you too

super fan of all music, including ellen cherry music, Raj, took me and #1BB to see U2 at FedEx Field yesterday. wow. and wow again. i like their music. don't get me wrong, i like it as much as the next guy, but there are some people who love it so much they loerve it. it was insanity. we arrived at 1:30PM to wait on line, get some numbers and wrist bands and then were let onto the field at 5PM. it was nice to have an afternoon hanging out with a good friend, and having us peek into his, and many others', obsession for awhile.

U2 are great performers. the sound was great. the stage was amazing. overwhelming. a modern day, moveable cathedral. i suppose that's the point. U2's Cult of Personality is having us always look up at them and be overwhelmed by spectacle. I have never thought of the shows I've seen on video, DVD or photographs to be intimate experiences for the audience. But still, that's okay because I was amazed by everything that went into the show. An outside observer would have seen me standing still while everyone jumped around me, in time to the music. I was wide-eyed, intensely watching The Edge as he played through the songs. I was fascinated by the flow of everything and how easily they traded guitars--it had been done many times over and was familiar. So were the songs, even though there were a few times with The Edge appeared to be "searching" for a note over the pre-recorded other guitar tracks that were playing. I tried not to smile when I heard a possible flubbed note--it made me happy. That was a human being up there, playing in front of 60,000 people.

There was a point when Bono walked over the inner circle area where we were. I caught this picture of everyone looking up. It was very strange. I felt I was the calm person in the middle of some kind of madness. I don't like big crowds at all and Raj was concerned about my anxiety, but i managed to handle this by concentrating on one thing at a time. First I would watch Adam Clayton stomp around the stage like a bass Godzilla in his sparkly trimmed gray pants (gents, I don't know how he does this, but those pants made him look super fine.)

I wondered if it feels completely odd to be sitting at your drum riser and have it spin around at pre-determined times. Then, at the end of the show, Bono wears a jacket that has lasers, literally, shooting out of it. Trust: it was not cheesy, but incredibly cool.

But my favorite part was watching The Edge. I confess, I did have one of those moments where I thought: is he looking directly at me? So i tried to give a little smile. Now, on reflection, it makes me laugh. I must have been a little starstruck.



It's going to take the crew 2-3 days to pack up this stage and move it to the next location. Amazing.

It reminded me of what I saw last summer in Wisconsin: The Forevertron. It's possible that your life is unfulfilled if you don't have both the U2 and the Dr. Every experience at least once. I highly recommend.