| Saturday May 12th, 2001 Chicago Illinois United Center |
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| My first U2 concert. The moment I had been waiting for for well over 5 years. I missed Popmart and was too young for ZooTV. But here I was. Sitting outside the United Center for my very first U2 Concert. I had brought my book of 45's just in case I somehow ran into the band, you know. I was going to get my One Tree Hill 45 signed. I didn't care what I had to do. I was going to get it done. I ended up chatting with the girl in front of me in line. She was a first year at the Univ. of Chicago and had seen U2 about 7 times or so. 6:30 finally comes and they start allowing us into the UC. I walk up, give them my ticket, have them stamp it, walk over to a table where I get my wrist band. See up to this point, it still hadn't hit me. I still didn't realize I was less then a few hours away from meeting U2. Not just a few hours, but I'd also be a few feet from them as well. So I get my wrist band and I start walking out into the main corridor of the UC, there is security all lined up to make sure we go into the correct gate. It was all very surreal because I'm walking very quickly towards the gate and then UC Security parts the curtain and there I am, looking out onto the floor of the United Center. Right then, it hit me. I was going to see U2. So I run out onto the floor, well not really run cause security was really picky about that. So we walked quickly to the floor. Once I got there I noticed that the open spaces on the barrier of the outside of the heart were filling quickly. So I found an open spot and secured my location there. I was standing next to Two Wirelings who had avoided any and or all information about the tour so as to be surprised when they finally saw the show. I knew what was coming, they didn't. So I felt really cool about that. P.J. Harvey came on and I was enjoying her show, but I was really looking forward to U2. She didn't play down by the water, which was the one song I really wanted to hear by her, but I survived. Finally it seemed she was finished and I was ready for U2. I can not even describe to you my mental state in those next 30 minutes or so. Every emotion was running through my head. I was so hyper that I danced to ever single song that was played before U2 came on. Several songs from Radiohead's The Bends as well as Get Up (I feel like a sex machine) Jackie Wilson's Higher and Higher and the song that ended it all Higher Ground by Stevie Wonder. A few seconds after Higher Ground a large Gong Crash informed us, particularly me. U2 was due up in a few seconds. Although the rumour that Stereo MC's Wanna GO Higher was going to be the walk on song for U2, I feel that The Influx Mix of Elevation was even better. Then I saw them. There they were. Barely 70 feet in front of me. Bono. The Edge. Larry Mullen Jr. Adam Clayton. U2 I can still remember very clearly that I lost my voice even before they started playing. The one-two punch of Elevation and Beautiful Day was great. Bono threw the "but I'm a creep" part into the middle of Elevation, and once the lights went off I thought the crowd was going to explode. I never understood why the band kept insisting on playing Until The End of the World and Gone. I soon realized why the keep them in their setlists. During the Bull fight of ..End of the World, Bono collapsed barely 5 feet in front of me and I could literally hear the sound of Bono's foot kicking the guitar. Gone, with it's usual intro of "Hutch" was also great. Both songs were definetly a plus to the concert. When we first got to our spots right on the edge of the heart, I was dissapointed because there was some sort of lighting mechanism that was placed on top of the catwalk right in front of me, at times it blocked my view of the stages but I was ok with it. Well it turns out that this lighting mechanism is what Bono stood in front of during New York. Through all his hip undulations and shaking and everything else. I was 4 feet away. I didn't mind the lighting thing then. Sunday Bloody Sunday, great song. As always. In a Little While which was my favorite song off of the new album upon my first listening. In concert it was even better, the version this night included the full band. Bono started introducing down at the tip by saying something about Zooropa, but soon stopped and said, "Edge wants to play Desire" so they played Desire. Right after Desire one of the greatest U2 moments of all time happened. A fan at the tip of the heart was holding a sign (he had been holding the sign for the past few shows) that said "Stay + Piano Tonite?" The fans name was Johnathon and he had come up with a Piano line for Stay and was determined to get his piano part heard. Long story short, Bono pulls him on stage with the encouragement of "If you're crap, you're off" and Johnathon played the most gorgeous piano part that could be played to that song. Bad. I had been waiting 5 years to see U2. Everyone I knew was aware of that. The last week I was a constant buzz of energy. I told everyone I met, I was most likely going to cry at one of three parts of the concert. The first one was Bad, The second was With or Without You, the third when I met the band. In the end I didn't cry at any of those points. But Bad. I can not tell you what it felt like to hear that song live, there right in front of me. Streets. There is nothing greater for a U2 fan then to hear the opening strains of that organ and to see the screens go red. We know what is coming. We know that it's the highlight of the show. We are ready. When every single light turns on in that place. I know that I'm part of something really special. No matter how many people are there, I know that this is great. I'm starting to ramble folks. Just know. This was one of the greatest nights of my life. But little did I know what the next four days were going to hold for me. Within the next 100 hours, I was going to meet the band, meet some of the greatest people of my life, have Bono play a song for me, and have the greatest time in my life. Thanks all of you. |
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