The Boston Miracle

And so it was Philadelphia. I was going to be at the second Philadelphia show. I was happy but it wasn't enough. I mean, I had planned on attending a lot of shows. For three years, the unofficial name of my savings account had been the U2 Fund. Ever since I had seen the light, I had spent my time getting all the CDs, all the singles, hearing all the rare tracks, becoming quick and fast with the U2 life stories, saving every penny. I had planned on the American leg being MY tour, MY party, MINE.

But with the tickets selling out almost faster than they could go on sale, I had been all but shut out. Two little rafter seats for Philadelphia #2 was all I had... after all that planning, after all that saving up, after all that trying to get in with the Inner Circle... two pricey seats to Philly where even a telephoto lense would only get me as far as to distinguish the Edge from Adam. Shoot!

I mean, I loved to see U2 so popular, such a hot ticket after so long. Seeing the bad PopMart memories vanish like smoke. It was nice seeing America going after some real music for a change. But that left me staring at SOLD OUT signs that soon became really tiresome to look at.

The two venues I had really really REALLY almost-pathologically-REALLY wanted to go see a show at were Madison Square Garden in New York and the venue (whichever it would be) in Boston. I mean saying "I would lie, cheat or steal" to get seats to those shows was only the simple truth. But the situation had become such that even such desperate measures didn't yield any tickets.

In the meantime, as New England and all the Eastern seaboard sold out its shows, I had joined on at a Philly area fan club. There was a mailing list and a little web site with the latest news maintained by yours truely. Never mind that I'm not really "from" Philadelphia and I don't really live here. But I'd be there for the tour and so that was good enough.

One day, as I was reading the online mailing list for the group I ran into an interesting post. A girl was selling a Boston ticket. Just one, though. What would I do with just one? Far from seriously, I posted (sometimes I have this incredible urge to post even if it's just a bunch of nonsense) and said something like I'd love a Boston ticket since that's one of the shows I really wanted to go to but I wasn't going to go by myself. As far as I was concerned, that was the end of that. I had previously turned down Albany tickets cuz I couldn't get anyone to go with me.

But lo and behold. That wasn't the end of the Boston affair.

I dropped by Excite one day a little later to clean it out and keep me from gettin' shut down cuz I had too much e-mail. And what was that e-mail... from that girl that had posted on the list (name witheld to protect the guilty). She admitted that she actually had two Boston tickets but hadn't been able to get anyone to go with her so she was planning go by herself. But since I was from the area, maybe we could go up together if I was game. Oh... my... God... Maybe my prayers had been heard after all :)

I was more than up for it. I e-mailed back right away and told her that if she still had it, I still wanted it. At any price.

So we were set. We were going up to Boston... the weekend before the Philly shows. Driving up after work and school. I immediately made sure I had that weekend off. Sounds crazy but there really is no other way. Ride the wave or let it pass without you.

Still looking for MSG tickets. Anyone? Anyone? :)