Vertigo Tour review highlights

It seems rather out of place to post about anything but the new U2 tour at the moment, so I thought I'd cite some of my favorite lines from the zillion mainstream media reviews of the San Diego opener. Thanks to a few people who sent me links; Google News pretty much has it all, though.

As Bono knows better than anyone, it's hard to smirk when you're singing at the top of your lungs. --New York Times
Not since the sparse days of The Joshua Tree has spectacle taken such a distant backseat to statements at a U2 concert. ...Heavy-handed? C'mon, this is U2. You must accept a modicum of heavy-handedness to get to the galvanizing strength and cathartic potential of the music. --Orange County Register
After defining U2's identity with a spare stutter, [the Edge] now draws from a staggering range of sonic pigments that evoke passions as mournful, euphoric and furious as anything Bono conjures with language and lungs. --(lost the reference on this one, sorry)
Perhaps there is a room where Americans resent listening to an Irishman lecture them about the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. ("He wasn't just talking about the American dream," Bono explained. "His dream was even bigger than that.") But this wasn't it. --New York Times
Bono gave the audience another shout-out, changing the lyric "I'm at a place called Vertigo" to "San Diego." (Good luck in East Rutherford.) --MTV

And, just like they did from about '83 to about '89, journalists all have the end of their articles handed to them on a platter again:
"I will sing, sing a new song," Bono chanted. "How long to sing this song?" the crowd chanted back, over and over, until the only sound heard throughout the arena was the forceful thickness of thousands of voices in unison, long after U2 had walked offstage. --Associated Press