by Anne

My sister, brother-in-law and I tried to get tickets for the Providence show the day they went on sale. My brother-in-law got 4 tickets. My sister gave me 2 to use and I was bummed out because I wanted to share "My Bono" with my 10 year old son and 9 year old daughter. It broke my heart to take only one, but my daughter is so into the A.T.Y.C.L.B. CD and I really wanted her to see the show. I asked my son if I could bring my daughter and he bravely said “yes”. As the date got nearer, I wondered how she was going to handle being up so late the night before Halloween. It was especially hard for my son the couple of nights before the show when I played lots of older U2 for my daughter to brush up on. He was rightfully feeling jealous and wishing he didn't say it was ok. I felt for him and had to resign myself to the fact that it was out of my control to take him.

When we went to the show, I thought we all had seats in the same section (up high almost behind the stage on the left side). It turned out that my brother-in-law bought 2 sets of 2 tickets, and one set was in section 115. When we checked out the seats, I could not believe how close they where to the back of the stage. I didn’t want to leave! There was plenty of room for all four of us to stay and my daughter alternated from standing with us in the 2nd row and moving down to the 1st row railing.

I was amazed at my luck of finally being able to see the band up close. I thought we were going to have the worst view ever and it turned out to be the best! When the band came out, they entered from a door right under us. We were thrilled. The band is very thoughtful to the people behind the stage. Bono continually looked back at us and walked around near us – and Adam played facing in our direction frequently. I didn’t even feel like we were behind the stage! A few songs had the screens come up to display visual scenes to the front audience but we had the monitor above us and could see Bono and The Edge if they were near the tip of the heart.

So I was on cloud nine, unexpectedly at my “dream” U2 concert and then they started playing “Bad”. Bono was coming near us and we told my daughter to go to her railing position to see him up close. She waved to Bono and Bono saw her and waved back. Then he started singing to her and I leaned down to tell her. He kept singing and looking at her, and I couldn’t believe it when he walked briskly away towards the stage exit. I told her was coming to see her! He walked down behind the stage towards us and jumped up to the railing. He climbed over briefly and people started rushing towards him, so he jumped back over. I watched in awe as Bono sang to my daughter! I watched in awe, as I could not believe how close he was to me!! Bono has been my favorite performer for 18 years – and now here he is – singing to my daughter!!! Then he kissed her hand and she kissed his hand! He asked her for her name, but she said later she didn’t hear him and just saw the mike come towards her. She said “I LOVE YOU”, though she’ll insist that she said “I LOVE BONO”!! Bono was just incredible, suspended there singing and saying a prayer for her, talking to her. As Bono was leaving, I leaned forward and yelled to my daughter “Tell him your name is Nicole!” but, of course, he couldn’t hear us as he headed back to the stage.

The entire show was amazing and I feel so blessed that I was able be as close as I was to the stage, blessed that the band is so considerate to it’s behind stage audience and blessed that Bono noticed my daughter!

As if that wasn’t all amazing enough, when Bono left the stage at the end of the night, he stepped towards the area where he visited Nicole looking for her to wave goodbye. Unfortunately, we were waiting to wave to him over his exit doorway and missed him! Good Night Bono, and thank you for our greatest concert ever!!!!

If anyone has anything visual or audio of Bono and my daughter during “Bad” or knows where I can find anything, please let me know at girlnamediloveyou@hotmail.com. I will really appreciate it!

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