I was lucky enough to be invited by Roy to see U2 and The Arcade Fire at the Corel Centre last night. Thanks again, Roy! It was a really great concert and I was impressed with the audio where we were: in the very top row (S) of section 304, left of center stage.

It's great that U2 invited The Arcade Fire to play with them in Ottawa and their two Montreal dates. The Arcade Fire is one of those great Canadian indie rock bands that's not getting enough exposure from our local radio stations. Though I have seen their videos on MuchMusic.

A lot of the crowd at the U2 concert looked over 30 and I'd hazard a guess many of them don't follow the indie rock scene so it's great exposure for the band. The Arcade Fire is not on tour right now but they mentioned they are recording a new album.

I was particularly impressed with band member Régine Chassagne, who played accordion, drums, keyboards and xylophone in as many songs and also sang. The band has an amazing stage presence -- I can't wait to see them at a smaller venue, like Capital Music Hall or Le Metropolis in Montréal.

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The U2 show was quite long -- over two hours -- and the crowd was really into it. On a few of the songs Bono let the crowd sing the choruses, which was pretty cool.

The stage was an oblong circle with the VIP crowd in the middle of it. Unlike other shows I've seen at the Corel Centre, there was no "backstage" area and people were sitting behind the stage, looking at U2's backs. There was a "video screen" made up of dangling columns of lights that displayed pictures throughout the concert. It actually froze early on in the concert and had to be retracted. Like I mentioned to Roy: at least it didn't blue screen! Ha. The circular stage was lined with lights that moved around it in different colours on upbeat songs. We had an excellent vantage point for the lighting effects where we were. :)

U2 played a lot of new songs at the start and end of the concert. In the middle they played old favourites like Sunday Bloody Sunday and talked politics for bit. Overall I liked the positive message and they didn't overdo it. U2 was just amazing on stage. There's a sense of confidence about bands that have been together that long -- I felt the same thing about the Red Hot Chili Peppers when I saw them a few years ago -- and it adds an extra dimension to the whole performance.

Overall a great show! I'm not sure I would have paid the $100 CAN+ that some people paid, even for 300 level seats. But for $60 it was well worth it. U2 was one of those bands I just had to see live before they called it quits.