Kp ([email protected])
Mon, 16 Nov 1998 16:24:30 -0700
I was going to do this at the one-year mark of that concert, but it seems to have passed me by.. I've been so busy.. But anyway, I saved a copy of WIRE from back then and here is a repost of my review from the day after the concert.. I was going to write my rememberances afresh, but I just realized that I couldn't put it any better than I did then, when I was still flying high from the effects of the concert.. I was a wee bit *excited* still.. hee hee.. Here it is:
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Coming out of the shadows to contribute my first U2 experience:
It's the day after, and I keep having to look at my t-shirt and program
to convince myself that I was really there, that I really was in the same
building with Bono Larry Adam and Edge and saw them give the best concert
I've ever seen. I'll do my best to give words to my experience.
I'll try to keep all the My Long Road to the Concert stuff brief. In
short, I only learned that I would be able to attend the week of the concert.
I had been intensly looking forward to this since last spring, but I've
been going through this viscious cycle of YES!! I CAN GO!!! and OH NO!! I
CAN'T GO!!!. Being a money-impaired college student with no car, when the
concert in Indianapolis was canceled it looked pretty grim for me. I
really loved the idea of going back to St. Louis, my hometown, and seeing
the concert with all my old friends, but I was being forced to attend my
rehearsal for the Symphony Concert the next day. There was no possible
way short of terminal illness that I could be excused from this
rehearsal. I was seriously in mourning. But then it happened- the
rehearsal was canceled. The Hand of Fate! With one week to concert day I
had to find a)money, b) a ticket, and most crucially c) a ride to St.
Louis. These things were confirmed THREE DAYS before the concert.
It seems so unreal to me because I had so little time to prepare for it
or even really think about what I was doing. It didn't hit me until
Thursday night sitting in front of the TV watching the MTV Europe awards.
I saw the boxers, then it was Dennis Hopper talking, and I'm going is it?..
is it really?..it's gonna be.. IT IS!!!!! YES!!!! IT'S U2!!!!! As they came
out Popmart style and blasted out MoFo I was so unbelievable excited, and
I realized that I was really, actually going to see them! Unbelievable!
I'm sure you all know the excitement I felt on Friday, I was bouncing off
the walls everywhere, I shouldn't have bothered going to class because my
brain was definately not there. And then I was on my way, riding the 200
miles to St. Louis, buying the tickets, walking into the stadium.
*****ACTUAL CONCERT EXPERIENCE**********
It's so amazing the way everything worked out, after all the trouble I
went through there I was in the twa dome with all my favorite people in the
world, waiting for the band to come out. My first U2 concert!!! I was SO
excited. For people who know me this was really amusing because I am
normally pretty calm and collected, and there I was jumping all over the
place, singing along with The Verve (I love that song, it's so.. me!) and
saying "What time is it again" every two minutes. When
Mission:Impossible kicked in I was getting more excited than I can
remember being in my whole life. Then it was Pop Muzik and I was standing
with everyone else, looking all over, and OH MY GOD THERE THEY ARE!!! The
Edge I spotted first, the Neon Cowboy himself, they came out right below
us (we were in the 100's on Adam's side, exactly level with the B-stage)
and he turned and waved at my section. Edgelovers, I understand now =). Then
Adam and Larry, cooler-than-hell straight down the gauntlet, followed by
BONO!!! in his boxer ready-to-rumble blue, ready for battle. (In my mind,
any reference to Bono is followed by exclamation points, lots =). The crowd
was going nuts as they took position, and as they ripped into Mofo I was
already dancing away. We ended up taking position at the railing, we were
as close as you could possibly be without having floor seats and plus we
could see the entire stage. I couldn't even believe how close we were to
the band.
The performance was amazing, wonderful, all sorts of other big
adjectives. I got a vibe of frustration though; a few comments Bono made
cause me to look at the dome from the stage point of view and see all the
empty seats. The TWA dome is huge, seats 70,000, and the ticket numbers
I read in the paper the next day was 30,000. Not even half full. I was so
upset about that, it made me angry with St. Louis when we couldn't fill out
one night while other cities packed the house for two. I remember a comment
Bono made, something like <it takes a big set to fill your stadium>, there
was a note of dissappointment at first, am I totally off base? Did
anyone else notice this? He walked out on the catwalk after a few songs,
and spoke to the audience for the first real time outside the songs,
saying OK, I'm going to "do what the music tells me to do" and that we
should do the same. And did we ever. If the audience didn't fill the
stadium in the physical sense I felt that we more than filled it in
spirit, enthusiasm, and energy. Never once did I see people sitting down
anywhere outside of one or two here and there. We were right with them
through the set, and screamed our approval.
Highlights:
- -The visuals were of course spectacular, when the whole set lit up for
Mofo it was beyond everything I had imagined for the set, it was just
amazing throughout. Of course the Lemon sequence was great, when the band
dropped out of sight my friends moved restlessly, but I informed them
that it was Lemon Time and they got excited again. When it turned into
DiscoballLemon my best friend behind me shouts "COOL! I WANT ONE!!"
