Reactionary

I have no words to describe it. I have no words in any one of three languages to verbalize that’s happened here. I’m shattered. Completely. I’ll have to write something longer for the TourDiary page. Maybe when my head’s back on. It’s overwhelming. Overwhelming.

It was overcast all day and it began to sprinkle once we were in. Let me start off just by saying Croke Park is an amazing venue. It holds about 80,000 and the train tracks run right by it. So close, that trains stop on occasion so the passengers can peek in and see what’s going on in the match. The guys hadn’t played it since 1987. They’ve covered the pitch in a sort of white jigsaw puzzle so the thousands of feet wouldn’t mess up the hallowed grass. At the northern end of the stadium, they’d set up the stage. By luck and sheer crowd press, we ended up about a person back from the railing on the Adam-side B-stage. Part way through the afternoon wait, it began to sprinkle. The first opening act called The Radiators who are Irish and very old came on. We theorized they may have had U2 as their opening act once in a gig long ago and now that the shoes were switched, they were being returned a favor. They were… odd. I mean, old 80’s songs played by old guys (60s maybe) who were probably wearing the same clothes they wore back then and were trying to dance. Bizarre. The two Italian guys close to us were a little baffled by what was going on.

It was about a 30 minute wait between bands and it gave me the chance to survey the crowd. Kitty corner from us father up the B-stage was an Italian guy who was made up to look exactly like the Edge. And I mean *exactly*. Beanie, goatee, mustache. He even looked like the Edge. If you surveyed the crowd quickly, you’d think the Edge was in the crowd that night. A younger Edge dressed like he dresses today. The only giveaway was that he was wearing the Zooropa spaceman t-shirt and I doubt the real Edge would wear his own t-shirt to the show. The two Italians close to us were discussing the stadium, the crowd, just about everything we talked about they’d bring up a moment later in their Italian complete with the hand gestures. Behind us a was a bunch of teenage Irish guys who had come from Donegal. They were awesome. This is the difference between an American crowd and an Irish/ Euro crowd (with the possible exception of certain Brits). It rained. They were late. But instead of complaining, they made jokes about it. And not mean ones. When roadies were setting up little huts over the precious equipment, they started commenting on how it was the U2 guys’ garden furniture. “Larry’s got himself a little gazebo there… Take a look at Edge’s shed… Adam’s got a few, too… But what does Bono have?” The lead mike was out there alone in the drizzle. Another one of them answered the question. “He’s got the crowd, man. Bono’s got the crowd.” And when the intro music went on for too long, they started singing along with impromptu lyrics of “Where is Bono? Where the feck is Bono?” Good-naturedly, of course.

The beachballs were out. Security flung them back in when someone tipped it onto the stage. Someone asked, the tall Dutch guy I think, what the beachballs were all about. The very chatty guys explained it was an Irish festival tradition.

Security was strict in the sense that girls were not allowed to sit on their boyfriends’ shoulders. Beer was not allowed on the pitch. If you wanted some, you had to go buy it and drink it there. So, no beer spills. I love that rule. You were allowed to bring your own food and water, but no alcohol. No brollys, no professional cameras, and no caps on bottles. No pat downs. No wanding. They expect people to behave and they did. There was no stage rush and no running. Heaven. Before we went in, they wished us a happy show. We caught several of the security guys singing along to all the songs. SECURITY was SINGING ALONG. Yes, take a breather. The line Nazis may be upset because they just lined people up in a non-snaking line and let them all in at once through the huge gates. No ticket scanning. Tickets were checked about 4 times before you went in and then torn.

Snow Patrol was good. Very good. I was concerned their music which is so ambient would translate well to the live setting but they had no problems with it and were no doubt helped by a crowd who knew when to come in. When they were about to come on, though, ti started raining. Almost real drops and it wasn’t letting up. What if B slipped on the ramp? We were squashed in so much that anything held lower than neck level was safe from getting wet.

The Italians guys had never heard of Snow Patrol and they spent half the set looking confused (I don’t think they were counting on other people being there besides U2) but then got into the music and were clapping right along with everyone and trying to sing along. They asked me who the band was after the set was done. The Snow Patrol singer kept apologising for being there instead of U2 and he kept reminding us they only had 3 songs more before U2, two songs, one last one.

After Snow Patrol was done, the raod crew wiped the stage down yet again and we waited and waited. The curfew’s 11PM because after that buses stop running and people can’t get home, but U2 was late. The Arcade Fire song didn’t start until about 845… not like I can be sure cuz I wasn’t really looking at my watch.

