I first tried to see U2 live my freshman year of college. I bought tickets to the Toronto show of the PopMart Tour. My high school friend agreed to go with me, then bailed on me! She was not up for the adventure of getting across the state of New York and the Canadian border to get to the show. Unfortunately, I couldn’t find anyone else up for the adventure, and I still have the unused tickets. Dude, if I couldn’t go – no one else was going either! So I didn’t sell them. I held out hope until the bitter end that I would still be able to go. Fast forward to the Elevation Tour. I persuaded my brother and his then-fiancée to go to the Philadelphia show. In short, it was AMAZING. Bono had the crowd in the palm of his hand. I still remember the hush as U2 closed out the show with “With or Without You.”
Now, I had another chance to see U2, right here in my own metro area at Raymond James Stadium. The media hyped up the anticipation with an expected crowd of 70,000 and massive traffic delays. I took a half day from work, and my friend Kelly and I hopped in the car about 4 hours before the opening act, Muse, took the stage. We loaded up on beverages and Subway, and braced ourselves for “the suck” of traffic. The suck never arrived! We cruised all the way to the stadium, and coasted right into a parking spot. Kelly and I tailgated and listened to one of the most awful, yet awesome, covers of U2 songs ever – The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra Plays U2. The clarinet performs the melody to “I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For”. Kelly and I laughed our asses off. We couldn’t get through an entire song – we would listen to each until we knew which song from the U2 catalogue it was, then moooove right along to the next.
I should mention here that the outdoor temperature in Tampa on this night was about a gabillion degrees. As in SWELTERING. The coozies were barely keeping our beers cold. Sweat was dripping down my back. Sultry comes to mind.
After what we felt was a sufficient amount of time with our cheap beer, Kelly and I mentally prepared for “the suck” of getting into the stadium where we had field tickets. That’s right, we had standing room on the football field – not seats. We figured we would be in the back, a million miles (or at least 70 yards) from Bono and the Boys. Well, I don’t know what was working for us, but we got within 10 yards of the stage.
Bono and The Edge duke it out in 360.At a little after 7, Muse opened for U2. I was most pleasantly surprised by this band that appeared on the soundtrack for “Twilight”. [If you don’t know what that movie is, or what it’s based on, you have been living in a pop culture void and you are dead to me.] Muse freaking rocked! I actually did not want their set to end!
The main act, as usual, took their sweet time about it. By this time, the floor space had filled in to sardine-like capacity and I was soaked through with sweat. The rest of the stadium was full up, too, breaking all attendance records for the stadium. See what can be accomplished when you take football out the equation?!?!
U2 yet again rocked my world. Bono yet again had a crowd of tens of thousands in the palm of his hand. And the set list was one to drool over, with some songs that I know the band rarely performed in concert before, like “The Unforgettable Fire” and “MLK”. Check it out below.
Breathe
Get on Your Boots
Mysterious Ways
Beautiful Day
I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For
Stuck In A Moment
No Line on the Horizon
Magnificent
Elevation
Until The End of the World
Unforgettable Fire
City of Blinding Lights
Vertigo
I'll Go Crazy - Remix
Sunday Bloody Sunday
MLK
Walk On
One
Where The Streets Have No Name
Encore
Ultraviolet
With or Without You
Moment of Surrender
The only thing that could have made this better was if Bono had picked me out of the crowd and pulled me up on stage during “City of Blinding Lights” instead of some cute little boy. Whatevs. Next time!!!
Posts
0 comments:
Post a Comment