawaiian member of the band. Pearl Jam closed their set in impressive fashion with “Alive” and a cover of “Baba O’Riley” that brought down the house.

THE MAIN EVENT: As the crew clears PJ’s equipment and gets the stage ready for U2, it gives us a break to catch our breath and prepare for take-off. The anticipation builds until finally “Wake Up” bursts from the speakers while a ticker-tape of every show on the Vertigo tour crawls across the video screen behind the band. Bono emerges on the catwalk waving an American flag at the start of “CoBL”. The lower deck of the stadium is literally bouncing up and down as the band rips through “Vertigo”, “Elevation” and “I Will Follow”. The atmosphere is more like a celebration than anything else as the crowd expresses its joy and the band is completely at ease and having fun, most notably when Bono pulls a fan from the crowd who is “very specific” about playing keyboard on “Wild Horses” and Bono checks that Edge remembers “the chords”. As the fan returns to the cheering crowd, running back down the catwalk arms overhead in triumph, we are treated to “The First Time” before the band completes the main set and first encore with familiar numbers which have been staples on this tour. Bono apologized a couple of times for the concert’s postponement, thanking the crowd for a “second chance” and for “hanging around” as well as thanking Edge for “staying strong”. I have to admit, this being the final show of the tour, I was looking forward to the band doing something a little different and they delivered in the second encore. After “Window in the Skies”, Billie Joe joins the band on stage (like I thought earlier) for “The Saints are Coming”, then Eddie and Mike from PJ appeared for a cover of “Rockin’ in the Free World”. The scene of Bono and Eddie dancing and exchanging lyrics and Edge and Mike trading solos was incredible, their extended version of the song ended with everyone singing “We love the Edge”. The night came to a close with “All I Want Is You”, the band members leaving one by one with Larry the last to go, playing the drums slower and slower, almost like he didn’t want to finish and the show to come to an end, until he came out from behind his kit to deliver the last words, “See you soon”. Just an amazing night.

SUNDAY: Back at our hotel, poolside, early afternoon, there suddenly appears a man dressed all in black, shades, slicked back hair. Everybody perks up, “Is that him?”, “That’s not him, his hair is too long” and indeed it wasn’t Bono, it was just his decoy. But we’re thinking, if his decoy is here, maybe he is too? Sure enough, about a half hour later, I spot Bono up on a veranda overlooking the pool, sitting at a table, just hanging out with friends. We move to an adjacent room, seeking a chance maybe for a quick hello or photo op, but as he leaves the room he stops just long enough to say hi to a couple of kids and their mom before his bodyguard escorts him over to the elevators.

All in all, a great trip, an incredible show and a few glimpses (some not mentioned) of the people behind the rock stars which I’m glad to say only enhanced my opinion of them.