by Ellie Bellie

Ladies & Gents, boys & gals, and of course the U2 Nuts:

Just got back from New jersey, Hoboken to be precise, otherwise known as home of the hobos :) I figured that while I was doing laundry at midnight, I may as well transcribe the Jersey Elevation to all interested parties...

June 21st, 5:45pm
We leave work at precisely 5:45 and to my utter astonishment, get NO traffic on the Champlain bridge (for the Americans--there is not a minute of the day when that damn thing is not jammed); we sail through and make our way to the border while I mutter something to myself about going all the way out to New Jersey to see U2. Call it disbelief or something.

The drive out there was quite eventful. Oh yeah, once we reached the border, a sour, bitter old boarder guard asks us where we're headed and why so I tell him that I'm going to Jersey to see U2. He just looks at me with a blank expression on his dented face and grunts "Ok." Cantankerous old fart. I gotta tell you, at first the drive on the 87 is cool because you drive through the Adirondacks. After about an hour and a half I was damn sick of looking at trees and mountains. There is absolutely nothing on that interstate but trees and mountains, mountains and trees and more bleedin' mountains. Of course, I was mistaken in my assessment of the situation because very soon into the drive I realized that New York was The Trucker State. I don't think that I've ever seen that many trucks in my entire life. Rude, crazy bastards too--speeding demons on 18-wheels who insisted on tailgating, cutting you off (while spraying your windshield to the point where I actually drove into the next lane because I couldn't see what the hell I was doing) and then who plant themselves in fornt of you. And then they'd slow down. Now I had a nice little game with this fellow in an 18-wheeler who insisted on cutting me off and slowing down, therefore I would cut him off and go along my merry way and 18 minutes later here he comes again to cut me off. I cut him off, he cut me off-- this went on for quite some time until I got severly annoyed and just sped madly away from that dumbass trucker.

Suffice it to say that the drive to Jersey is a long, tedious and boring job, as there is nothing on the 87 and to make things even better, there are NO LIGHTS. It is pitch black out when you're driving at 11pm. I took an exit for a gas stop and ended up in a sinister looking location and proceeded to get to a toll booth where I told the person behind the window that I didn't think I should be there 'cause I wanted to go to Jersey--NEW Jersey (like she ddin't know that). Well she tells me to hurry up and back up, do a U-turn and head off in the other direction. Good thing there were no other cars around. I thanked her like a typical southern red-neck "thanks m'aam." I've never spoken like that to anyone before. Musta been the exictement. By this time I am thinking that NJ is pretty damn far--"how much further Papa Smurf?" The smurf didn't know but she was thinking it was a good LONG way away.

We finally get to Route 3-E and start to follow that to the 17-N (or vice veras); let me tell you, that is one hell of a long stretch, I never thought I would get to Hoboken, I was actually getting discouraged. To makes things better, we took the worng exit (I have NO clue where that was) and ended up in yet another sinister looking town, outside a seedy motel where I tried to use the phone but the automated voice on the other end kept asking me for an extra .10 cents-- did you know that in the US they charge you .35 cents for local calls?? Anyway, it took me a while to make that call, my fingers as well as my brain were impaired at 1am. So I call up KJ and tell her I'm somewhere I shouldn't be and her normal reaction is to ask where I am. I felt super inteligent telling her that I didn't know. I've noticed that it's really helpful to ask people for directions when you have no clue where the hell you are. I described every posible building to her and she didn't know where I was either. YAY. I bravely told her that I'd go ask the motel guy for directions and call her back. Wouldn't you know it, he knows how to get me back on the 495 AND he knows how to get me to Hoboken. I get back on the road and finally get into the beautiful, cramped and congested city of Hoboken, New Jersey. It took me about a half hour to find a bloody parking spot and the only reason I even got to park my car was because these 2 guys were leaving. It took them about 15 minutes to get their car out because in Hoboken, there is NO parking-- it's bumper to bumper and I've come to the conclusion that if you want to live in Hoboken, you shouldn't have a car. I was determined to fit my car into that spot and damned if I did. Grabbed my stuff and headed to K's. She was back from the first Jersey show and ready to pass out so me, Kel,Matt and CK literally passed out for about 4.5 hours.