But then it did and here they came. The place erupted. ERUPTED. The stands were full by then and it was still light. It’s quite a site. Veritgo first with minimum lighting and the Spanish count. While outside waiting to get in, we’d heard the soundcheck. They played “Wild Horses” in its entirity and most of “Vertigo” and then Edge practiced some riffs solo. That’s one little nugget of information I hadn’t told you guys yet.

They hit them all. Song after song. The crowd was fired up and into it. For the first 3 songs, you couldn’t hear Bono because everyone was singing so loudly. Everyone in the entire arena was on his feet. There was no “Everyone… Everyone…” voice over, just the intro song. They played “Wild Horses” though he did it from the other B-stage. It sounded terrific. He looked great and sounded great. There was a reference to the one tower of Ballymun left in the stupendous “Running to Stand Still” which he dedicated to the Burmese woman who’s on house arrest (if I can’t pronounce it, I can’t spell it). And apparently, it was her birthday this past week. So, he inserted a “Happy Birthday” song into it and then tacked on half a verse and the chorus of “Walk On”. Yeah. YEAH.

We got a lot of Adam having the time of his life walking the catwalk. Tons of face time and smile time from Adam. But then it was time for “Sometimes…” after the EKG lines on the screen went to flatline after an amazing “Miracle Drug”. He dedicated it to the doctors and the nurses, “but especially the nurses”. I knew I was going to lose it. Either laugh or cry, but something was going to happen. The visuals for that are amazing, guys. I don’t think North America got the same ones. The heart aflutter visuals are AMAZING and then the Edge singing and then the song chimes up to the end and then… the line goes flat and suddenly he’s dedicating it to Bob Hewson and the shades come off and it’s a peer into Bono heart. He was coming down the ramp towards us. He hit it. He’s so beautiful that way. It was an uplifting crowd, not a weepy one, and it got respectful silence and big cheers.

Blue lights during “With or Without You” were awesome! We hadn’t realized some of the lights were manually moved around by people behind the curtain of lights. Bono had a guy named Bruce point up to a sign hanging over the top tier’s side. It said “See you in Rome” and then he started talking about Rome and the Spanish Steps and Keats who died there who was a poet and poets sometimes know things others don’t. Stream of consciousness, unscripted, and in a nutshell why this band has had so much success and why there will never be another. He moved that into “Miracle Drug” in an uninterupted segue which I have failed in here because this is out of order. Italians everywhere, Edge-lookalike included, lost their minds. “ROMA” yelled the two Italians we were standing next to. They’re awesome fans and they love U2 so much. Two girls standing next to Edge who had hearts on the insides of their hands got a picture in the paper. One of mu hosts said he was on a student trip to Italy once and Italians didn’t really have a concept of Ireland then, so they (the Irish students on holiday) said, “U2″ and immediately the Italians understood and once guys said all the english he knew was from U2 songs.

Anyway, The war trilogy began and they did it right in from of us. Guys, I lost my bleeding head. We could see the sweat come off of him as he came down the ramp and onto the b-stage. Larry had his back to us and acted as if he were just at work. And Bono on drums. SCREAMED myself hoarse. He looked down at us there for a moment, as if just trying to see the faces of the many-voiced beast he’d unleashed. I saw him with my own eyes. I stopped photographing for just a moment so for just a second, he would seem REAL. And that photograph I took with my head and hopefully, it’ll never fade.

There was no “Mysterious Ways” though they did do “Still Haven’t Found” pretty early on. I forget details about song order, but I think that’s how it went. No girl from the audience. “Zoo Station” was UNREAL though. UNREAL. Testosterone pumped and huger than what I’ve seen from Zoo TV. Like a review said, it was like Zoo TV on steroids, and all cut down to the essence. When he came down that ramp, it was God coming towards us. Oh, my GOD! The Italian guys were hugging and kissing each other, much like they did for “Bullet…”. One of the cute Irish guys behind us was saying, “Come on, Bono. Down here. My batteries are about to run out.”

My batteries ran out for the very of the insane last “Vertigo”. He had to pause the song, and go ask Larry for the Irish for one, two, three, fourteen. He said “four” instead of “fourteen”, though. It was adorable.

We had to walk all the way to Merrion Square before we could find a cab, but didn’t cre. We were exhausted but completely happy. The cabbie asked us about the show and said he was going Monday. Monday will be a very Dub show. He refused a tip.

My hour is almost up. It’s been AMAZING guys and that falls far, far short of the mark.

Posted on June 25th, 2005 under Life, News, Tunes •  Print •  Email • RSS 2.0 feed • Both comments and pings are currently closed