by Anna Hight

Bono says it took 'a bus-load of faith' to get this tour off the ground. Faith in themselves, in each other, and faith in their fans. U2 is a band built on faith, and anyone who has ever been to a U2 concert can tell you that. There's a reason Bono calls it 'our church.'

I have to admit, however, that before this show my faith in the band - and in mankind in general - was severely shaken by bad arena management and a dodgy ticketing policy that left a lot of fans shut out, and an awful lot of scalpers very, very rich.

Having arrived at the Fleet Waterhouse TD Center Garden Wossname at 6am, I was 75th in the line of people waiting for a potential ticket drop. Nothing wrong with that - had fifty of the people in front of me not been scalpers, or people hired by scalpers to stand in line. By early afternoon the crowd had swelled into the triple digits, and it would be a generous estimate that maybe 10% of us were actually fans.

Case in point: an event staffer asked the first people in line what their favourite U2 song was. Their reply: "Who's U2?" A man behind me piped up wondering if this band were really even worth all this waiting, and asked me if I knew anything about them. I could only stare back at him, stunned.

As the day wore on the crowd grew even more. Most of the ticket touts were actually the homeless and the raving, picked up off the streets and given fifty bucks to wait in line and buy a ticket should they be released. They would then report to their 'pimp' and hand over the ticket, which would immediately be sold on the street for five times the cost. They bragged about what they were doing. They antagonized fans in line, threatened us. One woman was told that if she didn't get out of the way, she'd be punched in the face. It was hot, crowded and incredibly dangerous.

Arena staff did very little to alleviate the situation. A couple of attempts to organize the line failed miserably, and reports of violence and threats went unheeded. We were, at one point, told to 'police ourselves,' because the arena did not want to be involved. We were left to fend for ourselves amongst drunks, madmen and generally disagreeable people. Needless to say, there wasn't much we could do.

Finally, Boston's finest arrived at about 6pm and the line began to take on some organization. The numbering system that we'd attempted to follow was honored, which would have been fine had the scalpers not caught on, bought Sharpies and scribbled their own numbers on their hands. I was still #75 but there were at least 100 people ahead of me. And by the time tickets were released, the majority of them had been snapped up by the scalpers in line, and there were no more by the time I got there.

Luckily, some friends of mine ended up with an extra ticket. Luckily for *me* anyway - the 150+ people behind me were not so fortunate. Only about 90 tickets were released in total and I doubt very highly that more than ten of them went to actual fans. It was sickening to watch this fiasco, to watch how the arena did absolutely nothing to prevent the ticket touts from overwhelming the line, taking tickets out of the hands of legitimate fans and then turning around to *break the law* with them. It was disgusting, and disappointing. It shook my faith not only in people, but in U2 - surely they can't know about this, or they wouldn't allow it to happen? What can they even do about it? Is there any solution to this?

Thankfully, the show restored some of my faith in them. What a show it was! Full of energy, the songs so much more hopeful than they are on record. Bono's naked grief during 'Sometimes,' the eagerness of 'Yahweh,' and the ridiculousness of 'Party Girl.' Why wasn't 'Wild Horses' a live mainstay? It's brilliant! I have to say, I prefer 'City of Blinding Lights' as an opener - it seems much more celebratory, greeting us all with wide-open arms. 'Love and Peace' is powerful, but standoffish. 'All Because of You' was born to be played live. 'Miracle Drug' feels like a blessing.

Of course, 'Party Girl' was a highlight, because it showed them being a goofy little band of friends and brothers. Bono laughed at himself as he struggled to remember the lyrics, getting the audience to remember them for him.

Finally, playing 'Vertigo' twice was a great way to end the show. The second time around was tighter, more energetic, and by then the crowd was so completely insane that you could hardly hear the band for the deafening audience sing-a-long. From my vantage point at the soundbooth (where there's lots of room to jump around and dance!) it looked like the whole place had erupted into a giant mass of U2 glee.

All in all, it was one of the better shows I have ever seen, but I wish more people could have seen it, who waited so long in that line, who deserved to.

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