September 30, 2009

"In the Name of Love", "I Will Follow" an "Angel of Harlem" on a "Beautiful Day" "Where the Streets Have No Name"

I feel like music fans generally have a list of a few bands they'd love to see in concert at some point during their lives. I've been able to see some of mine so far, including Metallica, Coldplay, Rascal Flatts, and the Dixie Chicks. Okay, so that last one isn't actually on my "must see" list, but I've still seen them, and they put on a decent show. Anywho... fate smiled on me and I was able to see another one of the big ones: U2. Yeah, maybe you've heard of them?Christina, Steph, Becky, and I met up in Old Town and drove together to FedEx Field. Amazingly, there wasn't total gridlock on the freeway, so we made good time and were even able to find a parking space quickly. We snagged some Johnny Rockets and found our seats during the opening act, which was Muse. A couple of their songs were recognizable, but we aren't huge fans or anything, so we were just whetting our whistles for the main attraction which was to come.Marcia came and we all enjoyed watching the show from our birds-eye-view seats. We had a perfect view of the spaceship/praying mantis stage, complete with walkways surrounding a fan area, so some people were in the inner circle right by U2. Plus, four Brazilians were sitting in front of us, and they were quite entertaining both to talk with and watch during the show.One thing I'll tell you for sure. U2 has a plethora of recognizable and sing-along-able songs. I felt like almost the whole time we were joining in and having a great time with it. [A long aside, if I may: I realized that during one song Bono let the crowd do the singing. He was just hanging out. Then I realized that lots of bands do this at their concerts. Then I realized that we as audience members pay good money to attend these concerts and listen to talented and polished band members sing and play for us. They're taking our money and then making us sing to ourselves! Lazy singers, making us do the work when we're paying to hear them! Just an observation. Ok, that's enough ranting for one blogpost.]

U2 sang/played[/let us sing] for 2 hrs and 15 mins, and that's a lot of time to fit in great music. The setlist included such favorites as "One", "Where the Streets Have No Name", "Beautiful Day", "Vertigo", "With or Without You", and "Sunday Bloody Sunday", plus a whole lot more.After 2 or 3 encores, they called it a night and walked off the stage. When the lights came up, we knew it was over and started to head for the car. Time = 11:15. It maybe took 20 mins to get to the car. Then it took another 45 mins to get out of the parking lot (no thanks to jerkyfaces who don't honor the allow-a-car-then-go rule. If you don't know that rule, call me or email me and I'll be happy to explain. It's one of the fundamental building blocks of car etiquette, but it was being brazenly disregarded at this event, and that makes me sad... and frustrated. We're talking Incredible Hulk frustrated. After taking Marcia to her car downtown, we finally got home at about 1 AM. It was a looooong night, but worth it to see the legendary U2 live in concert.

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