June 18, 2011: Dash's 1st Concert: U2

U2 Saved by Angry Birds

Technically, U2 was his first concert where he was awake through any portion of it.  We took him to a small old theater to see Fleet Foxes, but it was on a Friday night after school.  He was asleep, hard, before the opening band started.  We were really worried about driving to Anaheim and spending the money on a concert that he would sleep through.   He's pretty serious about getting his sleep (consistent protest to the contrary).

Luckily the concert was on a Saturday night and he got a nap in the traffic on the way up.

We arrived during Lenny Kravitz's set.  We had full-on nosebleed seats, but, hey, were were there.  I set off on a quest for some souvenirs.  I secured a youth T-shirt after about forty minutes (they only had a Joshua Tree shirt for Dash, which is ironic because that was the first time I saw U2). 

U2 - Anaheim Stadium

 

When we invited Dash to see U2 a month prior, he was less enthusiastic than we anticipated, given his boy-crush on Bono and his miming Bono's stage antics during U2 DVDs. 

He perked up a great deal after Lenny's set.  The shots to the right are prior to U2.

 
The show opened with "Even Better than the Real Thing" which was good since he's so familiar with it.

 
He was doing well for the first hour or so, but then started pooping out.  After a while he was starting to nod off.  Uh-oh.  What to do...

I break out the i-phone and Angry Birds keeps Dash awake for the remainder of the concert.  Good thing, it would have been a shame to miss Elevation, all three of us were belting it out, to the amusement of those around us.

So, I'm not sure what the lasting impression will be, or even if there will be one.  But we gave it the old college try.  In fact, if it hadn't been for Bono breaking his back and postponing this leg of the tour for a year, we would have missed this go around.

Main Set: Even Better Than The Real Thing, The Fly, Mysterious Ways, Until the End of the World, One, Amazing Grace - Where the Streets Have No Name - All You Need Is Love, I Will Follow, Get On Your Boots - She Loves You, I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For, Stuck In a Moment, Beautiful Day - Space Oddity, Elevation, Pride, Miss Sarajevo, Zooropa, City of Blinding Lights, Vertigo - It's Only Rock and Roll, I'll Go Crazy (remix) - Discotheque - Please, Sunday Bloody Sunday, Scarlet, Walk On - Never Walk

Encore(s): Ultraviolet, With or Without You, Moment of Surrender - Jungleland

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Category: Concerts

U2.  

Beginnings.

Prior to their penultimate weekend at The Sphere in Las Vegas, I'd seen them three times, beginnings all: 

Ends.

Maybe not my most favorite band.  Maybe ever.  At any given time, there was probably some other band holding my top spot.

Kate Bush isn't a band.

Midnight Oil might be the winner of my 40-year Band Favorite Marathon over U2.  I can't think of a third runner.

But Midnight Oil - perhaps more consistent social justices warriors (certainly less tender) - except for one song, never had the impact of U2.

If there can be only one for my generation - culturally - then it is U2.

In all of my prior shows, I was really far from the stage (football stadium, football stadium, baseball stadium cheap seats). 

I don't remember much from those shows.  

Some of the loss is the years.  Some might be it's hard to remember details when you never could see the details.  Some might be from being distracted by a new girl who could be The One.

In any case, U2 isn't getting any younger, nor are we.  Who else will be able to fully leverage the creative opportunities The Sphere enables?  Only huge bands with a long residency would be able to invest the time and money to optimize for the Sphere.

It has to be music you love - I bet Beyonce, Lady Gaga, Ms. Swift, and a host of country or hip-hop artists would put on a great show, but not for me.  Green Day, maybe, eventually.  Muse put on the best visual show I'd seen, we'd go see them, probably.

But an opportunity to see U2 with good seats, finally, maybe only...  

 

Thirty-seven years ago (good god!), my college roommates and I made the drive from Gainesville, FL, to Tampa Stadium to see The Joshua Tree tour.  We sat high up on the far 40-yard line.  I remember Exit and little else from the show.  I'd have to watch some videos to spark some memory.  I absolutely remember how emotionally connected the band made us feel - in a stadium.  And, yes, closing with 40, the whole stadium singing, after the band left, singing into the parking lot.  They were HUGE and the future was theirs.

