I was asked to write about my trip to see U2, so here you go...

First off, I started the evening with dinner at The Vortex. It's near Georgia Tech and is flat out the best burger you're going to have. I'm boring with my burgers, plain with cheese and occasionally bacon, but the piece of beef is staggeringly good. My wife got a (veggie) burger with pineapple and teriyaki sauce, which was excellent. My friend ordered the buffalo burger, which is a cheeseburger with wing sauce and a giant glob of blue cheese... mmmmmmmm.

Not only is the food fantastic, but the beer list is glorious. I topped my meal off with my favorite beer in the world, Dogfish Head 90 minute IPA. It's a lot of beer, but damn is it great.

Throw in the fact that if you don't drink, you're meal is gonna run you around $10, and you have a place that is a must eat when you are in Atlanta.

After the dinner it was a quick ride on the MARTA down to the Georgia Dome where the wait for the concert began. Set to begin at 7, of course things didn't actually start until 7:30.

Fortunately the wait was well worth it, as the opening act was the band Muse. I had heard a couple of their songs, but was mostly unfamiliar with their work. I've since changed that.

You have to understand that U2's stage takes up close to 50 yards of a football field. You've not only got the center stage, but then a ring that goes completely around the stage. To top things off, the whole thing is close to 200 feet tall, with a 40 foot hi-def, circular screen.

Most bands, even really good ones, are going to be swallowed whole by the stage. Throw in a 70,000 seat arena and close to 40,000 people there early to see some other band, and it's quite a daunting place to play.

Muse played 45 minutes, and the only bad part was that they didn't play 45 more. They've been touring with U2 for months now, so this wasn't their first show. But if your music and your performance isn't big enough to fill the venue, then it isn't big enough, and no amount of experience will get you there.

These guys filled the arena. They were flat out awesome, and I would gladly pay to see them play again. I've got two friends who are big fans of Muse, and have seen them play at a few bars and small venues over the last few years. I broke the bad news to them that they won't get that chance again. When Muse hits the road again, they'll be headlining, and it will be in amphitheatres and arenas. They were great.

As Bono put it in thanking them, "There's really something special going on there." The last time U2 toured, it was Kings of Leon that opened for them. Expect Muse to experience the same type of explosion.

And they were the warm-up act.

I am, of course, biased, but it's my feeling that U2 is the best band in the world. They aren't the best ever - that title belongs to the Beatles. But in the discussion for who is next, U2 is in it.

It's not just that the music is great. When a band is not only still together, but still relevant 29 years after the release of their first album... well, that's something that really no other band in the history of Rock 'n' Roll can claim.

The Rolling Stones? They've broken up more times than all of the couple in the 10th grade at Central High School. And when was the last time they were relevant?

The Beach Boys? They ceased being relevant a long time ago, but when Brian Wilson sued the rest of the group for the rights to the name, that pretty much ended that.

Pink Floyd? Led Zeppelin? Awesome bands that just didn't have the staying power.

U2 became a band in 1978, recorded their first album in 1980, and the band is the exact same four guys that it was at the beginning - Paul Hewson (Bono), David Evans (the Edge), Adam Clayton, and Larry Mullen, Jr. They've never broken up, and they've never gone more than five years without releasing an album.

I know that there are a lot of haters out there, and that's fine. U2's music isn't for everyone. But ask yourself this... how many bands can play stadium tours?

In this economy, the Georgia Dome was roughly 95% full. That's with a capacity of 72,000. How many bands could bring in that type of crowd for one stop on an 80-stop tour?

Obviously, popularity and quality don't have much to do with each other. But that's a different debate for a different day.

What is awesome at a U2 concert is seeing the diversity of the crowd. Not just from a race and nationality standpoint, but from an age standpoint. I saw a guy who was in his early 60s wearing a T-shirt from the War tour. And I saw a kid who was no older than 8 wearing a T-shirt with the new album on it.

Anyway... as for this show:

From the opening drum beat of "Breathe" to the closing guitar in "Moment of Surrender" my butt never hit the seat. And never, for one instant, did the band seem as though they were phoning it in. In typical U2 fashion, these guys displayed a real passion for the music that they play. And because of that, the folks in the arena got to have an experience.

