April 24, 2005: Soul SirkUS

San Francisco, CA
Fillmore Auditorium

Rule #1 -- no more general admission concerts on a school night without a planned vacation day the next day.... gawd, I'm beat!

That said.... this groggy, not enough sleep, oh my whole body hurts haze I'm in today is totally worth it! What a great show last night! High volume, high energy, and man does Jeff Scott Sotot work up a sweat! Playing most of the tunes from World Play, with a Journey medley (that included bits of "People and Places" and "Patiently") and a few covers ("Purple Rain" and "Crazy" stand out) thrown in for good measure, this 2+ hour show was the best twenty bucks I've spent in a while.

As most of you know, this show at the Fillmore was being filmed for a DVD release.* This meant those of us up front and center had to do battle with the guy with the hand held camera and the official photographer -- made for an interesting dodge now and again. There were at least 3 other cameras that I saw (and with the size of the Fillmore, I don't imagine that there were more.) Hopefully this show will see the light of day as the 900 "seat" Fillmore was only about a third full. Show was great and the crowd that was there was enthusiastic, but it's been a long time since I've been to the Fillmore and had that much room to move around in. (Though somehow that didn't seem to keep the guy behind me from banging his head into mine -- yes, a literal head bang! Probably explains the headache I had after the show!)

*As far as I can recall, this is another DVD that never saw the light of day.

Most of the Nor Cal gang (and our visiting So Cal gang) had passes for the meet and greet after the show, so we all hung around for a while to say our hellos and get things signed. I was actually so exhausted that I barely moved from my table. I did get to chat briefly with Jeff and really just said hello and good bye to Neal (we'll see if my "allergy" flares up after such a short encounter) and headed for home.*

*My "allergy" is in reference to having come down with a cold on more than one occasion after meeting Neal. It had happened so often by this point in time, I was frequently joking that I was allergic to Neal since there had been a couple of occasions I'd met the other guys without Neal and hadn't gotten sick.

No set list noted, so pull out World Play and pick tunes you like, they were played.

April 9, 2005: Special U2 Edition: In the Ellipse!

San Jose, CA
HP Pavilion

Hello all --

Okay, I'm about to cry since I just spent over an hour composing my report and stupid Explorer crashed on me as I was proof reading! Vaporized! Siiigggh.... Okay, well, here we go again, more or less from the top....

I just got home from the U2 show and had to share. I'm beat, my body aches, but I'm still wired (okay, I was at 12:30 when I started this, not so much now.) This was an incredible night.

We have to start the story back when the show was first announced. I was talking with my friend Mary about the show and we both commented how after some 20 odd years of following this band we'd never seen them perform. Neither of us were particularly thrilled with the idea of paying $100+ for tickets, so we decided we'd try to get the General Admission tickets instead. The day of the on sale, Mary and I both logged in to Ticketmaster to try and get them -- first one in wins. I wasn't particularly optimistic as I had heard about the problems the fan club had had with GA tickets, so I wasn't holding out much hope. But the gods must have been smiling on me -- or perhaps I've finally mastered the Ticketmaster system -- but within 10 minutes of the show going on sale I had 2 GA tickets for tonight's show. Wow! I called Mary to let her know the good news and she was still trying to get through to the ordering system!

We arrive at the end of March, and my anticipation is growing. As some of you are aware, I've been slowly but surely working my way through my CD collection alphabetically. As luck would have it, I reached "U" at the end of March and so my U2 CDs were the commute music for that week (and then some, I've been in a holding pattern as the more I listened the more eager I was for the show!) Wednesday night, Mary and I went to the Giants game and as it deteriorated before our eyes we discussed plans for the show.

Neither of us had been to a GA show at the arena before (there aren't many to begin with) and didn't have a clue how it would work or what time we should be there. We decided that if we left around 3 we should be fine, and we were. Arriving around 4 we were given our blue wristbands and settled down in line for the 2 1/2 hour wait until the doors were due to open. While we were sitting in line we heard people talking about a separate line for fan club members and "random drawings for the ellipse." I thought "what a cool perk for fan club members."

The line finally started moving about 6:15 and we reached the first check point where our wristbands were cut off. Uh... okay, what was the point of the wristbands? There wasn't a lottery, we weren't let in by number, heck, no one even CHECKED the number. We went through the doors and had our tickets scanned and headed down a flight of stairs where I could see people getting NEW wristbands. I could see both pink and white wristbands, and figured the pink were for the fan club and the white were for the regular folks. Very nice. We get to the bottom of the stairs and sent over to a table where our ticket is checked again and we're given our white wristbands and then it's over to the next guy to have the ticket scanned yet again. God, security is awfully tight. I hand my ticket to the guy and on the laptop next to him up comes four red and black striped bars with "U2" written at the bottom. "Congratulations! You and your friend get to go into the ellipse." What?! We do??! So it's over to the next table where we're given our pink wristbands.

