do u u2?

This post is in response to a friend asking "How was U2?"

I have to preface this post with a note about the fact that my husband and I rarely have a night out without our kids. Between both of us working full time and the kids in school / daycare, we put a lot of value on our "hanging out at home family time". We feel guilty and selfish for cutting into those precious hours - as parents, we believe that raising our own kids to be responsible and respectful people is our number one priority, and since they are in the hands of other people so much during the week, we don't leave them very often.

with that said...

My friend B., who sells rocks on ebay (and makes over $100K annually doing it) and his wife M. are Denver Bronco season ticket holders (yes, they have an inordinate amount of discretionary income, compared to me). They were offered a chance to buy seats for the U2 show at the local football stadium 2 years ago, before the tickets went on sale to the general public. Unbeknown st to us, they bought 4 seats, thinking they would sell the other two on ebay and make some money. U2 was set to play Denver in June 2010, but Bono had unexpected back surgery last year, so they had to postpone the entire tour.

My understanding is that Denver was U2's first US stop on this new leg of the 360 tour, so tickets were hard to come by...


3 days before the U2 show, B and M invited us to join them for dinner and the concert. M had already made arrangements for our kids to hang out at their house with their kids, with a neighborhood high school girl to look after all four kids for the night ... so we couldn't say "no". We knew the evening would be an expensive one, so we took some money we had in savings from refinancing our house late last year, and enjoyed a well-deserved night out. Our 19th wedding anniversary is coming up, so we looked at the event as a present from us, to us.

We had dinner in downtown Denver, at B's favorite Brazilian steakhouse. The waiters walk around with big spears of grilled meat (15 types of meat, to be exact) and provide continuous table side service from the spears. For one price you can have all the grilled items you can consume in one sitting. It is decadent and not my first choice of how to spend dining $$$, but the beef was REALLY good.

The stage for the U2 concert took 4 days to construct at the stadium... it was quite impressive, looking like a giant 4-legged spider in the middle of the playing field. (For great pictures and another perspective on the show, from a fellow working married mom, please go to http://www.dooce.com/2011/05/26/found-what-i-was-looking)

The jumbo tron screen (do they even call it that anymore?) was suspended on all four sides of the stage, between the spider legs, about 30 feet over the singers' heads. Our seats were about 30 rows up from the field, to the left of the stage. The evening turned out to be dry but cool - perfect for an outdoor show this time of year in Denver. The Fray opened for U2 - they are local to Denver, and they were totally jazzed to be playing to such a large hometown crowd.

It has been 2 decades at least since i saw a show at the football stadium, and probably 12-15 years since i went to a rock concert, and i had forgotten 3 things: how loud it is, how rude / drunk / high the audience is, and the smell of beer and pot everywhere. Some people would not shut up - they were having yelling conversations over the performers the entire time!

i did not know much about U2, other than they have been all over the radio for 20+ years, their lead singer is from Ireland, and all of their songs are anthem - like. I was surprised to find out the band only has four people in it, and that The Edge sings so much and complements Bono's voice very well. For a straight up rock n roll band they are very tight - they made the four chord progression, 4/4 time or Bo diddley beat and a solid bass line work every time. who can argue with that? my favorite number of the entire evening was when the drummer left his kit and walked all around the stage, with one very large miked bongo drum, beating out a primitive dance rhythm that was contagious. i have no idea what the song was, or what else was going on with the guitars or vocals - the drum line was mesmerizing.

The Fray was on stage for a little less than an hour, and it was almost an hour before U2 came on after them. the new stadium is built with steel floors under the seats just like the old one, so 80,000 people pounding on the floor makes rocky mountain thunder, to which U2 took the stage. They were on for a little less than 2 hours - they came to the stage to David Bowie's "Major Tom" and left to Elton John's "Rocket Man" - i guess U2 brings in enough cash to pay the ascap fees for using those songs, eh? There were parts of the show that felt a little preachy, with the recently freed leader of Burma talking to us from the video screen at one point. We were reminded of how much the US consumes, and how many people are dying the world over every day on the video screens.... with all the noise and lights and smoke I felt as if i was watching an MTV production.

We did not sit in our seats from the time U2 hit the stage until they left - it seemed the entire crowd was on its feet for the whole show. Our kids stayed overnight with our friends, so we had a lazy Sunday morning like we have not had in years, without kids clamoring for attention or breakfast (even though they are perfectly capable of dealing with that on their own, our kids still like to come in and snuggle up with us. it won't be long before they are done with that, but at 9 and 12, they still like us okay).

All in all, a really unique night out - I feel privileged to have been at The Event of the night / week / month in my hometown.