Recap
Finally I'm ready to post my U2 recap. The first set of about 12 pictures have been added to the website (see the sidebar or click here). They are all from my cell phone and they are all very crappy. I have tried to clean them up as best as I can using Corel Paint Shop Pro X. You can tell it's Bono, but that's about all you can tell.
As for the show itself...it was awesome!
Set List:
City of Blinding Lights
Vertigo
Elevation
Electric Co.
The Ocean
Wild Horses
Beautiful Day
Miracle Drug
Sometimes You Can’t Make It On Your Own
Yahweh
Love and Peace or Else
Sunday Bloody Sunday
Bullet The Blue Sky
Miss Sarajevo
Pride in the Name of Love
Where the Streets have no Name
One
Bad
Original of the Species
With or Without You
Fast Cars
All Because of You
40
Perhaps the biggest treats for me were Wild Horses and Original of the Species. Of course even if two different songs had been played it would have still been an excellent show. The man (in this case Bono) just knows how to perform. That's his job, after all.
We got to the United Center around 2 PM and saw that there had been a camp-out. From reading the Zootopia forum at U2.com, I knew this would be the case. We walked around for a bit, not noticing any form or function to the "line," so we spotted some United Center security peeps and asked them if there was a sign-in or something. Turns out there was: "Go see the lady with the red cooler."
What??? We're supposed to know when we walk up that we're supposed to stop at the lady with the red cooler? What is this? So...we walk over to the lady with the red cooler and sure enough she had a notebook that had numbers. Lauren and I signed the next two available numbers - 244 and 245 - after with lady-with-the-red-cooler wrote the numbers on our hands with a red sharpie. Guess those aren't coming off.
So, our numbers on hand, we decided it would be ok to leave the immediate area of the line and walk around a bit. I suggested that we head over to the loading dock area as I'd heard the band usually arrives between 2 and 4. How would we know if they'd arrived already? Well, no one would be waiting. As we approached the ramp around 3 PM, it became apparent that the band had indeed <i>not</i> arrived. There was a small crowd gathered, some along the fence (Cliff should remember this fence) and some near each side of the ramp entrance. Lauren and I staked out a good position near the south side of the ramp entrance with only a small group of people in front of us. And so the wait began. And we waited. And we waited some more. Trucks came and left, delivery vans delivered, and still no U2. As my mobile blog posts indicate, the band did start arriving around 4:30 PM. The first vehicle was an SUV and was widely believed to hold Larry Mullen Jr. I was unable to catch this in visual form but I can verify that I did see Larry in the SUV and he did wave to the crowd. The next vehicle was a Town Car which the group believed to be Edge's car. I didn't get as good a view of this as I was more focused on taking the picture which ended up being useless.
Now at this time (around 4:30), we were worried about the line that was supposedly forming at the other end of the arena (loading dock is on west side, gate 5 which is the GA gate is on the east). We had heard earlier that we were supposed to get in line around 4 PM and that the gate would open at 6 or 6:30. Unsure of what to do, we spotted a familiar face in the group assembled to watch the band arrive and get a few autographs: "Dano," the lead singer from the U2 tribute band Elevation. We figured Dano knew what he was doing and, seeing a number on his hand, figured that as long as he was waiting for the band, it was ok for us to wait as well. However, soon after Edge (or was it Edge?) arrived, it was determined that it was now too late to hope for any autographs since sound checks still needed to be done and at this rate Bono wouldn't be there until 5 PM. Dano, we noticed, had disappeared, so Lauren and I quickly made our exit.
When we reached the line area, it had definitely grown. There was a long line of people down the west side of S. Honore St., which, for those who are unfamiliar with Chicago, extends south from the southeast corner of the United Center and makes a perfect place to line up for Gate 5. Initially worried, we quickly realized that our fellow GAers had lined up in number order, so we quickly inserted ourselves into the line where we thought we should be. Then, the confusion began. Someone got on a bullhorn and shouted something; the 200s were too far back to hear. So, when people started running, we did too. Seems that they had announced that fan club members (i.e. those that had purchased their tickets online through the U2.com presale) were to go the east side of S. Honore and the rest of the GAers were to stay on the west side. Luckily Lauren and I chose to run to the correct side; had we stayed where we were, we would have been in the wrong line. Unfortunately, in all the confusion, the number system fell apart. Those who had been in the back somehow managed to run up to the front. People in the middle who stayed in the middle were getting upset. It seemed a riot was festering.
