by Brian Parsons

Well, well, well. What an fantastic show!! A U2 concert for me is practically a religious experience, and I saw the face of God last night. My wife and I very much enjoyed the show. The set list was amazing, almost perfect. I am so happy that they brought back The Fly, and it was a totally awesome version. My all time favorite is Bullet, and it was as impressive as ever, with Charleston Heston recklessly doing the intro. “Guns in the hands of good people are only bad for bad people.” And then the image of a little 3-year-old picking up and discovering a gun in a paper bag. U2 drove the point home in their usually impressive way. That song will always move me. Kite – Yes!! Gone!! Right-on!! Desire, Pride… man, what a show. Kinda bummed they didn’t play “I’ll Be There”. (Oh, and they did play “40” at the end of “Bad”, which is not reflected in the set list that is posted on the site this morning.)

It looked like Bono was getting mauled when he took a dive into the crowd during Bullet. He got tossed around a bit and tumbled ungracefully at least twice. But what a guy!! He just throws himself into the crowd, for what must surely have been a huge crowd pleaser. I think it was one of the few moments during the show that people got a bit quiet as they witnessed a cheeky Bono messing with the crowd as he put on someones shades and took photos of himself with some lucky bastards camera. What a card!! Very dramatic.

OK, now my negative comments. I am very disappointed that there was no assigned seating on the floor. The GA concept really sucks. Having been able to line up and get tickets for several ZOOTV and PopMart shows, I was able to get excellent seats (I’m talking first or second row) and I was VERY close to the lads. My opinion of GA is that it is a disadvantage to the real fans. The only people who get close to the band are the pushers and shovers and those obnoxious enough to not care about the others around them. My wife is only 5.1”, so getting crushed in a crowd behind a taller person does not make the show very enjoyable (if you can’t see anything, right?). Please bring back the assigned seating!!! It gives the true dedicated fans a chance.

So instead of getting close to the band, I paid $276 for my wife and I to sit in the “VIP” “Golden Circle”. Don’t get me wrong, the show was great, but it is difficult to get the same enjoyment if the last 4 concerts were 10 feet in front of you, rather than 200 feet away.

Also (and I am a bit bitter about this)….I brought my video camera in and began to shot some footage of the opening song Elevation (which was really awesome!) and the U2 security took my camera away, and confiscated my $20 mini-DV tape. All I wanted was to tape just a few songs and have that to watch at home for my personal reflection (and to show my friends how awesome the show was), and they had to take that away from me. I really felt a bit upset about that. The footage was so shaky, it was really crap, so there is no way I could (or even would) sell it. Aside from getting pulled out of my seat during Beautiful Day and missing that, and beside spending $79 on merchandise (including a $46 T-shirt!), and $20 on parking, what did my $276 “VIP” tickets get me? Why it got another $20 out of pocket when the band security confiscated my tape. That’s a total expense of $375+$20= $395 for the concert. I mean, when you pay that kind of money, you want to have something to remember it by. I just wanted to take some video, like I would normally do if I got somewhere with the kids on vacation. I don’t think that is too much to ask, especially after Bono invited us to do that during the ZooTV tour (remember McPhisto?)

Perhaps one suggestion to help reduce the concert overhead so that they don’t have to charge so much for seats and shirts is to lose the opening act. Somehow (and I really love U2) but somehow U2 has always had some pretty crap bands open for them. I mean REALLY horrible sounds come from these open acts, yikes! OK, I don’t want to mean, and I am starting to come across poorly…..

Anyway, I will be at the New York show in June, and Please, Please Please let the rumor be true that they might be coming to Ottawa. I’ll be there for that!! I am a long time U2 fan (you should see my collection of concert photos in my basement lounge!!), so my heart is with the guys and their Elevation Tour! Great job last night boys!! I can’t wait to take my 5 year old son to a concert on the next tour! That will be a moment!

Bono – our congrats to you, Ali and your family on the new arrival!!

Brian,
Ottawa

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