May 19, 2015: U2sday!

San Jose, CA
SAP Center

Amazing. Outstanding. Incredible. Stunning. I really don't have enough superlatives to describe last night's U2 show in San Jose. I've been a fan of the band for a long time, but it took me until 2005 before I finally was able to see them in person. After that epic night, I swore I'd never miss another U2 show when they came to town. I mean, I knew they were fantastic live before then, but experiencing it in person was so much more. So when this tour was announced, of course I was going to get tickets and go. After a concert not long before then my friend Emerson had mentioned to me that he'd never seen U2 live and that he wanted to cross them off his list, so I kept that in mind when keeping an eye out for the on-sale date. Naturally, Emerson was in China when the on-sale was announced. Fortunately he had enough access to email to say "yes, get me a ticket." So, with only a minor snafu of completely blanking on the day of sale, I managed to grab two tickets for the second of the two shows in San Jose. The tickets cost a bit more than I had planned to spend, but I didn't have a lot of concert plans for this year so I figured I could squeeze it out of the budget. After last night, I wish I could have squeezed the budget a bit more and gotten tickets to the Monday night show as well!

All day Tuesday I was listening to KFOG who were doing U2 "twin spins" at the top of the hour and hearing the DJs and others commenting on how good the show on Monday had been. Between that and listening to their new album, I was quite excited for the show. I really like the new material and think is one of their better collections of recent vintage. By the time I ducked out of work a bit early and got to San Jose to meet Emerson, I was in the right mood for a great show. We got to the arena a bit before the 7:30 stated start time, knowing full well that the show wasn't going to start at 7:30. Getting there early, though, allowed us to take in the stage set up. Our seats were slightly behind and to the left of the main stage. The stage had a catwalk that ran the full length of the arena to a smaller secondary stage at the opposite end. Above the catwalk was the video screen which was about as long as the catwalk. The weird thing, though, was that we could see through the screen to the other side of the arena -- how the heck was that going to work? I looked at the folks standing on the floor and flashed back to my 2005 experience inside the ellipse, but wasn't too wistful to be down on the floor -- I wanted to really take in the production which is much easier above the floor.

The mostly 40-ish crowd settled in and shortly after 8:00 the house lights went down, the music went up, and the crowd went wild. From our seats, we could see the band entering from behind the stage, so our section and the ones behind the stage were the first to get on our feet and cheer. The guys took the stage and kicked in to "The Miracle (of Joey Ramone)", the first single from Songs of Innocence. That then segued into "Electric Co." which got everyone very amped up (pun only slightly intended.) For the first few songs, the staging was simple -- just the band and lights, though with this giant bulb shaped light hanging from the rigging above Bono.

After the fourth song of the set ("I Will Follow" which got a huge response) Bono welcomed the crowd and explained how the new songs are about life when the band was growing up in Dublin as a way to go into a 3-song set of new tunes. This is when my mind got blown. A set of steps was lowered from the video screen and Bono started climbing them to a catwalk that ran between the video screen! While Bono was singing, there was animation on the screen that made it look like he was walking through the streets of Dublin. It was very cool. Eventually, he wound up going down steps at the opposite end of the main stage and on to the smaller secondary stage. This led to what was probably the most goose-bump raising moment of the show for me.

The band went into a slowed down version of "Sunday Bloody Sunday" which was followed by the new song "Raised by Wolves." I've always had a passing knowledge of Irish history, but in the last few years of doing research on my Irish ancestors, I've looked at it a bit more in detail (though not as much as I need and want to) and listening to those two songs back to back really hit me what living in late 20th century Ireland must have been like. It was a very powerful moment in the show. There was one more song before the mid-show "intermission," and it struck me just how well the old songs blended with the new ones and had a strong narrative. The way the whole production was put together for this part of the show -- song order, video animation, presentation, etc. -- made it really feel like the first act of a play with a solid story behind it. It was extremely well done.

The "intermission" was a single song by Johnny Cash done on the video screen in animation. The key thing to note is that the video screen was completely opaque and colored yellow. When the animation was done, a black line ran through the middle of the screen and the music started up again. The black line got bigger in places and lo there is the entire band inside the video screen playing "Invisible." Now, getting Bono, The Edge, and Adam Clayton inside with their instruments isn't that challenging. Having a drum kit for Larry Mullen, Jr. is a bit of different animal. I have no idea how they did it.

The second set had more known songs than new ones and completely rocked the house. A lot of this part of the show was on the secondary stage. During "The Sweetest Thing" Bono pulled a gal up on stage with him and had her shoot the whole song on her phone! Yay technology!

The band headed back to the main stage for "Bullet The Blue Sky" which had a different talk/rap section than the original, but made it more contemporary. This was followed up by "Pride" which I managed to capture on my camera. (To be posted when I get some time to download it off my camera.)

As the set was winding down, Bono announced to the audience that they were going to add a song not on the prepared set list and then they launched into "Bad" to huge cheers and a huge sing along for the chorus. They closed off the main set with "With or Without You" which always gets a great response.

They changed the stage up a bit and added a bunch of white lights for the first song of the encore "City of Blinding Lights" during which Bono pulled a little boy who looked to be 8-9 years old to join him on stage for the song. The kid totally rocked out and made it so amazing. There was a hugely moving moment when Bono got down on one knee in front of the kid and sang "Can you see the beauty inside of me?/What happened to the beauty inside of me?" The kid was totally awestruck in the moment. It brought tears to my eyes -- just amazing.

The intro to "Where the Streets Have No Name" was a verse of Paul Simon's "Mother and Child Reunion" which is one of my favorites of his and worked so well. The night closed out with "One" which totally made my evening complete.

As we were leaving I asked Emerson "Okay, your first U2 show, what'd you think?" He said "I have to move every concert on my best concert list down a notch." That pretty well sums up the night. It was an incredible show.

Set List (courtesy of setlist.fm)

Set 1:
Intro
Beat on the Brat (Ramones) 

The Miracle (Of Joey Ramone)
The Electric Co.
Vertigo
I Will Follow
Iris (Hold Me Close)
Cedarwood Road
Song for Someone
Sunday Bloody Sunday
Raised by Wolves
Until the End of the World

-- Intermission --
(Johnny Cash animation on video screen)

Set 2:
Invisible
Even Better Than the Real Thing
Mysterious Ways
Desire
Sweetest Thing
Every Breaking Wave
Bullet the Blue Sky
The Hands that Built America intro
Pride (In the Name of Love)
Beautiful Day
Into the Mystic intro
Bad
With or Without You

Encore:
City of Blinding Lights
-- Mother and Child Reunion intro
Where the Streets Have No Name
One