I was never a big fan of Discoteque but the performance put new life into
it for me, it's a great live song. And seeing the band in their poses as
the Lemon opened is something imprinted in my mind now, and brings a big
grin to my face. But y'know, even though all the technology was great I
spent the whole time watching the band, watching Adam lay the groove down
and The Edge making the most amazing sounds come out of that guitar,
couldn't see Larry very well unfortuanatly, and of course Bono most of
all drew my eyes and heart and wouldn't let go. I have to say that
Popmart was wonderful and our boys were obviously having a great time
with it, but I personally would be equally happy to see them without the
extravaganza, just to see them play. I'm sure a lot of you agree.
Back to Highlights:
- - midway through the show, somebody's handing Bono something, YES IT'S A
WIRE TAG!!! HE'S PUTTING IT ON!!!! OH WOW!!!!! Big big thrill.
- - The lucky girl who got to dance with Bono, that was a beautiful moment,
especially when he sang With or Without You with his arm around her. She
was surprisingly calm, I would be freaking out.
- - The setlist was just perfect, the ultimate as far as I'm concerned. I'll
leave it up to others to post the list but they went into all the ones I
had hoped for, including Desire accoustic with Bono and Edge on the
B-stage jamming, an abridged All I Want Is You (I was really really glad
they played this) where Edge suddenly appears out of the background to
burst into the guitar solo at the end, and Edge singing Sunday Bloody
Sunday, very powerful. Wake up Dead Man, you have to see this one live,
now I love it. Great closer.
- - Bullet the Blue Sky- Oh boy, you guys will love this if you haven't
heard already. Approaching the soliloquy Bono pulls a costumed guy out of
the crowd. My friends didn't understand why I was so excited. "No, guys, you
don't understand, that's a MACPHISTO costume!!!" White makeup, horns,
gold coat, everything. What followed was a duel of sorts, with Bono
staring this guy down all across the catwalk, circling him, belting the
monologoue at him, dealing with the devil as he dealt out those
hundred-dollar bills. It ended with Bono and the guy SWITCHING COSTUMES
right there on stage, Bono heading back to the main stage as MacPhisto.
Cool beyond belief.
- - Where the Streets Have No Name was where it all broke loose for the
crowd I think, it all came together right here with this song. EVERYONE
was singing and jumping and loving every second, it was wonderful. Now, I'm
probably deluding myself here, but I think Bono was looking at me the
second verse of this song. I was right at the railing, dancing and
clapping and yelling the lyrics, having the time of my life, and he looks
right at me. I really think he was because when I stopped dancing he
turned away. Now I know there'e probably no way he could even see me but
I'd like to think so. The crowd is his fuel while he's singing, so it
makes me very happy to think that even for a few seconds I was a part of
that.
- -St. Louis references: "Show me Missouri, show me St. Louis", I sure hope
we did, we tried our best. Edge welcoming us to the show
and thanking us for the loan of the arch (I was waiting for that one).
- - Extra verses, Shining like stars in the summer night, Move me a mountain,
I've already forgotten what Bono inserted in Mysterious Ways but it made
me laugh.
- - HMTMKMKM, with Bono taking off his sunglasses and holding them at arms
length, as though they burned him, but fascinated him at the same time.
His face, his eyes, wow, such a raw moment to see him shed the personna
for awhile.
- - One, my favorite song, so beautiful. I was both looking forward and
dreading this song because it means the end of the show. Now that the
show's over all these little details are fading into the background, but
when I hear this song now suddenly I'm back, holding on to the railing
with both hands, singing the song but softly, so I could hear the voices
around me and hear Bono's wonderful voice. The sight of the band with the
wonderful visuals, especially the simple heart, will stay with me for a
long long time. I had a lump the size of
Arkansas in my throat almost immediately, and it is extremely hard to
move me like that. But this whole night was like that for me, I'm
normally very inhibited and unemotional but I felt a real connection with
the people around me and with the band. It's a powerful experience.
I didn't have the chance to try to meet the band. I was at the concert
with a bunch of people that I hadn't seen in so long, we went and got
dinner after and talked for a good long time, which was wonderful. I do
wish I had met them though. Did they sign autographs after? Did anyone meet
them? Share!!
There's a million things that I've left out, a million tiny perfect
moments. I can't remember being so happy as I was right there, nowhere in
the world I'd rather be. I've been sort of an unhappy person, but for
those few hours the world was a wonderful place, and I am immensely
grateful for that. I feel like my batteries have been recharged, like
I've been healed. Thank you so much, U2, for all that you've given me.
And thank you Wire, for listening to me rant.
Trying to throw her arms around the world..
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I know you who were present that night have similiar
remembrances, and we all agree that this concert was not to be missed.. The only problem with releasing it on video, upon rereading my description, is the diminished audience.... I think that ultimately THIS is what gave us the better concert, in a strange way.. I don't really know how to explain that.. The band really gave it everything they had, and we gave them everything back.. And I knew when I witnessed this that there would be no more huge tours.. They wanted to reconnect with their fans, the way they connected with us that night. JMHO, of course.. Anyway, there was my first, and hopefully not my last, U2 concert, hope y'all enjoyed reading it..
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This archive was generated by hypermail 2.0b2 on Mon Nov 16 1998 - 17:14:36 PST