After a month-long hiatus since the Denver kickoff of Summer U2011, I pick back up with my U2 adventure next week. Monday, I’ll drive to Jacksonville and hop a flight to Baltimore for the concert on Wednesday, drive to Cleveland Thursday with Tim C. to visit the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and finally get to see U23D, then take a quick sidetrip to Chicago (home of Tim C.) before the East Lansing show on Sunday, then an overnight drive back to Chicago to fly home to Tallahassee Monday afternoon. I look forward to being completely exhausted at the end of it all.
Each of my U2 trips will be perfect no matter the specifics, but here’s a quick Top 5 list of what I’m most excited about and/or wishing for this time out:
Out. Of. Control.
Hearing this song live is still at the top of my wishlist. Earlier in the tour, they seemed to be interchanging I Will Follow and Out of Control during the second spot in the playlist. It’s a little early in the night for Bono to see my sign and follow the instructions, but I will try nonetheless. (I spotted the guy who takes the gigapixel fan cam photos in time to hold my sign up in Denver [See if you can find me! I’m next to Waldo.], and plan for it to make an appearance in all the fan cam photos.)
Shine like stars.
On June 22, we will be one day into summer. It will be the perfect occasion for Bono to sing the “shine like stars” coda during With or Without You, best known from the Rattle and Hum movie (but not on the album version). It’s a beautiful verse, powered by Bono’s usual spine-tingling vocals that are at once sexy and sultry and forlorn and hopeful … “Yeeeaaah, we’ll shine like stars in the summer night, we’ll shine like stars in the winter night. One heart, one hope, one love.” Or some Bono variation thereof. I know it won’t happen. But a girl has to dream. I’ve played 4:30 through 5:05 of the With or Without You video about 18 times instead of finishing this post.
Meeting Bono.
Dur.
Seeing the U2 crew.
You’ve met Tim C. via a guest blog or two already, and he’s got enough others stockpiled that I’ve looked into buying bethandbonoandtimc.com. He thinks that he owns the place. I’ll be riding shotgun controlling the U2 playlist as we wander the Northeast and Midwest in his Buick. I’m also excited to be doing the Baltimore show with Katie and Jennifer, who I met at the Charlottesville show in 2009. And I’ll be seeing several other U2ers I’ve met at shows and or become BFFFs with (best Facebook friends forever) based only on that one little letter and one little number.
Rock and roll . . . That’s all, folks.
My original plan was just to go to Baltimore, and I was iffy even on that. When Tim C. mentioned he might do East Lansing, I looked at a map (as I have no idea what lies beyond the Mason-Dixon Line, especially once you hit states that border Canada or Mexico or whichever one is up that way). I saw that Cleveland was in the middle of the road between Baltimore and East Lansing. I threw the idea out jokingly to Tim C., who has seen the Rock Hall a handful of times already. When he actually planned it, I was thrilled. There are some, as Mrs. David Beckham would say, may-juh U2 relics to see here, especially from the Achtung Era — my favorite. There’s trabants from ZooTV (omg!), Adam’s bass from PopMart (omg!!), Bono’s Irish Falcon guitar (omg!!!), Bono’s Fly suit (omg!!!!!!!), the original, handwritten lyrics for Bad (hfs!!!!!). Also, the Rock Hall is the only place (besides somewhere in Amsterdam, and while I’ve been accused of craziness a lot lately, I’m not that crazy) currently showing U23D, which has been out for five years and I’ve still never seen it. It’s a concert film of U2’s 2006 Vertigo tour, and I’ll be viewing it at 4 p.m. Friday, June 24. I have called the Rock Hall and confirmed the show time.
I guess I’m also kind of excited about seeing Lady Gaga’s meat dress.
I’m departing with a brand new HTC Evo attached to my hand, and will be blogging/tweeting/posting as much of my journey as I can. I’m also going to try using Google Latitude so all my followers (my mother) can check in on me. If I don’t see you there, I’ll see you on the innernets!
