by David B.

The Philadelphia show at Lincoln Financial Field was my 3rd U2 concert and 3rd 360 concert (Boston/Gillette Stadium 1 & 2 in 2009 were the 1st two shows). Both of those shows were very good with the 2nd night being better than the first, IMHO. That said what I experienced at the Philadelphia show was nothing short of spectacular. The anticipation I had for this night was almost unbearable. My wife and I purchased GA tickets in Novermber 2009 so there was 20 months of build up which was just ready to explode in Philly.

We got to the stadium at 2:30pm Thursday afternoon and got in the GA line. We were outside of the first 1,000 to get wrist bands but weren't discouraged. I had one goal once we go in and that was to get in the inner circle. After 5 minutes in line we started to make conversation with the people around us and found out the people in front of were from Massachusetts as well and the people behind us use to be from MA. The conversations and laughs we had made the next 3 hours go rather quickly.

The highlight of the wait outside was hearing the band sound check EBTTRT and Magnificent. When I heard Magnificent I was convinced we were going to get it that night. The GA crowd cheered loudly when the sound check was complete and a few minutes later the gates opened at 5:17pm and we started to make our way into the stadium. My wife and I quickly made our way to the inner circle and let me tell you that this 41 yr old was about as giddy as an 8 year old on Christmas morning once it had sunk in that I was going to get to experience a U2 concert from 20 away from the stage. We ended up on Adam's side and prepared for the 3+ hour wait for the show to start.

Once Interpol was complete the stage was quickly prepped and everyone waited to hear those first few notes of Space Oddity. Once that moment arrived it was pure heaven for me, my wife and 68K plus fans. When the house lights went down and Larry started EBTTRT that was my cue to go nuts and release the passion I had built up inside for close to two years. I was fully expecting to hear The Fly #2 so when IWF came up I was a bit taken a back but also encouraged because that meant an opening for Magnificent had been made. Mysterious Ways was great and then my favoriate song cued up, UTEOTW. My wife said she has never seen me jump higher than I did for that song.

The #1 highlight of the evening was during the "In my dream I was drowning" section of the song that the bridge with Bono on it ended up 3 feet from us and we were treated with him tossing flowers off the bridge into the crowd.

Boots was good. Nice to hear Magnificent again. ISHFWILF and Stay were nice and a welcome break after the first 6 songs which purely rocked the house, followed by the three powerful songs of Beautiful Day, Elevation and Pride. I had been dying to hear Pride live and it did not dissappoint. The power of the crowd during that song blew me away. People jumped like they were driven by the energy of the world.

Miss Sarajevo and Zooropa were touching and musically perfect. COBL and Vertigo delivered the passion that is U2 and led into the final third of the show which was highlighted by Streets. Again this was a case of me releasing 20 months of pent up passion for wanting to hear this song live and watch the entire crowd jump was worth every second of waiting in line and standing for 8 hours. The final encore wrapped up what for me was the musical event of lifetime. It left me short on words yet also unable to stop talking about it with anyone I could talk to about it.

Thank you U2 for providing one of the top moments of my life. I will never forget this evening and the fact that I got to share it with the love of my life made it even more special.

Oh and one more thing. I get to see it again in Pittsburgh in just a few short days. Bring it U2.

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