A great summer. The perfect summer.
My U2 360 journey ended six weeks ago. And in the curious way that time works, it feels like it’s been a year, and it feels like it was just yesterday. My life has done a 180 since then. I’ve changed careers and changed homes and changed cities. It’s an overwhelming amount of transition, but U2 remains my constant as I find my way in this new place, and my 360 tour memories bring much comfort in this temporarily unfamiliar world.
I remember looking at the calendar in January, and the summer months seemed impossibly far off. Now they seem impossibly long gone. Read More
I got a few bottlerockets and firecrackers in Tim C.’s Alsip neighborhood on the south side of Chicago at a barbecue on the 4th of July. But on the 5th of July, I got fireworks.
It finally happened.
Out Of Control. Live. U2 played my favorite song. The one I’ve been wanting to hear on this tour for two years now. The one I’ve been carrying the same sign for to the last seven shows I’ve been to. The one I was beginning to think I’d never hear live as U2 started to settle into this leg’s setlist.
Tim C., a lifetime Southsider and a man fiercely infatuated with and devoted to his city, has been talking up the event that is *U2 in Chicago* since I met him. So, when the 2010 tour dates were announced, I did the logical thing for a girl from north Florida to do and bought a ticket to the Chicago show. I wasn’t totally convinced I’d go, but I wanted to have a ticket in hand in case things worked out. And after a long year and a half, they did. Read More
Bono shines like stars in the summer night in Baltimore.
I’ve been a Florida girl for 93 percent of my life. But I’ve never been as hot as I was in Baltimore. The June 22 show was one day after the summer solstice, and while Bono didn’t sing the “shine like stars in the summer night” verse of With or Without You like I’d specifically requested, it was still another perfect show. Read More
Tonight’s Baltimore concert will be my seventh U2 show, so the shirt of choice is a replica of the “7” shirt The Edge wore during the Elevation tour on the “U2 Go Home: Live at Slane Castle” DVD. Hoping it will be a lucky 7 type of night … maybe I’ll get to hear “Out of Control,” maybe Bono will acknowledge my sign. Maybe he’ll sing the “shine like stars” verse of With or Without You. Or maybe none of those things will happen, and it will still be one of the best nights of my life.
It’s already been a beautiful day in Baltimore. The forecasted rain has held off, though I’ve been sweltering in the GA line since our 6 a.m. roll call. But, I’m not the only one staring at the sun. I’ve reunited with some of my favorite fellow U2 fans, who I met at the 2009 360 show in Charlottesville, and already made some great new friends with people in this line. And it’s been a fun day of radio, TV and newspaper interviews, as all the media outlets want to talk with the crazy people at the front of the line. A local radio station, 98 Rock, has been blaring U2 music all day for the GA line, and the excitement’s building as showtime nears. Desire was playing at one point and I got those “I’m going to be hearing and seeing this band live tonight!” butterflies.
So, bethandbono.com followers (Mom): I look forward to reporting on the other side of the show. What time is it in the world? It’s showtime! (In seven hours …)
Got into Baltimore late last night and found the line started up around 9 a.m. today. I’m No. 5 … lowest number I’ve ever been. Thinking I may go front rail for this one!
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: Read More
Patrick Hoover and I “went out” for about three weeks in seventh grade. This means that a friend of his probably came up to me between fifth and sixth periods and said, “Patrick wants to know if you’ll go out with him” and I sent word back through the envoy that I would, indeed, go out with him, and by the end of the school day we were an item.
I wasn’t allowed to go to movies with boys or to have them over (I still don’t think I am), so we mostly just hung out at the pool in my apartment complex. At the time, I was still harboring an obscene infatuation for the New Kids on the Block and listening to Casey Kasem’s American Top 40 every weekend on my clock radio. That’s what comprised my musical world.
But then Patrick Hoover made me a mix tape. Read More
I could not visit Denver without going to Red Rocks Park and Amphitheater, site of U2’s legendary 1983 concert during their War tour, which would ultimately be released as U2 Live at Red Rocks: Under a Blood Red Sky. Even non-U2 fans are familiar with this show. If you watched MTV at all in the 80s, you undoubtedly saw the video for Sunday Bloody Sunday, filmed here, that was prefaced by Bono’s famous “This song is not a rebel song. This song is Sunday Bloody Sunday.”
The atmosphere of this concert was unearthly, and made for an epic performance captured on film (the kind of “epic” that used to mean something, before it was used to describe movies like The Hangover). Torrential rain fell all day ahead of the show, and the lingering mist rises up to create a mystical glow around the giant torches. It’s early June, but still cold enough that Bono’s breath is visible with every song he sings. And as he struts around the stage with his sweaty mullet, sleeveless shirt and leather boots, massive rock forms are visible behind him. All of this was fresh in my mind after watching the remastered concert DVD on my flight out to Denver. I couldn’t wait to see the historic venue in person, to replay the concert in my head as I stood among the same rocks, to shout from the stage, “Hey, this is Red Rocks!” Read More
From the GA list to the emptying stadium, here’s what U2 360 looked like in Denver.
Recap: Denver, 5/21/2011. (Contains setlist spoilers.)
The U2 360 show in Denver took my breath away in so many ways. For starters, mile-high Denver is 5,280 feet above sea level. Tallahassee is 200 feet, on the high end. Between doing laps around the stadium looking for the best vantage point to peek in on U2’s sound check, charging the field at full throttle after speed-walking past security to get the best placement on the rail, and climbing up and down and up again on the many stairs at Red Rocks, I was gasping for air. I’m not in the best shape of my life, but I will safely blame it on the altitude this time.
But, the lack of oxygen only added to the euphoria of the trip. Read More