June 22nd, 6:30am
Ooooooh was it difficult getting out of bed. All I heard was Matt going "oh!" "OHHH!" because he didn't want to get up. Finally he got off the floor and got ready. We made our sandwhiches, packed our stash of junk food and water, grabbed our blanket and off we went to the Contintental Airlines Arena. We park the car and see that there are already people in line--people camped out on the previous night you see. We took our stuff out of the car, dumped it at the end of the line and went to get our numbers. I was 100 (YAY!). I have to say that we had the best spot. No doubt about it. It was right in front of the dumpster and about 20 feet away from the porto-potty. Boy, it was just IDEAL. We sit down and almost immediately start chatting with our neighbour Jeff, from NYC who had also been to Montreal 1. Cool guy, lent me his other chair for the entire day and has promised to send me copies of his pics. Kel decided to take a nap and passed out in her chair while CK plopped herself onto her back and dozed for a while. Matt wandered off but I don't know where. A few minutes later, an enthousiastic Abby from PA (WIRE pal) came over looking for me because she knew I'd arrived. Abby is pretty joyous and she greeted me like she'd known for ages hehehe, lucky girl--she was #12 in line as she'd camped out all night. Since I've got your attention, I will also do some marketing for Abby--she has been coordinating the Jubilee 2000 events during the tour, making sure the tables were set up, getting volunteers, trying to raise cash and just spreading the word about a cause that Bono has been an advocate of for ages. If you want more info, contact Abby at abulous@hotmail.com. (See Abby? I support the cause!)

Consequently to what the weather people said, it did NOT rain. Not one drop all day, and let me tell you that we were hoping for at least a drizzle because it was sweltering. The sun beat down upon us for close to 12 hours. Now Jeff is pretty ingenious because he set up this contraption, where the umbrella was attached to the chair with the help of a jar of peanut butter and the umbrella strap (don't ask). We had a long conversation about the ironies of this tour (Jeff is going through some sort of epiphany phase these days)--he was very impressed by the fact that HE had gone to Montreal for the show and here I was in NJ to see another show. He was also impressed by the fact that we both had on the SAME Nike socks (I must say, that shocked me beyond belief :) I won't list all of the ironies that Jeff mentionned but suffice it to say that he was in awe for quite some time. The day was going by at a regular pace but still no rain. The radio station shows up, Q104.3 and we figured they'd play U2 music since this was the GA line for the U2 show. Yeh... it took them approximately 4 hours to set up their booth (no shit), and then they played Led Zepplin or something while the now 243 fans looked at them and each other quizzically. Well at some point they decided to play U2. It was bound to happen right? Otto showed up later on (he is the official photographer and his pics are posted on a few U2 sites-- one of his pics was actually on the front page of the Boston Globe). Jeff decides that it's time to take a picture with the Irish flag--he has a beautiful flag, upon which he drew the tour logo (suitcase w/ heart) in the white section of the flag. On the outer lining he has written a message to ensure it's safety: "Reward, If lost please return to (address). Unless you're U2." We liked it. His flag actually got Bono's attention on the 21st and did get on stage however some guy stole it so Jeff had to make another one.

Cutting to the chase, around 5pm the arena security came by and told us that this was a GA line only and that everyone else had to go. A few minutes later, one of our fellow liner-uppers came by to warn us that security would begin letting us in at 5:45 so our gear had to be in the car by 5:30. Brilliant. We moved all of our crap and went to stand in line. We tried to stand in order but the lurkers were there and so on. One of the first people in line started going down the line and calling out numbers & names in order to line us up (it was very organised, not at all like Montreal); anyone without a number had to leave. They did this twice. Kel & I were still surprised that we were 100th in line as we'd expected it to be way further. Around 6:30 security started letting people into the gates; one lurker was attempting to get inside past everyone, yelling that he was #34 in line but that he'd lost his number. Now the security people were getting irritated until one of them snapped "No, you are NOT #34." "KRISTEN was #34 and SHE'S gone in already!" As soon as we were in we made a run for the arena, running past security guards who kept telling us to walk not run . Of course we obeyed for about 3 seconds then started running again. We figured we wouldn't get front row but we'd at least try to get a decent spot. We were 64th in line for Montreal and we almost didn't make it. We run into the heart and look around like spinning tops-- where were we going to go? Well wouldn't you know it, we got front row on Edge' side! Totally awesome. There was no way that I was moving from my spot. Kel & I were right at the front while Matt went for the outer tip, and Jeff went for the inner tip. It was so cool to be there again, particularly after such a long day--we were sun burnt and tired and just worn out.

7:30
PJ Harvey--great.

