I once accidentally told a guy I was dating that I loved him. This happened because we were on the phone talking about music and bands that we liked and then later, I suddenly said, “I love U2!” But what he heard was, “I love you, too.” He paused. I paused. Then I quickly stammered, “The band, U2 the band.” Crisis averted.
But boy did I, and do I, love U2. I am surprised that seeing U2 in concert was not on my life list but it is not (and I’m not adding it just to cross it off). But it should have been there because I have loved them since I first heard their music back in 1991 (there aren’t many bands that last 20 years that I also love – it’s pretty much just them with DMB a close second). So it was a no-brainer that when their 360 was scheduled to come to East Lansing that we would go. So we bought tickets in December 2009, in anticipation of the concert in July 2010. Then the concert got postponed because of Bono’s back surgery, woe to me. But at least it wasn’t cancelled for good. We just had to wait another year for it to happen. [At this point I would like to apologize to Keri for this post, because I’m truly sad you didn’t get to use your tickets the first time around.]
And boy did it happen. I’ve never been to a concert with this many people, at least not that I can recall. I did see Michael W. Smith at the Palace but I’m quite certain the audience was no where this big (nearly 70,000). Hurrah for cell phones with fancy panoramic photo-taking abilities.
Florence and the Machine opened and boy can that woman sing, even after running the circuit around the stage, she was belting it out. But then, I already loved her, “Dog Days” is my phone’s ringtone. But the latest single, “You’ve Got the Love is Outstanding,” check it out here.
And then came the headliners… it was a super-impressive stage that was outshone by an uber-impressive performance. I’d like to imagine U2 put on such a stellar show because they knew the majority of the audience had been waiting for over a year for the concert, but really, I think they are just outstanding performers no matter what the circumstances. [Can I gush more, yes, I probably could.]
And unlike the guy sitting behind us, who complained loudly about his seat and its price, we were very happy with our seats. [Note to that guy: trying to argue your case by noting that you only paid $25 to see Nirvana in Kalamazoo doesn’t really do anything because I was at that concert and it was 20 years ago; given inflation, you would pay significantly more for that ticket today, especially since Nirvana no longer exists and Kurt Cobain is dead (I’d imagine the price on miraculous performances is pretty steep). Plus, Nirvana is no U2. So please SHUT UP! I’m sure he’s still complaining today.] But bygones, we loved our seats – we could see everything just fine (thank you ginormous screen that did really cool things).
They played all the songs we loved. Simon and I each went to the concert hoping to hear our favorites (“Sunday, Bloody Sunday” for him and “One” for me) and both our wishes were granted. They played everything, the only song I missed not hearing was “All I Want Is You” which we had on our wedding CD. It was everything I had always hoped it would be, U2 did not disappoint. Not in the least (cheesy bits and all, because at his heart, I believe Bono is kind of a cornball).
Please forgive the quality of these images,
my handy cell phone was the only thing I had on my person.
ememby 