• Weeks on the road with the 360° Tour have given U2’s “Magnificent” an airy charm that stands up to some of their biggest hits. The song is resplendent and resonate in MSG.

• The crowd explodes when Bono utters the following: “This is the song we wish we’d written. It’s a Bruce Springteen song so we’d like to ask him to come out here. It’s also a Patti Smith song, we’d like to ask her to come out here.” After flubbing the beginning of “Because the Night,” the crew run through it again, tripling up on vocals on the chorus.

• Bono intros “I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For” with a long speech: “Here in rock & roll’s great cathedral, Madison Square Garden, think about all the pilgrims and pioneers that got us all here, the saints and the heretics, the poets and the punks that now make up the Hall of Fame. It’s a dangerous thing, this business of building idols, but at least rock & roll is not at its best about worshiping sacred cows. It’s about thousands of voices gathered at once in a great unwashed congregation, like tonight. For a lot of us here, rock & roll means just one word: liberation. Political, sexual, spiritual liberation.”

Bruce Springsteen responds: “Let’s have some fun with that.”

• The night’s second-biggest surprise arrives when “Mysterious Ways” suddenly takes a left turn into the Black Eyed Peas’ “Where Is the Love.” It’s wacky to see Bono trading verses with Will.i.am, but as he recently told RS, he’s open to all kinds of musical experiences.

• The night’s biggest surprise arrives when Mick Jagger strolls onstage to the haunting beginning of “Gimme Shelter.” Fergie nails the high parts at the end, and she and the Rolling Stones’ leader sing face to face, hopping up and down with pure energy. At the track’s end, all Bono can say is, “Oh my God.”

• Jagger stays for “Stuck in a Moment You Can’t Get Out Of,” trading verses with Bono in a moment of mutual respect. U2 bring it home with “Beautiful Day”: awesome, inspiring and tight.

SalU2, Nelson.