by riderka

The More I See And Hear, The More I Love And Feel

The more I see
The more I hear
The more I love
The more I feel

So what can I say. It was truly amazing. After the all night travelling from my country Slovakia all the way to Munich, then by the Munich’s U-bahn to the stadium, where was only 9 people sleeping at the gates of the stadium by 5 o’clock in the morning. Then there was horrible waiting in rain and cold which lasted about 13 hours to the start of the U2 show.

It was better when Leetah (a girll from one from an U2 forum) with her friend came, because by then I wasn’t there alone (My friend who was supposed to go there with me finally couln’t come). It was really nice to meet her and her friends from Holland who came a bit later in the morning. They were just a nice bunch of people. And the Dutch language is really nice, even when I didn’t understand a word. It was fun to listen to it. Yeah, and by the way I didn’t know who brought that enormous white plastic, but it was a very good idea, so we could just cover by it and didn’t get wet so early. Thanks to the people who brought it!

In a general view there was great mood as we were waiting. Till the one moment, when that f****** security man with wristbands came. He just gave the wristbands to people who he somehow liked or what. The people who came just five minutes ago got the wristbands, and the ones (me and Dutch friends too), who’ve been waiting there from the early morning didn’t get any! It was such a shame of the German organizators! Really that security man who was giving the wristbans away must be drunk or what… Mad man… I was really upset and disappointed. I couldn’t believe it’s true. I was travelling all night, waiting in the rain and cold all day, I was sure I will get into the front of the stage area because I was one of the first fans who came there. And now it was lost. I didn’t get the wristband. I wanted to cry. I mean, it was my last U2 show, so you could imagine my disappointment. It was such a shame.

But then I just told myself that no matter I didn’t get a wristband, I’m going to try to get into the front of the stage area. And when they opened the gates I was running as fast as I could, even when I was exhausted because I haven’t have sleep for more than 26 hours by then, but still I was trying to run as fast as I could down the dangerous stairs and across all the stadium surface to the entrance into the FOS area. My heart was beating so fast, but not because of physical effort, but because that I was so nervous. But I made it. There was not many people there I was one of the first there so I just ran through the entrance and didn’t stop. The security man just shouted on me that ‘only with wristband’ and ‘where’s mine’, but I didn’t stop. I got there. I was so happy, I couldn’t believe I got there! I got a great spot. Just in the first row of Edge’s b-stage. That’s exactly where I wanted to be.

After few minutes I saw Leetah’s friends just few metres from me. I didn’t see Leetah, but now I know she got to her friends a bit later. And then I met my Czech friends. It was great.
From that time I didn’t care that there’s cold and weather’s bad. I didn’t mind at all. Everything was just fine.

The support bands were alright. The Zutons were good. I liked them.
I don’t listen to Keane very much, I don’t like their music very much, but I must confess that they were quite good. Especially the pianist and the drummer. I have to say that even some people say that support bands have bad sound because of U2 and so… It’s not true. Here in Munich the support bands had a really great sound!

Suddenly it started heavily rain again. But still there was great mood in da house! Stuart (Adam’s bass tech) had just a great time, he was walking there with smile on his face and Adam’s bass in his hands on the catwalk. Dallas was nice too. And it was little bit funny when he was playing on The Edge’s guitar covered by the umbrella of one of the stage girl. They were just laughing on it. It was very nice.

As the time was passing, I just heard the familiar music which is played before all the Vertigo shows: The Cure, The Killers, Bloc Party, and my loved Float On by The Modest Mouse, The Clash and all those great songs and in a few minutes finally Wake Up from Arcade Fire!

U2 began just right on time. First I saw Larry, then The Edge, Adam and Bono. “Eins, zwei, drei, vierzehn” and the show was on! Great beginning!

From the very beginning Bono rejoiced becauced of the rain and they’re all were having a lot of fun. The rain in the lights looked beautiful! “Let's take a bath together” shouted Bono with a smiley grin on his face. U2 were really enjoying themselves! Larry was just having a really good time and Adam was smiling as always. Edge was great, he played so cool!

During The Electric Co. Bono poured water on the fans who got already drenched wet to the skin. It was so funny. And he was jumping up and down like kid on his first rock concert!
This time instead of ‘I can See For Miles‘he sang ‘See Me, Feel Me‘ from the same band – The Who. It was a fresh little change. Besides that, Bono was singing in many songs, whatever came to his mind in that particular second, whatever he wanted, he was just enjoying himself, having a great time.
Anton Corbijn was there too. He was taking photos all the time. German fans were great! They were singing every song, not as loud as it was in Vienna and Katowice but still it was nice. Maybe it was because of the great sound which that show had.

During Elevation we already didn’t jumped too early as it was in the first shows and Bono was like ‚Hey, you guys already know it! Alright then!‘ and he laughed. Nice moment. Then we were just swinging with our hands upon our heads from side to side as Bono was conducting. He was having a fun and he was smiling all the time.

