It was a beautiful evening filled with over-the-top everything: stage / light show / music / band. Those four, beautiful Irishmen were *bringing it* ~ just as hard and heavy as they could ~ and being in the stands last night was one of the most intensely satisfying concert experiences of my life. And you know, I've been to *lots* of concerts!
Let me try to recount what it was that made this show so special.... For starters, our seats were awesome. We had seats slightly off center, on the third level of the stadium where the Oakland A's and the Oakland Raiders play ~ iow, a BIG place. But I knew there would be a huge, inclusive stage show, so wasn't worried about it. I just wanted to be there. We got there a little early and had a couple drinks and some snacks out in the parking lot ahead of time and got inside the stands just as the first warm up band was starting. A local group, headed by Pete Sears, formerly of the Jefferson Starship, named Moonalice. They were great. But when we got to our nosebleed section seats, there was a column of speakers directly between us and the center of the stage. So I'm like (ushering experience kicking in here... I knew our seats were not "restricted view") I insisted we go complain. My sweet concert-mates were saying, oh it's okay... lets stay here and see about trading them later if we want to... but I insisted we go see what they could do for us.
So we are directed to the "RELO" table ~ short for relocation ~ where they trade our tickets for some that are on the *second* level and directly center stage! So yay!! And... as a bonus, several rows immediately in front of us are roped off, with a couple people with podiums, facing the audience, and just a handful of people scattered about throughout that section. The two people facing us were taking turns signing the lyrics and spoken words, and the few people with seats there, were obviously hearing impaired. It was so cool. I've studied American sign language a little and just really love the idea of speaking with our hands, so I enjoyed getting to watch them immensely. I think the whole section we were in was reserved for problems or VIPs or something because the tickets we got for trade in did not have a price on them ~ just the word "COMP".
So we're in our groovy new seats, happy as can be... got the glassed-in fancy box seats just next to us, beer and bathrooms just across the aisle behind us. Sweet. Moonalice finishes their set with an extended version of an old Canned Heat song, "On the Road Again". It was like hearing it for the first time and was fantastic. Lenny Kravitz was the second warm up act. He was pretty good, but spent way too much time trying to get the audience to sing a song together ~ a new song ~ not one of his hits, and it pretty much dragged down his set imo. And he kept having guitar issues. The sound would stop and he'd be handing the guitar off to a roadie and improvising... but there were a couple memorable moments when first his trumpet player, and then tenor saxophonist brought down the house. So that was cool.
Then it was U2's turn. They have named this concert tour "360", and they've been traveling around the world for a couple years now with this monster stage, performing this show. The stage itself and the video system ~ from the cameras that could follow them around the 'cat walk', to the screens above the stage (that morphed into something entirely different nearing the end of the concert) to the innovative side-lighting and special camera effects, were definitely more than the sum of their parts when trying to *somehow* turn a huge, stadium concert into a personalized event. And judging by the people in the stands around me, I was not alone in being enthralled by it. We were all dancing madly, flailing our arms, and SO into it. We were completely engaged ~ from beginning to end. The music alone would have been *perfect*... but adding in all the rest of it.... quite Heavenly.
The sound, in a word, was perfect. The *perfect* volume *when* I had my foam ear plugs in! haha. Which is just right in my book! But... I haven't even gotten to the best part yet! I've been a U2 fan for a long time. Since I first heard of them in the mid-'80s and brought home "Under a Blood Red Sky" ~ and what struck me then is what strikes me now: They rock as hard as anyone AND have something to say. And that makes all the difference to me. They are not pop-fluff. They are not brootal. Their songs are about human relationships. And I love that. They've *got* something to say~ and they say it with enough style and presence to make people take notice. And that, for me, is what puts them on top. Straight up, their songs are about *something*. Something real, and something most of us have felt in our lives. Something we can relate to.
And just one more thing before I end this little U2 love-fest.... When you go to see U2, that's who you see. There is no one else up on stage with them. There are no back-up singers, no horns; no extra guitar player so Edge can dance around, no keyboardist. They are who make up the band, and they need no one else. It must be incredibly liberating to know that you and your three closest friends can do anything you can conceive of *AND* can call all the shots of how you run your business and your lives. Four gifted souls, sharing with us what they can do. Practically a religious experience for me.
The setlist:
Even Better Than The Real Thing, I Will Follow, Get On Your Boots, Magnificent, Mysterious Ways, Elevation, Until the End of the World - Anthem - Where Have All The Flowers Gone, Perfect Day - Happy Birthday, All I Want Is You, Stay, Beautiful Day - Space Oddity, Pride, Miss Sarajevo, Zooropa, City of Blinding Lights, Vertigo, I'll Go Crazy (remix) - Discotheque - Life During Wartime - Psycho Killer, Sunday Bloody Sunday, Scarlet, Walk On (I'm delighted to see that the person who compiled this list included the little outtakes and asides... such as Larry Mullen singing Lou Reed's "Perfect Day", all of us singing happy birthday to *someone*, and the Bowie / Talking Heads bits. The music just before U2 came on stage was Bowie's "Space Oddity", and after they left the stage, Elton John's "Rocket Man").
Encores:
One, Will You Love Me Tomorrow - Where the Streets Have No Name, Hold Me Thrill Me Kiss Me Kill Me, With or Without You, Moment of Surrender.
"Walk On" has been stuck in my head all day. :-)