We finally make our way into the arena and start walking up to the front and into the ellipse. We make our way over to center stage and wind up behind the first row of people. The whole time we are just looking at each other -- completely amazed by our sheer dumb luck! (For those of you who were at the House of Blues in Hollywood, we were just as close!) As we watch other people enter the ellipse, they're all pretty much doing the same thing -- pulling out their cell phones and calling their friends to say "you'll never guess where I am."

7:30 finally arrives and the opening band, Kings of Leon, take the stage. They put on a decent show, but no one really cared -- mostly polite applause. The lead singer didn't seem to like that, but c'mon, dude, you're not U2, deal with it. They finished up their set around 8:15 and the road crew hit the stage to set up for the main attraction.

There was a bit of jostling among the crowd as this was going on and a couple forced their way through the crowd, which didn't sit too well with the people they'd just shoved aside. They were eventually forced back, but for a while I was worried there might be a fight. Mary and I also negotiated with the guys in front of us who were rather inconsiderate and kept stepping back from the barricade and stepping on poor Mary. It didn't help much once U2 hit the stage, but we tried.

With little else to do, I watched the crew set up the stage. I got the complete willies watching the guys in the rigging -- there's not enough money in the world to make me even consider climbing up there! <<shudder>> Of course, overseeing it all was Rocko -- last seen on stage in Clearwater, FL. It was a bit odd seeing him running around on a stage much bigger than Journey's (and, actually, it was just plain odd to see him and NOT be at a Journey show.)

At 9:00 the lights went down and the crowd went nuts. I looked up at the stage and the first person I see is The Edge. All hell breaks loose. I look across the stage and there are Larry and Adam right where they should be, and the music begins. As the opening notes to "City of Blinding Lights" start I wonder "where's Bono?" Naturally, he came out on stage at the end of the ellipse -- completely opposite from where I'm standing! I turn myself completely around to see what can be seen, but as the people behind me are considerably taller than the people in front of me, it's not much. After a little bobbing and weaving, I turn back towards the stage and watch the rest of the band. Bono is soon in front of me and there is a surge of people towards the stage. I'm pressed up against the guy in front of me by the guy in back of me and remain sandwiched like this for two or three minutes. It's been a long time since I've been to a show where I've had to forget all about any sense of personal space!

The second song is "Vertigo" and the crowd counts off "Uno, dos, tres, catorce!" It is the first of many vocal moments for the crowd, which was absolutely the largest I've ever seen at the arena. Every seat was full, including the ones behind the stage that are usually blocked out. Better yet, from what I could see, everyone was on their feet from the start and stayed up all night long -- a refreshing change from so many shows I've seen in recent years. It was just amazing though to hear all those voices sing along to "Sunday Bloody Sunday," "Pride", and so many others. The elaborate stage set up meant Bono and The Edge would often wander around the ellipse out towards the middle of the floor. Once they got beyond my right or left, they were hard to track, so I wound up watching Larry a lot, which isn't a bad thing. Both he and Adam did get their opportunity to walk out into the crowd, so everyone got a good view.

I really can't find the words to describe this show (yeah, I know, how long is this email already?) because it was just amazing. The set was a good mix of the old and the new ("Sometimes You Can't Make It on Your Own" brought a tear to my eye as it does every time I hear it on the radio or on my CD player) and being so close I felt obligated to sing along with as many songs as I could. It was a challenge, but I think I remembered about 75% of the lyrics -- I haven't gotten the new ones down quite yet, and there were one or two older songs that I didn't recognize until about half way through. Ultimately though, what kept running through my head were variations on the thought "I can't believe I'm this close." At one point I thought "Hey... I can count Bono's fillings!" (I got to four before he turned away.)

All of this has me quite excited for the show in November. I broke down and bought the $95 ticket and am looking quite forward to seeing what the visual aspect of this show is. That is the one downside to where I was -- it's a BIG production and that aspect is sacrificed for an amazing opportunity. One I'll take ANY time mind you....

Well, it's now nearly 3 a.m. and I am REALLY beat.... I'm sure I've left plenty out, but wow... what a show!