Twenty-seven years ago, I remember some Rage Against The Machine.  I definitely remember dinner with Leigh and her Maid-of-Honor-level bestie [foreshadowing there :) ], Melinda, eating dinner at a fancy Mexican restaurant before the show.  Margaritas on the deck....   I remember Leigh's short white lacy dress.  I remember Leigh tripping in the Coliseum and hurting her elbow (things would bang against it for weeks afterwards).  U2?  They had a motorized Lemon or something?  Don't remember the show, don't remember any feelings about the show itself.

Fourteen years ago was about the kid.  Of course I wrote about it at the time:  U2 - Dash, too - June 18, 2011.  The three of us belting out "Elevation" was a blast. The show, the band?  Not much remembered.

 Maybe a final show, up close, will be an end that actually transforms those stick figures of the beginnings into actual people to remember.

I was saying after the show "There are two types of people in this world.  Those who have been able to see The Edge's fingers on the strings, and those who haven't."  I am now one of The Seers.

 

I'd joke that I'd often have to zoom in on the JumboTron to see facial expressions - or even just the faces.  But now I could just use my (newly) bespectacled eyeballs.  The biggest band in the world closer than most of the small obscure bands I frequent.

Adam struck me for the first time as ultra-cool.  Grey punk hairdo.  Imposing stance. Rock star.  (on bass, even).  Since Rattle and Hum, it's been impossible to underestimate The Edge.  I noticed Saturday night he's got about the most fluid play-guitar/dance groove I've seen.  Carried a lot of the showmanship burden.  Meaning, it didn't have to be all Bono.

And, yes, I could watch the fingers on the frets.  Thirty-seven years later.

When I see the video from The Sphere (Bono, said they were filming this concert (and probably other nights as well)), the should match up closely with what I saw from the floor eight people deep dead center.  That should help it last in my mind.

 

After Pop, I stopped attending U2 Concerts - cost for good seats probably being the biggest deterrent.  Also, I wasn't really liking their new music. Pop was the last of the Must Listen albums for me.  I don't think I've actually ever listened to their last three.  

But U2.  Sphere.

Midnight Oil's Great Circle Tour in 2017 after over a decade of no new music or touring was welcome and enjoyed.  Even by a twelve-year old kid dragged along.  But there's something special about tours promoting a great album.  Midnight Oil pulled of a rare feat with their last album, Resist: it was one of their best.  Their final tour in 2022 was deeply comforting and emotionally inspiring on so many levels.  The forty-plus years of message compassion, powered by a full album of top-tier material, transcended anything I've experienced in person, except maybe The Joshua Tree (which I barely remember).

I didn't expect that level of impact, and I didn't get it.  U2 at The Sphere did bring my U2 Journey full circle (spherically circular).  :)   It validated the experience of the three previous shows. "Did you see U2?"  "Sort of..."  Now I can answer: "Definitely.  Even the fingers!"

The Sphere was cool.  Especially, just waiting around for the show.  It reminded me of those hourglass-shaped power plant cooling towers.  I've been inside one of those, and it definitely looked as real as being in one.

In the cooling tower: Me, The One, new Instant Besties Audra and Mark

In the cooling tower: Me, The One, new Instant Besties Audra and Mark

 

"Where the Streets Have No Name"

I'm trying to think of an iconic song that better captures the gestalt of my musical life.  Not just me, but my generation.  

I can't.  

And in this moment, I feel it and am glad to be feeling it.

 

A completion isn't an end.

Maybe U2 will rock the world with a new album as impactful as their best.  Maybe I still have a few surprises in me.

 

While there's life there's hope. 

 

Celebrate the moments you've had.

There are new moments to cherish.  Choose to have them.

 

  

 

 

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Category: Concerts

Band: Cold War Kids

Venue: Observatory North Park

Special:  First Concert back since COVID started (previous was Twenty-One Pilots)

Expectations were low.  We like CWK; when it's working it's works good.

Sounded good.  They worked up some good grooves.  

I normally like it when a band goes into a bridge, drops out and extends a song, but CWK seemed to just be killing their groove.  There songs would just kind of stop rather than end.

 

Their version of "Something is not right with me" was awesome, easily making the whole evening worthwhile.  Heavy U2-like bass (Exit?), jangly guitar and keyboard, building an amazing groove.  Much better than the earlier versions (youtube live versions after 2015).  And the then broke it down into something and killed the groove.  Nonetheless, pretty awesome.

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Category: Concerts

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