9pm
The intro music (different from Montreal) begins to play. After a few songs we start to scream a little. I turn my head toward the entrance, and see the weirdest thing; a nurse in a typical white uniform with a white cap (almost porn-like) is entering the heart, pushing a VERY old man into the heart while security gaurds followed. Now before I saw who it was I thought it was so cool that such an elderly fellow would come to a U2 concert and come into the heart no less. Well, as they are rolling him in I notice that he has a VIP/ guest badge and so of course I try to read it. When I saw who it was I almost fell on my ass, it was too cool. The badge said "Bono, grandpa." Bono's grandad was in the heart with the rest of us!! He must be close to 100 years old (I'm totally serious). Seargent Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band begins to play and the crowd starts making noise--pretty much everyone knows that this is U2's cue to come out. The crowd gets louder and more intense, I'm jumping up and down trying to see over the upper edge and know that the boys are walking out when the people behind the stage stand up and go crazy. At this point the whole arena is flipping out and thus enter Bono, Edge, Larry & Adam! Our view was excellent and the show was great--Bono was in top form, no voice problems at all although there were a few technical problems that had the boys laughing on quite a few occasions. Everyone had signs that were made in line and that they held up throughout the show; my neighbour had a sign that was just a happy face, which she showed Edge--he started laughing which we thought was great since he doesn't really smile much! They really packed the heart up last night, a lot of the VIPs were coming into the heart to see the show. Bono sings Elevation and then tells us that some special people from Dublin were in the house, as well as Michael Stipe and the Beastie Boys! Woohooo! CK even saw Ed Burns walking in.There was a diplomat there who has been helping the Jubilee 2000 cause and Bono dedicated a song to him (I forget his name and the song!). The show was great indeed! And then, towards the end of the show, Bono again makes another speech, thanking another man for supporting the cause, for letting Bono into his country, and hearing what he had to say. When Bono tells us who it is, the spotlight is pointing to a private box... the person who was at the show, was Bill Clinton. No shit. The crowd was wilder than before! Guggi was in the house too! For those of you who don't know Guggi, he is an old friend of Bono's from way back when, they went to school together and Guggi was in a band called the Virgin Prunes. There were loads of VIPs, more than any other show. They played Wild Honey, which hadn't been played before, In a Little While which had only been played a few times, The Ground Beneath her Feet... New Year's Day and so on. It was fantastic--like some big party that U2 were throwing for 18 000 of their closest friends. Now I have to mention that it was the first U2 show I'd been to where I actually saw GROUPIES. I mean, there were girls there SCREAMING Bono's name and just plain screeching. Picture footage of the Beatles, and what the female fans were like, pulling their hair and crying--that happened last night. One girl was so obsessed with Edge that the only pictures she took were of Edge. And she took 3 rolls!

One of our high points: Daniel Lanois performed two songs with the band which was really cool because the last time he played with them was during the ZOO TV tour. Another highlight for me was meeting Paul McGuinness. He enterd the front of the heart toward the end of the show, and I saw him and thought he looked familiar, wondering if it was him. So when I read his badge I saw that it was and when I looked up he looked at me, smiled and said hello. He's a pretty cool guy. The band did 2 encores and the show ended...

Traffic jam in the parking lot! Finally got home and it took us 45 minutes to find a parking spot that was 3 blocks away. First thing I did, was go into the washroom to assess the damage of the sunburn. Let me tell you guys, that if I don't have a 3rd degree burn... I don't know what else to call it. Currently I am itchy as hell but don't dare scratch as I am also very tender!! We all got crazy sunburns, and we saw the full impact when waking up the next morning. The numbers that were written on our hands the day before? Well after washing them off we realized that they are now tattooed onto our skin. We all have tanlines showing the numbers that we had in line! Kel's is by far the best, as she fell asleep and the only thing that was exposed was her hand and part of her back where her shirt had gone up a little. She has one red hand and a long narrow triangle at the bottom of her back. As for me, I have two extremely red knees and very red chest, arms and shoulders. I just want to lie in a tube of lanacaine all night!

The weekend ended with an Irish breakfast at Willie McBride's, and then CK & I hit the road. It was a lot faster going home then going to NJ. There are a hell of a lot of road sings in NJ, but there isn't much clarity and it's easy to get lost! Finally, home!!

This is a bit rough, but you get the point. I will say this (for all the Montrealers), Montreal 1 was by far the best show, and although last night was absolutely phenomenal, Montreal still beats it. Can't wait for the fall....

Cheers!
A

Uncertainty...can be a guiding light.

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