As he was singing ‚Sometimes You Can’t Make It On Your Own‘ his voice was so strong! Really, at this concert he had a great voice. He hit the high notes so well! And he was just one meter from me when he was singing the ‚sing‘ part! For all that night he had a fantastic voice (wow, how he sang the Pavarotti part in Miss Sarajevo! I was shivering.)

I’m not going to tell you about that strong tree songs LAPOE, Sunday Bloody Sunday and Bullet The Blue Sky. It was great again. Adam again came to us. He was smiling, he was moving and playing with his bass again, he was looking straight in to my eyes (again), it was so great! That man has an amazing charisma and his very nice!

Bono dedicated Miss Sarajevo to the families of the victims of the terrorist attacks in London, Turkey and Egypt. It was very moving.

During The Declaration of Human Rights the first white balloons appeared in the air. And when Pride started there were balloons wherever you looked! It was wonderful! Security men were nervous because a lot of balloons ended up on the b-stages, so they brought them out and they cracked them. Only one security man had a fun of the balloons. It was John, Bono’s personal security man. He was smiling and playing with one of the balloons for a while.
During ‘Where The Streets Have No Name’ there were still balloons everywhere. Bono even changed the lyrics a bit: ‘I want to feel white balloons in my face, I want to take shelter from the hurricane, where the streets have no name...‘. Everybody was jumping, dancing or singing.

And then as The Edge was playing the final notes of ‘Streets’ came that moment! The moment when my breath stopped. Bono just spotted my banner, read it, then looked straight into my eyes, took his hand to his heart, said something like thank you, bowed and smiled so beautiful I have never seen him to! I was like..wow… I couldn’t say a word! I just smiled on him. It was a magical moment. Unbelievable. I was just so amazed. Even the German girl who were standing next to me was amazed.

After that Bono spotted that man (he was stading about 4 metres in the right from me) with a banner ‘Bono, Let’s play Party Girl!’ He just asked him: ‘You wanna play it? You wanna play it? Ok.’. And there it was.

Then the beautiful intro of One started and I can’t remember what was Bono talking about during the intro, I just know it was something about Africa and Joschka Fischer, but I can’t exactly remember what. I was just completely amazed by that he read my banner and did what he did and that moment has been just showing over and over again in my head. Luckily after ‘One’ there was that short break with Zooropa boy and his loud „Mama, Mama!“.

Zoostation was perfect as always and in that moment I just realized how perfect must be Zoo TV Tour back then! Edge came to us again and he played great. What a face he had! What a sound that came from his guitar!

Before The Fly there was something going on on the main stage as Phil (Bono’s guitar tech) was passing a guitar to Bono. I couldn’t see what it exactly was, but Bono just said ‚Achtung Baby!‘ with a smile of his old character from Zoo TV - The Fly. And the song started. Then I realized how perfectly are these guys together. And wow..how they can do this so good for all those years?! And what is great about U2 is that even when they make a mistake they just laughed on it and go on. Dallas did something wrong (it was just a little) and there was some not-wanted sound heard. He just looked on The Edge and said „Sorry, sorry“. And Edge looked back and just swung with his hand and smiling said „It’s alright, it’s alright, don’t worry!“. And then the both of them laughed. It was a very nice moment.

During With Or Without You Bono picked up a girl on stage from around the place of the right catwalk and they were talking like as they knew each other (maybe even yes, who knows).

All Because Of You was cool as always and there it came! Bono said to Edge as he (Edge) was putting his guitar on: „Edge, hold on a second!“ and then he ran to our place – the left b-stage. He was looking to the crowd and looking for that man who wanted to play Party Girl: „Where are you? Where’s that man who wanted to play a guitar?“. Then he found him and brought on the stage. Dallas gave him a guitar and they started to play. It took a while until Edge and Jorgen (that guy) synchronised. But it was worth it! Bono forgot the lyrics and during the song he asked Edge how the lyrics continue and everybody was laughing. Bono then started singing the ‚La la la‘ part and everything went well then. Adam and Larry just joined them. It was great to hear Party Girl live full band, especially when they were having such fun! They were smiling all the time and enjoying themselves so well. As the song was coming to the end Bono took a champagne and sprayed everybody under the main stage! „It’s a party!“ he shouted. Yep, it was a great party!

After that the second Vertigo – the last song (in my case the very last because it was my last Vertigo show) came and it was just great! Everybody in the house were jumping up and down. Bono sang a bit from ‚40‘ („How loooong to sing thiiis song?“) in the middle of the song. I would say forever, but every concert must end, we know that...

In the end Bono and Edge for the last time wawed to fans and dissapeared so fast. Wawing Adam was just leaving when he noticed surprised Larry (because of Bono and Edge left so fast) so Adam waited for Larry, until he put his earpieces out and came down to wawe to fans. Larry was smiling a lot and long wawing. Then they left. It was over.

What a wonderful concert it was! Magical night!
I will never forget it and I’m sure no one who was that night in the building will.
Thank you Larry, Edge, Adam and Bono.

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