by playboyman

i was in my freshman year @ USC when i saw this show; tickets went on sale exclusively over the phone (on a saturday or sunday afternoon), so people were doomed to the luck of the speed-dial. 2 million phone calls around the los angeles area totally jammed the lines for an hour.
how badly did i want to see this show? out of a dormitory hallway w. 50 people in it, w. EVERYONE on the phone simultaneously - woulda made a great scene in a movie - i was one of only 2 individuals lucky (and fanatical) enough to "break through the ticketmaster barrier" that afternoon!
one bitter note: my roommate, who deserved to go even more than i did, on account of his full-blown irish roots (while the closest i am to ireland is danish blood), was a drama b.f.a. and forced himself to go to play rehearsals that evening...i have all the professional respect in the world for this fellow - i mean, i don't care what i would've been working on at the time, i would've found some way to duck out & make it just across the street from USC to the sports arena...(still the only time I've ever walked directly from my bedroom to a U2 concert)! (anyways, my actor friend managed to catch U2 @ Dodger Stadium later on in the year, so as of today he isn't harboring any pain.)
It's the show's opening that still sticks w. me - the ringing, chiming noise starting up, then Bono just walking in from stage right, all by himself, all dressed up in black leather & glasses - and you're thinking, THIS is the guy who sang on 'Joshua Tree'!? then he lets out his "wheyhey, i could've lost you" opening hymn, with his voice electronically-distorted to make him sound underwater (think the song 'kid a' 10 years ahead of its time!), and the rest of the band appears and kicks into 'zoo station.' MY GOD. 'the fly'? MY GOD. those videoscreens straight out of 'blade runner' - a 21st-century ridley scott nightmare, in 1991! but right before you say to yourself, ok, U2's gone and turned into nine inch nails, edge breaks out the wah-wah pedal for 'mysterious ways,' and love's got a fighting chance for the rest of the show...(even if it didn't win in the end :)
personally, i think this early leg of the tour was proof of why 'who's gonna ride your wild horses' is the weakest song on 'achtung baby' - for 5 minutes the show just stopped in its tracks... but i loved the new rearrangements of 'mysterious ways,' 'bullet the blue sky,' 'running to stand still' (and how it segued into 'streets'); and seeing bono in his silver -lame "preacher" outfit was fresh, funny and inspired...dare i say almost kubrickian? "i have a vision: TELEVISION!"
and while i think ending on 'love is blindness' would have been too heavy for the stadium leg of the tour (face it, we needed that last dose of elvis to head for the doors w. 60,000 other people), it was PERFECT for the indoor-arena leg: it's like, 'edge's divorced, bono's stressed out about love, technology and the future - this is where we're at, folks!' (talk about the greatest end to an evening of theatre since 'apocalypse now' was shown w. no credits back in '79!!!)
...come to think of it, maybe love *did* win by evening's end after all, since they were still passing out 'achtung baby' condoms at the doors...

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