by Douglas Kiang

Well, last night I saw a completely different show, due to where I was seated. I have become convinced that every night there are actually two shows going on: one is the show that the band members put on for themselves and the first 20 rows or so, and the other is the Show for the other 75,000 people in the stadium.

I had seats in section A3, which surrounds the ministage and the ramp leading up to it. First of all, your seat numbers in section A3 really don't matter at all. Even though my seats actually were right up against the side barricade, I didn't spend a second in my seat since from the moment I arrived on the floor (around 8:00) people from everywhere in section A3 were already jockeying for position and staking out places against the barricade. So, I basically stood right behind some people who were in the front row against the barricade, and that was where I stood for four and a half hours, all through FLC, the DJ, and U2. Having seat numbers in A3 is a joke, since no one checks your stub or asks you to sit down. It's really general admission.

So, for the most part, my seats in A3 were equivalent to 2nd row seats since Bono et al. spent so much time running up and down the ministage. They spend a LOT of time on the ministage and ramp; Bono uses the ramp extensively for all the choreographed stuff: shadow boxing with the camera, dancing with women, descending from the lemon, etc. When he was on the main stage he mainly stood still in front of the mic. During Gone, Bono and Edge chased each other up the ramp in a mock fistfight, with Bono taunting Edge and prancing just out of reach. The ministage is also at eye level, which means you don't have to crane your neck like you do in front of the center stage.

Good stuff about being close:
Okay. Anyway, because I was so close to the band during their performance, I was able to see all those little nuances that make a U2 show fun: I could see their expressions, make eye contact as they passed by, and felt much more drawn in to the magic of their performance. I felt as if U2 really were playing to ME, rather than the camera (though Bono did a lot of that too.) This really felt like a smaller show, and I could see how much I had missed when I was up in the upper tier the previous night.

Bad stuff about being close:
I didn't get to see much of the videoscreen, since when you're that close you can't really make out the whole image. Also, most of the lighting effects were lost on us because they go right over your head. In Gone, for example, most of the stadium is lit up with this purple light but our section stayed dark. Basically, you are closer to the band but you lose most of the benefit of their stadium show. Also, because A3 was in effect a general admission area, there was a lot of pushing, shoving, screaming, and such. Right before U2 went on the couple who were standing against the railing spotted a whole bunch of their friends and waved them on up to the front, at which point about eight drunk, loud, sweaty fans shoved their way through the crowd and up against the railing. The girl standing next to me had someone's lit cigarette end up in her hair. Charming.

The show was technically brilliant, with a few minor exceptions. During Staring at the Sun, there were some persistent problems with the guitar feed; Edge's guitar kept crackling in and out. The video screen seemed fully repaired; last night one of the sections was flickering, but tonight it seemed to be in perfect working order after the rainstorm in DC.

Toward the end of Staring at the Sun, Bono started singing, softly, "Hallelujah" and it seemed as though he was improvising a slow, soft song, but people in the stadium were screeching and whistling and it was about that time that the drunk people behind me started shrieking, "We want Bon Jovi! We want Bruce!" and at the same time Bono turned to Edge with a semi-disgusted look on his face and both of them returned to the center stage for the next song. We were no more than 15 feet behind Bono; I wonder if he heard.

The Lemon
When the lemon came out for the encore, they shot clouds of dense fog into section A3 and then hit the lemon with a brilliant spotlight. When this happened, the lemon reflected the light like a mirrorball and shot back hundreds of intense rays of white light that criss-crossed above our heads, like a mesh of laser beams. Only those of us the fogged-out section got to experience this; I can only say that it was the coolest effect I have ever seen at a concert. It was intense. Also, the lemon is actually driven down the ministage ramp by a lemon-mobile, which was like a pneumatically-driven go-kart that rode on steel rails. There was a roadie in charge of driving the lemon-mobile, and he used a little TV monitor to line up the lemon with a huge staircase that rose right out of the floor. What a cool job!

Dancing with various women
During Miami, Bono came sauntering down the miniramp with a faded Hawaiian shirt on and a black derby hat. As he strolled down, the women on both sides of the ramp went wild. One even had a hand-lettered cardboard sign that said, "Dance With Me". But Bono continued down to the ministage and continued to peer around. He turned away for a moment, and quickly motioned down the ramp, and one of the Popmart crew came running past us along the barricade. Bono pretended to still be looking, then when the crew was in place he pointed into the crowd and brought out a dark haired girl in jeans and a dress shirt. He danced with her, then she broke free, unbuttoned her shirt, and started to swing it over her head (she had a halter top on underneath, guys.) Bono then got out a Cuban Fidel Castro-type hat and a huge cigar. The girl lit up the cigar and puffed away on it, swinging the shirt over her head, and chased Bono back down the ramp to the main stage!

During Streets Bono was out on the main stage singing when he noticed a scuffle going on at the other end of the ramp. Two of the security guys were holding a girl up in the air, one holding her legs, and the other holding her shoulders, and were wrestling her off the stage. It looked really bad. Bono came running down the ramp at full speed, then put his arms around the girl's shoulders. One of the security guys let go, but the other one, a big burly guy who was twice Bono's size, kept holding on to her. Bono got right in his face and yelled at him to "LET GO" while jabbing him with his finger. The guy let go. Bono danced with the girl for a little while and then led her off the stage. I don't know how many people noticed what went on, since the cameras cut away and it all happened very quickly. During the song Isaw Jerry Mele talking to the security guy, probably telling him that that's not the way U2 treats its fans.

Overall, the June 1 show was really good, much closer to the U2 shows of old. How much of this was due to my seats I'm not sure, but U2 seemed so energetic and warmed up after their first night at Giants Stadium that I'll bet it was a great show no matter where you were sitting. I'm just grateful that I was able to see a lot of the more intimate details of the show, such as Bono goofing around with Adam or trying to edge Edge off the stage, that most of the audience in a stadium show probably misses. It was also really funny to see Bono roll his eyes at Edge after messing up his lines in I Will Follow.

How I got those tickets
As an aside, I totally lucked into this seat. I missed the boat completely on wristbands when the May 31st show went on sale; I didn't even know they were being given out until a couple of days later and by then they were all gone. I just showed up on the day of sale, hoping to get something after all the wristband holders went through. Well, by the time I got to the front of the line, the May 31st show had sold out, and there was nothing left. As I turned away from the ticket counter, the woman added, almost casually, "Oh, looks like June 1st just went on sale." I turned around, bought one ticket and was astonished to find it was in A3, 8th row.

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