by Dan Warner

Perhaps almost the single most significant event that changed my life forever.

I'm 34yrs old now, but back in '84 I went to just about any concert by whoever. My older brother was getting into U2. The WAR album was catching him and he read somewhere that U2 was the best live performance above all others so we decided to check it out for ourselves. WOW!!!!
The Unforgettable Fire was just released and we had purchased it only weeks before the show to get psyched up for it. We really had no idea what we were about to get ourselves into.
The FOX Theatre in Detroit probably holds less than 5,000 people I'm guessing and we were in the 24th row in the middle of the arena.
I thought I was cultured and therefore very knowledgeable about a wide variety of music. What I found out that night was that I knew absolutely nothing about what other types of music was out there.
You see, there were real tried and true U2 fans there who knew every song word for word and sang along very loudly with every note that emited from Bono's beautiful pipes. I only could sing along with Sunday Blooday Sunday, New Years Day, and I Will Follow. The rest of the place completely erupted with every Bone-crunching chord that screeched from Edges blazing guitar. There was one particular moment during Gloria That my brother noticed that the balcony above our heads that supported the weight of another 1,000 screeming fans or so was LITERALLY Rocking and Thumping in rhythm with Adam's Awesome Power Bass Notes. We absolutely without a doubt feared that this balcony could in fact give way and we would be crushed underneath so we were planning a possible escape route just in case. The Show ended with '40' which of course I had never heard before and everyone in the Theatre sang the last chorus for what seemed an eternity. I actually was moved in a spiritual way that I cannot truly explain fully here, but I wept tears of joy that U2 touched my soul as it had never been touched before. I also wept because the show was over. As the fans left the arena the chorus from '40' echoed throughout the hallways and corridors out to the parking lots and people hugged each other and I noticed that others were also full of tears like myself. My brother, myself and two of our friends sat in the car absolutely silent and stunned for about 2 minutes while each one of us dealt with what had just occurred to each of us in our own personal way. Then we popped in the Unforgettable Fire tape and drove home mostly in silence except for the occasional "Wow That Was **!!##**!! Unbelievable"
My life has never been the same. And absolutely NO band even comes close to this Supergroup. Don't even TRY!!!!!

Return to previous page | Post a Review of this show!