U2 Concert in Charlottesville

After an excruciatingly long and emotional week, the long-awaited U2 concert arrived Thursday night. The anticipation of this show was really drawn out--we bought the tickets six months ago, and in the meantime, it was easy to forget that we were really going. I've wanted to see U2 since about 1980, so it's been a long time in the making. The show was absolutely incredible. We had some great fun with great friends tailgating in the parking lot before the show (and during the opening act, Muse...who sounded great from the parking lot, LOL). What I would later find out was a raging case of wigged-out hormones, combined with the week from hell AND the size and magnitude of the stage construction, lights, and fantastic sounds of U2, caused me to bubble over with emotion early in the show...I think it was actually during the first song, Breathe, that I started crying (yes, at a concert...I'm a freak). I was simply overwhelmed. So, when hubby dear announced he was going to the restroom, I had to go with him, and it was then that we abandoned our seats. The third photo in the series was taken from our seats, but I think the rest were taken from our new post in the handicapped-accessible seats. James, my hero of the night, asked the usher (and the usher's supervisor, because she couldn't answer the question) if we could hang out in the folding chairs on the concourse because I was feeling a little claustrophobic. It was no problem, so there we stayed. The seats were farther away from the stage, but we had an unobstructed view, plenty of wiggle room, and chairs we could sit in if we wanted without staring at people's butts (always a plus).

I can NOT adaquately describe the show. It's been dubbed the biggest rock concert in history, and I'll buy that. The lights, the special effects of the 360-screen, the enormity of "the Claw," and the fact that they sounded in-frigging-credible were just...WOW. The stage construction has also been described as spaceshippy, which is also very accurate. I had this sense of smallness and of being a tiny, tiny, TINY part of the universe, and that's part of what rattled me early on. And no, I wasn't on drugs, other than the second-hand pot smoke floating through the parking lot and the stadium. Last I checked, neither Miller High Life nor Coors Light are hallucenigens, either.

The set list left a little to be desired (no pun intended, but I like it). While I LOVED Sunday Bloody Sunday, New Year's Day, The Unforgettable Fire, Beautiful Day, Mysterious Ways, and many, many others of the songs they played, I was left wanting by the fact that Pride is NOT on their current set list (nor is Desire). I was also looking forward to, oddly enough, the Michael Jackson homage that has been a staple of the tour, and I didn't get it. What I did get, just as I stopped crying and got myself back together, was a snippet of Amazing Grace, leading into Where the Streets Have No Name. I couldn't hear the Muppets sing Amazing Grace and not cry, so that pushed me over the edge again. (Hah, no pun intended there either...but being pushed over The Edge doesn't sound like such a bad thing.)

All in all, great show, and at a much-needed time. If you get the chance to see them on this tour, take it. You won't regret it.