BlackBerry heart U2

U2 played two nights at the Skydome in Toronto in September 2009 as part of their 360 Tour. The first night was something of a corporate takeover — roughly two-thirds of the tickets were sponsor seats, and BlackBerry handed out a pair to every employee. They even laid on buses from the Ottawa office to Toronto and back, so nobody had to think about getting there. The result was a stadium full of colleagues, which made for an unusual energy before the show even started.

Snow Patrol opened. They were a good fit for the scale of the evening — big enough songs to warm up 57,000 people, played with enough sincerity to earn it.

Then U2 came out, and the 360 stage made everything else feel small by comparison. The claw — that massive four-legged structure towering over the Skydome floor — was unlike anything I'd seen at a concert before. It made the stage visible from every seat in the building.

I watched the show from the inner ring of the stage, which put you right inside the action. The roof is rarely open for evening concerts at the Skydome which made it extra special At one point I found myself standing next to a couple of the Dragons from CBC's Dragons' Den. We didn't talk about investment opportunities.

The setlist is still available on U2tours.com — 23 songs across three sets. They opened with Breathe and No Line On The Horizon from the new album, worked through the catalogue — Beautiful Day, Elevation, The Unforgettable Fire, Sunday Bloody Sunday — and closed the night with With Or Without You and Moment Of Surrender.

Where The Streets Have No Name closed the first encore. In a stadium that size, with that many people, it was exactly what you'd hope it would be.

When the local papers reviewed the concerts, they mentioned the second night the crowd was even more lively. Little did they know that the first night was two thirds corpo tech bros. At least the second night was filled with true U2 fans.