by guitardude

After seeing my first U2 concert on June 1st, 1983 I was hooked big-time! By the time this show rolled around (and having missed the december 1984 mini-tour stop at the s.f. civic) I had resolved to never miss a U2 visit to the bay area. Cow Palace isn't a terribly large arena by modern standards, so being on the floor got you pretty close to the band. It was a joyous evening full of new songs, and a heart-stopping rendition of "Unforgettable Fire" with edge's e-bow playing soaring through the hall like a shaft of warm sunlight. Gone were Bono's P.A. climbing escapades, replaced with sterling vocal performances and a concentrated effort to connect with the audience through the power of the music itself, which included an incindiary version of "Wire" that blew the roof off of the place and made the hair on one's arms stand up, wasn't expecting to hear that one, and haven't since 14 shows and two decades later. An end of show shocker was seeing Bono pull one of my fellow bay area guitar players out of the audience to do "knockin' on heaven's door"-a mind-blower.

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