Brussels Evening Dress Rehearsal

Koning Boudewijn Stadion

Brussels, Belgium.

09 - June - 2005.

Evening Dress Rehearsal

Disc 1 (65:28)

01. Wake Up (PA) / Everyone (PA)

02. Vertigo

03. Until the End of the World

04. The Electric Co.

05. Elevation

06. New Year's Day

07. Beautiful Day

08. City of Blinding Lights

09. Miracle Drug

10. Sometimes You Can't Make it on Your Own

11. Love and Peace or Else

12. Sunday Bloody Sunday

13. Bullet the Blue Sky

Disc 2 (47:55)

01. Running to Stand Still

02. - Declaration of Human Rights -  

03. Pride (In the Name of Love)

04. Where the Streets Have No Name

05. - "Make Poverty History" speech -

06. One

07. - encore break -

08. - Zooropa Jackpot -

09. Zoo Station

10. The Fly

11. Mysterious Ways

12. All Because of You

13. Yahweh

Recording Equipment - History

OKM II Rock microphones > Sony TCD-D7 DAT > TDK DA-RXG 180 min. DAT tape (master)

Taper: Jona

1st Location: outside the stadium, Edge side (left from stage), back end entrance
2nd Location: outside the stadium, Edge side (left from stage), street

Transfer: TDK DA-RXG 180 min. DAT master > Sony RMR-D3 (Digital I/O Adaptor) > Coaxial > Pioneer PDR609 > CDR-Master > FLAC

Reworkings: only the left channel wasn't heavily distorted, so I used this for both sides. I normalized it. I eq'ed it a bit to make the overall sound better. Cuts for our removal in Mysterious Ways and All Because Of You.

Additional comments (by Jona): U2 rehearsed a complete show in the almost empty stadium one day before the European leg of the Vertigo Tour kicks off at the same location. No fans were allowed inside this time but many heard the show from outside the stadium.

About 30 minutes before this Dress Rehearsal 2 coaches with VIPs got in the stadium. At this moment we were stuck between the fans outside on the street and the stadium itself. We were dancing like mad. We were singing along. But you won't hear it hardly, because the music was so loud, even outside the stadium. Between the songs you can also hear the yelling and cheering of the people on the street.

But... after almost a complete show, we were thrown out during Mysterious Ways and the beginning of All Because Of You. We were removed from the location where we stood the whole afternoon and evening. I got to the outside to find a good location. There were a lot of people on the street, and you will hear some talk, some cheering, some clapping.

The day after we heard the guy removed us by accident. The guy who got us out, didn't understand his walkie talkie well, but most of the security knew we were at the back end entrance and had already decided that it was ok to stay where we were. (In fact, they pointed the location to us, after they asked U2's management whether we could get in for the dress rehearsal).

Comments

As Jona mentioned above, the recording was done outside the stadium. Although the tape is quite distant, sound is strong and clear enough to have a pleasant listen. That being said, the overall sound quality is pretty good. This is the dress rehearsal, the day before the European tour started.

Note the cuts in Mysterious Ways and All Because of You, explained above by the taper.