by Matt McGee

This was the second of two nights they played at the LA Coliseum, and I was in college at the time (Pepperdine Univ.). Problem was that most of my "U2 friends" had managed to score tickets for the first show ... I missed out on that somehow.

I ended up taking my roommate who was a big music fan, but not a great U2 fan. He probably respected U2 more than he liked them. When all my U2 friends came back from the first show, I got inundated with stories about how great it was, esp. the emotion Bono put into singing "One Tree Hill." I knew it was pretty rare for U2 to be performing that song, so I was really looking forward to hearing it again at my show.

Meanwhile, the roommate was giving me a hard time because he wasn't convinced U2 could "pull it off" in a stadium -- turn a stadium into the intimate show they always gave in arenas and smaller clubs. I told him he had nothing to worry about. He told me I had a lot to worry about, and we went back and forth giving each other a bad time about it.

Our seats were not too hot -- 2/3rds of the way up on Edge's side of this massive stadium. Neither one of us had a clue that the Dalton Brothers were really U2. Might have been different if we could see a little better! The Pretenders were a band I liked so their set was good. Likewise with the BoDeans. 

U2 was as great as ever -- no problems with making a stadium as intimate as a small club. About 3-4 songs into the show the roommate and I were having a blast, really into it, and I turned his way and asked "So who was right?" He said I was. (Like there was ever any doubt...?)

We didn't get "One Tree Hill" but we did get to see the Olympic Torch above the stadium lit -- it was mentioned in the reviews as only the 4th time the torch was ever lit: once for the 1932 Olympics, once for the '84 Olympics, once for a visit from the Pope. And now for U2. Brilliant company to keep! Terrific show overall, couldn't have asked for more!

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