|
elevation |
12:00 - German class. My mom ought to be here any minute now to pick me up for that "doctors appointment" 12:15 "Your mother is waiting for you in the office." eeeeeeeee!!!!! 1:00 my mom drops me off at the Summit. I find the end of the line and park my backpack there. I get up to go see if there's anyone i know ahead of me in line. I meet Kami Fuller and her cousin. I got back to my spot. A few more people have gotten in line behind me. Among them i meet Dustin Hall. Hi! about 2:00 - i decide i need to eat. Nice little adventure in the Renaissance Hotel. Wallet lost, $200. Wallet FOUND! I couldn't believe my luck. I buy a sandwich but upon returning i find that i simply cannot eat it. Too nervous, my stomach has been doing somersaults all day. The line has been moved. The nice lady in blue who was next to me has brought my backpack to the new line with her. Yay! Thanks. I borrow someone's cel phone and call my mom. sometime later i decide to go to the other side of the venue to wait for my mom. i see a few people waiting. They said Bono was just here 10 minutes ago. urgh! 10 minutes, this is what i get for trying to be patient. It doesn't bother me though. I'm gonna see U2. Lots of walking aorund the place. I can hear the soundcheck going on inside. Oooh, excitement builds! 
So I'll skip a few hours now. 3 times now i've borrowed peoples' cel phones and called my mom up. as soon as i hand this lady her cel phone, i see my mom's car! FINALLY! i run up and knock on the window to unlock the door. i throw my stuff in the car and run off to get albert. i eventually track him down and we run back to where the line is. 6:30 - the fans are getting loud. we're all in a state of "open the damned doors!!!" they open. we go in, once we're up the stairs we run. into the place down the stairs to the floor and get in line for the HEART. soon, we're in. WE'RE IN!! I wedge my way up front and establish something of a spot. after awhile i decide it would be best to take a bathroom break. on my way out they stop me... i show them my ticket and they make me wait. it seems they can't find the wristbands. so they scribble on my ticket and say they'll remember me. while I'm gone PJ Harvey starts. I return and get back to my little spot. PJ Harvey rocks! and for some reason her guitarist, this lady with white hair and a nose ring, strikes me as the coolest woman i have ever seen. i can't explain it but she just seemed so cool. PJ is great but my back and feet hurt like hell. i ask around and find someone with advil. awhile later i find someone with beer (couldn't find any water or coke to drink) and have a few sips. The advil starts working right about the time U2's roadies are scurrying about. im watching edge's guitar tech do his little U2 medley. He does a few bars of Streets and it's awesome. But I still have no idea what i'm in for. Part II
I see him first... The Edge!!! HE'S REAL!!! He takes his place,
right in front of me. He's about 6 feet away. He's so close
I can see the color in his eyes. Then a few seconds later I notice
Bono, not 12 feet away from me. THEY EXIST!!! Upon seeing
them, right there, nothing is lost. they are even greater in person.
There is nothing between me and them. Nothing but a few feet of sweaty
air.
 ELEVATION!!! Everyone in front of the stage is singing along, including me. We sing along throughout the entire show. Wow. I am in heaven. I'm taking pictures. About the 3rd of the way into the show I run out of film. That's OK. The Edge is right up there... The show is good. Bono runs a few laps around the heart then limps around a little bit. silly. Somewhere they kick into I Will Follow. it rocks. it really rocks. Then from there they go into Sunday Bloody Sunday and it is BADASS!!! yes. they've brought the song back to life! (edge's popmart version just didn't do the song justice) now it's the whole band... it's a lot like R&H minus the speech. NO MORE! say NO MORE! NO MORE! then they do this song and i'm baffled cuz i don't know what it is!!! it's the live version of Sweetest Thing!!! Next is In a Little While. this song makes me want to cry! Towards the end of Bad Bono pulled a girl up on stage... lucky bitch! but no i'm happy for her. we actually talked to her before the show too! and my friend albert said 'yeah what if bono pulled you up on stage...' hehe. The next thing is Streets. I've been waiting to hear Streets live. I get such a rush just from listening to it. Well think of that rush you get when you're watching Streets in R&H. now multiply it by 10 or 100. think of that blissed out high, that happiness you experience at a concert, that joy... now take that a couple of degrees higher. Through the whole song I cried so hard. I think God lives in Edge's guitar. it's just so beautiful. Mysterious Ways was amusing. Bono was lying on one of the screens, wearing a rather ugly hat. Then I heard 'Love, we shine like a burning star, we're falling from the sky...' only it was quiet and sweet and i was getting apprehensive as to what ahs happened to THE FLY. but, not to worry, in a few lines the band kicked in WHARARARARAMMM!!!!! when they finish the fly they leave th stage and we do the 40 routine until... gospel music comes through the speakers. i am baffled. then the screens light up with images of an old fart talking. and i go oooohhhh chuck heston... i heard about this. heston's voice get's more and more distorted and deteriorated before the band finally comes out. they launch into Bullet the Blue Sky. the pounding, heavy rhythm. bono prances around doing his thing. he picks up a little spot light and has a lot of fun with it. shining it all over the place. all over the audience, adam, larry, edge - from out on the ramp. after that they go into With or Without You. the white curtains come down and starmaps are projected all over the arena... it's magical. bono's walking around the ramp when he spots some people up in the skybox holding up an irish flag. he motions for them to throw it down and they don't get it. when the song is over he gets them to throw it down, but it takes a bit of coaxing. "come on, it's ok... just throw it down... 700 years of oppression, this is not a problem." they finally drop the flag... it floats to the people below them and it eventually gets passed to the stage. bono picks it up and while Edge starts playing One, bono does his own spiel. "i used to be ashamed of this flag... but thanks to some people over the past few years, thanks to them, i'm proud of this flag..." One is beautiful. The show is almost over. I'm exhausted. I keep closing my eyes so i can just listen. It's beautiful. and i'm thinking the show's almost over... because this is the encore. Then they start playing Walk On and i think to myself, 'it's not over yet' Walk On is the last song and when it's over i find Kami and we just hug each other and cry some more. That was the greatest show i've ever seen in my life... Part III they let us out... we run around the arena a few times... Albert
tells me he touched bono! he touched his pant leg. cool. we
find some people with Wire tags and decide to follow them as if they know
where they're going... we eventually find Kami again.
Mark, me, mom, Dustin, Shari and Kami (picture stolen from Kami's page) so i got home, showered and crashed at 3:20am. - The Aftermath - Came to school the next day to see my friend Amanda wearing the exact same shirt as me. that was cool. i am mentally incapacitated for the next day or so. it takes awhile to come down from that high. to all the kind strangers who watched my stuff, let me borrow their
cel phones, let me get in front of them in the heart (cuz they were bigger
than me), etc. etc. THANKS YOU GUYS!!! Carry each other.
-Laura |
