Zoo Station in Berlin

24 Sep 2015

'I'm ready
Ready for the laughing gas
I'm ready
Ready for what's next...'

Zoo Station into the show tonight to mark the band’s arrival in Berlin, Germany... a song made just down the road at Hansa Studios.

Went down pretty well online.

'Zoo Station, in its home town.' as @U2start put it.

'Expecting Mysterious Ways and meerkat. ZOO FREAKING STATION. I am floored.' (@ClaytonsKitten)

'OMG!! So ready for this laughing gas!!! Love this surprise!' (@menbono510)

'U2 bringing back Zoo Station in Berlin is just one of those things that just...feels right.' said @ryannichols7.

And after a blistering opening quartet of songs, Bono paused before 'Iris'.

'Here we are in the heart of Europe. The beating heart of Europe. We have many many friends here..sometimes we feel a little too at home here...'

According to the people who know these things (@U2gigs), this was the tenth time the band have played Berlin - they first performed here in 1981 on the Boy Tour. The city was written through the show tonight - with seven songs from Achtung Baby, the album that was born in this city nearly a quarter century ago.

Extraordinarily resonant moment when the great graffiti-strewn wall fell from the roof, dividing the venue in two for the The Fly - just like a wall once divided a city and a country.

Zoo Station was the biggest surprise, the first time it's been played live for nearly ten years, along with a snatch of Ultraviolet in Beautiful Day and everyone on song for One which closed the night.

'Mass-sing along to end the first night in Berlin, full of Achtung Baby.' (@U2start)

'Actually, One caps off the Achtung lovefest in Berlin. Counting The Fly intermission and Ultraviolet snippet, that's 7 AB songs.' (@u2gigs)

'It's So Cruel not to have Acrobat or Love Is Blindness to be missing from that list, yet U2 still throws its arms around the world.' (@atu2)

'Wow!! Well done #Berlin in singing #One The crowd is so awesome Bono didn't even have to sing it all!' (@Tinaburger)

If you were at the opening night in Berlin, tell us what it was like -  add your own comments and photos here.

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