by Laura Schneider

We had GA tix, but I am not in the fan club. Since my Denver trip was so short, I had better things to do than sit in line all day outside the venue, especially since it had rained and was yucky on Wednesday, but Thursday brought a typical stunning sunny Colorado day, so I spent it elsewhere. We arrived at the Pepsi Center around 6:45, and by then, the all-day GA line was already inside, so we walked right in. My ticket was scanned and the dreaded "Proceed to Floor" message popped up. Then, my friend Doug had his ticket scanned after mine, and...JACKPOT! I screamed and started jumping up and down and into his arms, basically making a complete fool of myself in the lobby of the Pepsi Center, but I didn't care. This made my trip complete!

I will not gush about how great it was to be on the floor inside the ellipse, but here are a few of my observations:

*There is no way there were 400 people in the ellipse. There was PLENTY of elbow room. Even between KOL and U2, there were very few people in there. Maybe the first four rows had been claimed by then, but that was it.

*We staked our claim along the rear rail, close enough to the walkway that when Bono and friends came around, they were maybe 10 feet from me. And the rail was a convenient place to a) hang jackets, and b) store drinks (on the floor up against it). And, the rail has a platform around the inside perimeter which gives you another two inches in height above the rest of the ellipse crowd.

*Kings of Leon were TERRIFIC; solid, basic 3-chord rock. Make sure you see them. Any band that's good enough for U2 is good enough for me.

*Bono selected the same little boy, Nicholas, to join him onstage as he had the night before. He said to Nicholas, "Do you remember the magic trick I taught you last night?" And Nicholas obliged and did the trick, to the delight of everyone who could see what was going on.

*The girl who got picked to dance with Bono during "Mysterious Ways" engineered the whole thing by arriving early and positioning herself with her husband dead-center along the rail outside the ellipse. They had clearly plotted to get her picked, as they were both bearing signs. Hers said "I want to dance with U," and his said, "Please touch my wife." It was very funny and as a result, I thought she deserved to be up there!

*The band played two separate encores...same amount of songs, but they left the stage twice.


Our post-party was at Nallen's, the most authentic Irish pub in Denver, on Market Street. John Nallens only hires Irish ex-pats to work behind his bar. They played U2 all night long, so it was almost like an extension of the concert. I couldn't think of a better way to wrap the evening.

Anyway, while Wednesday's show was amazing, last night's show was the U2 concert experience of a lifetime.

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