Amazingly, it works virtually seamlessly. The band opened with "City of Blinding Lights" and the brash "Vertigo" from the new "How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb," followed by tracks from its raw 1980 debut, "Boy." The angry young Bono re-emerged for a moment on "Cry/The Electric Co.", followed by the Gaelic-titled rarity "An Cat Dubh" (in which he stroked an imaginary black cat like a James Bond villain) and introspective "Into the Heart," sending longtime fans into rapture.

If there were opening-night jitters, they didn't show. "Wow, San Diego turned out to be the right place to kick this off," Bono said – the tour was originally supposed to begin on the East Coast, but was delayed due to illness in a band member's family. "We are really, truly blessed tonight, and thank you for that," the singer told the
sold-out crowd. Though Tuesday was presumably reserved for fine-tuning before U2 returns to the Sports Arena on Wednesday, it seems there's little fixing to be done.

The heart-shaped catwalk of 2001 has been replaced by an oval, again reaching deep onto the floor; the band also incorporated touches from other eras, such as the visual overload of its Zoo TV incarnation and
the benediction-by-spotlight from the Joshua Tree era. (Hey, they don't count as visual clichés until they stop working.) U2 closed with the spiritual "40," as meaningful today as it was some 20 years ago.

The band's dynamic hasn't changed since then, either. As Bruce Springsteen noted when he inducted the band into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame earlier this month, U2 is pretty much the last band where casual fans know the names of all four members. Bassist Granted, Adam Clayton and drummer Larry Mullen Jr. are quietly businesslike as they
drive the band's sound (though a grinning Mullen was egged into singing along on a line or two). Then there's Edge, architect of the huge, soaring guitars that are key to the band's essence.

And, of course, there's Bono, the earnest ham with enough Irish charm to pull it off. Monday he prowled on all fours, banged on a drum, blindfolded himself and posed for execution and twice mocked his Jesus complex. Way more fun than heading the World Bank.

Besides, he wields more power onstage. The band made its political points firmly but without preaching via a mid-show chunk of the set list – the ominous "Love and Peace or Else," "Sunday Bloody Sunday"
(Ireland's civil unrest) and "Bullet the Blue Sky" (American foreign policy). A gorgeous, gentle "Running to Stand Still," in which Bono sings of learning to "scream without raising your voice," was capped with a simple video scroll of excerpts from the United Nations' Declaration of Human Rights. It was reassuring to hear an extra-loud shout-out for Article 5.

Later, national flags streamed down curtains of lights during "Pride (In the Name of Love)," and Bono plugged his One Campaign (theonecampaign.org) to battle AIDS and poverty in Africa by way of
introduction to "One."

But U2 has learned there's as much to be said for soothing the soul as stirring it. "Beautiful Day" remains one of rock's most uplifting anthems; Bono offered tribute to his late father on the touching "Sometimes You Can't Make It On Your Own." And the holy "Yahweh" from "Atomic Bomb" (with Mullen, newly dubbed multi-instrumentalist,
stepping out to play a synthesizer) was the perfect segue to "40," based on the 40th Psalm and the closing track to the band's "War" album. You know U2 has deeply involved the audience when the night's most magical moment comes as the crowd continues to sing long after the band has left the stage.