Most of the angst was directed toward the now-infamous "blue-shirt-guy," who somehow managed to get to the front of the U2.com line but had no number. He claimed that he was not aware of the number system and that the line should be first-come, first-serve. Now, I found myself agreeing with him - how was everyone supposed to know to see the lady-with-the-red-cooler? There were no signs, no instructions that she was the one making the list. In fact, it turns out the "list" wasn't even officially sanctioned. Lady-with-the-red-cooler just made it to help out. Well, the yellow-bellied UC security guards tried to make blue-shirt-guy move to the back of the line but he refused. Now, the security guards had guns and usually I do what people with guns tell me to do, but apparently blue-shirt-guy wasn't about to give up his prime real estate. So...he got to stay where he was. However, in a move I also didn't agree with (the first being letting blue-shirt-guy stay where he was), the security guards then forced everyone <i>else</i> who didn't have a number to go to the back of the line. Now, if they let blue-shirt-guy stay up front, they should've let everyone stay where they were. In these type of situations, consistency is the key to crowd control. As for the numbering system itself, while I agree that it was inherently unfair that some people knew about the list while others didn't, I look at it as getting lucky. If you were lucky enough to get a number, then you should be in front of the line. Ok, well, that may not make a whole lot of sense but remember this is coming from someone who actually had a number. If I didn't I'm sure I would've sympathized with blue-shirt-guy.
After the scuffle with blue-shirt-guy, the line finally started moving. As I suspected, the gates we had to go through (which made me somehow feel like a cow) kept the two lines separated. Until we got to the door. Then we all merged back in to one. So what, again, was the point of having two lines? I'll never know.... We got our first wristband, granting us access to the GA section. Then we all had our ticket scanned at the "magic computer." If the computer said "Proceed to Floor Area," that meant you didn't make it into the ellipse. If it said "Vertigo Vertigo Vertigo," then you were one of the lucky ones that got to take yourself and one companion into the ellipse. Lauren and I both said "Proceed to Floor Area," so we were a little disappointed until we actually made it out to the floor and realized that even though we were in the general GA area, we still a pretty good vantage point. We'd be closer to U2 then we'd ever been. Well, except for the time I got to touch Edge's hand after a concert in Dallas. But then Bono and Edge were just walking around. Here they'd be performing.
We picked out a spot near the catwalk portion of the ellipse, a little left of center. We quickly got to know the people around us - for one husband-and-wife duo, this was their 17th U2 concert! I was a bit jealous. It was then determined that I should get food/beverages before the floor fills up so it's not too hard to get back. I managed it and made it back unscathed. Then we waited. Dashboard Confessional, the opening act, came out. I really only knew one song by them ("Vindicated," which has gotten some radio play) and didn't really enjoy them very much. They only played a 45-minue set so it was manageable...I guess. Then the wait was on for U2. At about 8:58 PM, the lights went out and we knew what was about to happen.
A U2 concert was about to start.
As the opening chords of City of Blinding Lights rang out, we knew we'd be in for a treat. The setlist is evidence enough of what a great show this was. I didn’t take notes at the show (although I thought about it) so I won’t go through every song. But I will mention a few highlights. Perhaps the biggest was when Bono was on the catwalk for a song (not even sure which one it was) and he walked right up to where we were standing, crouched down, and put his hand out. The crowed immediately contracted toward him and I moved right along. I had my arm out and tried to grab hold of him as some other people had managed to do. I wasn’t able to reach him but my sister (who was in front of me) did. She touched his hand and that was enough for her – the rest of the night was just icing on the cake.
Other highlights were of course the inclusion of both Wild Horses and Original of the Species. Bono also told a wonderful story while Edge was playing the opening chords to Miracle Drug that Edge is really from the future and that when his UFO landed on the north side of Dublin, it was playing the tune of Miracle Drug. Weird, huh? I also enjoyed seeing Bono bang a drum and watching Edge and Adam switch for “40” with Edge playing bass and Adam guitar.
A few things I missed was Pop (the entire album was skipped, I was hoping for Discotheque as they had played it a few nights before in Toronto) as well as some of the bigger hits from Achtung Baby (Mysterious Ways, The Fly, Even Better Than the Real Thing) or anything from Rattle and Hum (Angel of Harlem or Desire would have been nice). They did throw in something from Zooropa (The First Time made an appearance as a coda to Bad) but I’d read that they were practicing other songs from Zooropa like Daddy’s Gonna Pay for Your Crashed Car and Dirty Day so I was hoping for one of those.
In the end, though, I can’t complain. The whole experience was well worth the $49.50 each plus service changes, parking, food, and drink. Well worth it.
posted by Ben at 5:33 PM
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