Many of these stories that I’m telling are emotional and deal with a lot of painful things, but especially after what’s happened this past week, I wanted to share a two stories that are filled with pure joy.
All four of the boys have talked about how when they walk on stage the hair on the back of their necks stand on end. I know its not just them, because its happened to me at their concerts. I can’t be the only one-I’m sure I’m not. My first U2 concert in person was when I was 16 years old. It was PopMart Philly, at Franklin Field on June 8, 1997. I had one of the farthest seats from the stage that someone could get, but you know what? it didn’t matter. It was an amazing experience. The giant screen, the 40 ft. lemon, singing along to karaoke with the Edge and the other 50,000+ people that were there. But there was one moment that night that stayed with me that had me transfixed. It was during Pride, and when we were all singing the “whoa oh oh oh” part, the screen was showing Bono. He stopped, closed his eyes and spread his arms out and at least for me it felt as if all of us there in the audience ceased to be individuals for one moment and became one for just a moment. You could feel the love radiating from everyone. It was an amazing experience.
I’d been chasing that moment since, and frankly, I started to believe that I’d experienced it only because it was my first U2 concert. That’s not saying that the others I went to weren’t fantastic experiences in themselves; they were. I have great memories of them-especially from the Vertigo tour. But that moment of awe that I had in ’97 that took my breath away hadn’t happened again, at least not until last year.
July 22 my friend Dre and I, along with two of her friends, went up to the U2i+e show at MSG (in Madison Square Garden New York City for those that don’t know). I was already a ball of almost raw emotion to start with because before Dre had bought the tickets I was pretty sure that I wouldn’t be seeing them live again, maybe ever. I’m not working (I’m on disability until I can get these headaches to go away. I may just throw a freakin’ party when they do. Low budget of course, but still a party.). I don’t have that much money, and certainly not that I could use to go to a rock show, so the fact that she said she’d buy the ticket for me and that I was going already had me a little sentimental. For anyone who has seen an iNNOCENCE + eXPERIENCE show you know that it is already one of their best tours to date and is marvelous (or at least was to this fan). I had to sit down half the time, but I was still singing along to every word like everyone else around me, and that leads to that moment.
It was during One, which wound up being the last song of the show. We just started singing along from the start and we didn’t stop. There was all this love that was being radiated from the audience and it felt like it was coming right back from the band as well. I had that same kind of feeling like I did 18 years before, and this time I had a knot in my throat. There were a few times when I almost started crying (I’m almost embarrassed to say) during the show, and that was the time I got the closest. I don’t know if it has been the same at other shows (I know it was like that at the live Paris show, but that was also a special show in itself), and honestly, I kind of don’t want to know. Even if the crowd sings along with One at every show though, having been to multiple shows at one tour (Vertigo, the only tour that happened on), you could have the same setlist at two shows and it could still feel different going to both.
These will always be two moments of pure joy and love that I still carry with me and always will.
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