U2 05.24.2011

I have been trying to write this blog post for a week now, and it just keeps getting pushed out further and further… I’m going to try to get it written and posted today. Here’s hoping I can get something done today.

It's been exactly a week now since the U2 concert on May 25 and I just can't get over how absolutely awesome it was. It’s hard to think of another word to describe it other than “awesome” maybe: Amazing. Atapsimizing. Spectacular. Brilliant. Emotional. Awe Inspiring. Fantastic. Completely Perfect…. Hmm… it was awesome. That about sums it up.

We (Liz and John) attended this year’s U2 concert at Rice-Eccles Stadium at the University of Utah, and shared the experience with Norm , Becca, Jessica, and Toby.  What fun that was. It was a family affair and we had a great time with all of them. I’m not lying when I say that this was THE BEST concert I have ever attended, U2 or otherwise. This show was even better than U2 in Vegas in 2009. The stage was the same, but that’s about it. There was such a energy to the show that made the entire experience worth the year we waited since it was canceled last summer due to Bono having emergency back surgery.
John and I got off work at our regular times and picked up some drive through Crown Burger (Yum!) and drove up to the stadium. We weren’t sure what the parking or the craziness was going to look like so we figured getting there sooner than later would be a good idea. We found a great parking spot and there were more empty places than we were expecting. There weren’t a whole lot of people there when we arrived around 4:40pm. We were able to buy a few new shirts without being smashed in the crush of merchandise mosh-pit. The gates opened at 5:00pm and we got right in and found our seats. The stadium was pretty much empty until after 6-ish. I’m impressed that the Utah crowd was so much more polite then the Las Vegas crowd. There weren’t too many drunk people and not a single one of them asked us if we had any pot.

We had great seats, straight up from the stage. Perfect! We were on the east side of the stadium Section E37, Row 38 and John and I had seats 24 and 25. Funny story... When the concert was originally announce for June 3, 2011 I bought us tickets for the General Admission Floor thinking that it would be really fun to get that up close and personal with the stage, but as the time passed and that concert was canceled and rescheduled, we all re-thought our tickets, knowing that John has his bad back and other people had their various reasons... So I got online one random day just before this past Christmas and bought six new tickets to the U2 concert. Reserved Seats. I paid an extra price for them, but it was well worth it. I was able to sell all 6 of the GA tickets to other people in the week before Christmas. Nice. Everyone that came with us was pleasantly surprised at the new seating arrangement and that I let the extra price tag on the tickets go as their "Christmas presents." I'm such a nice sister.

The weather in Utah has been crazy this past month with torrential downpours, snow, clouds and cold. I was a little worried how the evening would turn out when that morning also started out so dark, cold and rainy... I took every opportunity I could to check out the windows while I tried working a full day before the concert. At some point in the early afternoon the skies cleared up and the sun came out. It got so warm and the sky was such a clean, clear blue. It turned into a beautiful day and a evening I'll not forget. Salt Lake City is such a beautiful venue. I was quite disappointed that there was no 2 on the mountain next to the U.

The opening act was The Fray. They came out and preformed at 7:00pm. I don’t know too many of their songs, but John only knew one. They were pretty good. Much better than any of the other opening acts we’ve seen for U2 in the past. I may have to look them up and see if I really want to own any of their music. What I thought was amusing was that the lead singer of The Fray was trying so hard to *own* that stage. Unfortunately he just wasn’t pulling it off, He looked so tiny walking around that gigantic circle I felt kind of bad for him. It was a nice comparison to see how he fit on the stage, and then to see how Bono owned the stage. Bono’s persona/mantle fills that stage as he struts around, it makes the stage seem smaller in his presence.
The set list was great. They played a lot of older songs that I hadn’t heard live before. I loved the acoustic version of Stay (one of my favorite songs,) Love Rescue Me, All I Want is You... Awesome. Apparently the band actively tracks what people are listening to and where and customize their shows to the locations they play. Apparently Utah listens to the old stuff. I thought that was pretty cool to learn how they pick their set lists, apparently they really do care what their fans think.

I wished so much that my Lariann could have been there, she died in May 2009, she would have loved it. U2 has become one of those bands that though I love them so, they remind me of her. I cried during Elevation. Why? Well, for one, it's U2, for another it reminds me of Tomb Raider, and for third, both of those things remind me of Lariann. I remembered her and celebrated U2 as if she were there with me. At the end of the concert (as he usually does) Bono invited us all to pull out our phones and turn the stadium into stars on the ground. Bono let us all remember her at the end in our field of stars.

 

'Take out your phones,' came the call before Moment of Surrender. 'Everyone has someone they want to think about at the moment.
'Make the light brighter. No need to kick out the darkness.
Hold on to this beautiful world... Hold on tight..' U2.com

 

I thought of Lari, and I cried. That was twice in one night that I was missing my adorable little sister, and here we were with Bono remembering her too in his own little way. I wonder sometimes if he has any idea how he touches lives and how much people like me think of him and his magnanimous personality. What a difference he has made in the world.

 

THANK YOU U2 FOR SUCH A GREAT EXPERIENCE!

 

Even Better Than The Real Thing (Remix version)

I Will Follow

Get On Your Boots

Magnificent (Remix version)

Mysterious Ways

Elevation

Until The End Of The World

All I Want Is You

Love Rescue Me (Unplanned, not on printed setlist)

Happy Birthday (To Bob Dylan)

Stay (Faraway, So Close!)

Beautiful Day (with "Here Comes the Sun" snippet)

Pride (In The Name Of Love)

Miss Sarajevo

Zooropa

City Of Blinding Lights

Vertigo  (with "It's Only Rock 'n' Roll (But I Like It)" snippet)

I'll Go Crazy If I Don't Go Crazy Tonight (Remix version, with "Discotheque" and "Mofo" snippets)

Sunday Bloody Sunday

Scarlet

Walk On (with "You'll Never Walk Alone" snippet)

Encore:

Aung San Suu Kyi Message

One

Where The Streets Have No Name (with "Blowin' In The Wind" and "The Times, They Are A-Changin'" snippets)

Encore 2:

Hold Me, Thrill Me, Kiss Me, Kill Me

With Or Without You

Moment of Surrender