As a long time U2 fan, what probably makes me the happiest is seeing the band continue to evolve. It's not just the fact that a song like "Sunday Bloody Sunday" has gone from being about a specific IRA bombing in Ireland to being a song about religious tolerance. It's not just the fact that a song like "One" can go from being about the bitter divorce of the Edge to being a song about putting aside differences to come together and make a difference in the world.

It's not even the fact that the band has changed their sound half a dozen times in their 30 year career.

The band actually adapts and adjusts to each other.

Drummer, and band founder, Larry Mullen, Jr. has occasionally sung an Irish drinking song or two for fun on tour. But he now sings back up on at least eight of the 22 songs that U2 performed. Throw in the fact that he now plays a solo bongo drum while circumnavigating the huge stage-ring in a wacky version of "I'll Go Crazy If I Don't Go Crazy Tonight", and you've got a guy who is more involved in the stage show than every before.

The Edge has been known to sing before - most notably on "Numb". I had the chance in 1997 on U2's Popmart tour to see the Edge sing a solo, mournful version of "Sunday Bloody Sunday", and I'm happy to see that the band has found a way to give the Edge voice in the new tour, as well.

I'm not a huge fan of the song "Stuck in a Moment that You Can't Get Out Of", but Bono and the Edge performed an acoustic version that gave the Edge a chance to show off his falsetto for the final verse of the song. And it was one of the highlights of the show.

Adam Clayton doesn't sing... I don't know that he's ever been heard on an album or in a concert. But he does lay down the bass tracks that absolutely make a U2 concert. He was noticeably quiet on the two albums that preceded "No Line On the Horizon", but he has made a triumphant return on the new album. And the band has made certain to give him that level of prominence in the live show.

In the concerts I've seen live and on DVD, I've never seen Adam move more than about twenty feet from where he started the show. Now? He makes the trek around the ring a half dozen times or so during the show. And the disco influenced bass line he created for that wacky version of "Crazy Tonight" that I mentioned above has to be heard... I can't describe it.

But while all four guys are a major force in writing the songs and developing the overall show, U2 is U2 because of Bono. He's a larger than life character at this point - the only person ever to be nominated for a Grammy, an Oscar, and the Nobel Prize. He's been nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize three times in a row.

Those politics run some folks the wrong way, including some people who I heard complaining about it after the show. But it's that same passion that he has for his beliefs that make him one of the world's great performers.

No one has ever accused him of being a great singer, but he was in good voice Tuesday night. I've heard him when he wasn't, so I was thrilled to be there on a good night.

Good night or not, the guy simply knows how to engage an audience. Whether it's swinging from a hanging microphone while wearing a light-up suit, or standing in the darkness singing the little known ballad "MLK", he's the focal point for all of the band's energy.

By the way, when swinging from that microphone he was singing "Ultraviolet", an awesome song from the album Acthung Baby! that the band had not included as a regular part of their set list until this tour. It's one of my favorite songs of theirs, and I was thrilled to hear it.

Of course they played favorites like "Sunday Bloody Sunday", "One", "With Or Without You" and "Where the Streets Have No Name" (with a lead in of "Amazing Grace" for the last one), but what makes a U2 concert a great experience is hearing them turn a song that you don't have great affinity for into something beautiful.

For me that was the performance of "Walk On", which was dedicated to Aung San Suu Kyi, the elected leader of Burma who has been under house arrest since her election in 1990. With a lead in of "MLK" (a song about another leader who pleaded for the peaceful resolution of conflict), they turned this into a moving experience.

Sure, they didn't play everything I wanted to hear - "Pride", "New Year's Day" or a personal favorite "Lemon"., But when you've recorded more than 150 songs, it's going to be tough to do them all.

For me, the bottom line is that U2 played for close to 2:30, and it felt as though the band was fully in it for that whole time. Yes, they are professionals, and that's what pros do. But a band like U2 lives and dies with the passion and feeling that they convey to the audience.

And for me, they conveyed that passion, from opening drum beat to closing note. They still have shows in Tampa, Dallas, Houston, Oklahoma City, Phoenix, Las Vegas, and Los Angeles before they head back to Europe.

And with ticket prices as low as $30... well, if they are coming near you - GO

Thanks for the report!