Calvin's Weblog

U2 Concert

The Boys Are Back In Town - as if you hadn't heard... and last night Carole and I attended their first sold out Vancouver performance.
You'd have to live under a rock to not have heard all the U2 hype that Vancouver has been building up since February... first there was the rumor that U2 was going to rent GM Place exclusively for a whole month, as their own private rehearsal site, to gear up for the world tour. Then they actually showed up in our city, and were spotted all over the place for weeks on end - From fancy restaurants, to Irish Pubs (St. Patricks Day at the Irish Heather must've been a blast!), to walks on the Sea Wall, it seemed the boys from U2 were becoming a permanent fixture in our proud city.
But as soon as it started, it was over. They had to start that wold tour, after all!
Then, last week, they were back. A week early? Why? The concerts weren't scheduled until the 28th and 29th... why were they setting up their show so early? It turns out that in March, the boys were doing more than just rehearsing their songs, light show, and rock star moves... Bono was busy scouting locations for their next video City of Blinding Lights. It turns out, Vancouver was going to be that city!
So after a few days of stock footage, and a day of shooting scripted audience/crowd footage (by the way, the 4000 fans that got to be in the video for free, also got an impromptu mini-concert out of U2 for free), last night they got plenty of "real" concert footage as 17,000+ of us packed GM Place for their first of two full shows.

Okay - so before I go too far, I want it to be clear that I'm not the biggest U2 fan in the world... anybody who knows me, knows that I'd rather be watching Metallica, Godsmack, Korn, Mudvayne, heck - even Ozzy or Kiss or Alice Cooper would excite me... but U2? Carole has already dragged me kicking and screaming to see U2 not once, but twice - so what compelled me to go a third time? Well, the hype for one... I've never heard of a show selling out in 180 seconds... not to mention TWO sold-out shows in 180 seconds! As Carole kept reminding me last night, "these are tickets to covet! They're going for $500 on e.Bay!" - so the prestige thing certainly came in to play. It seems the whole city wanted to be at that concert, and we were two of the lucky few that had the chance. Other than that, I wasn't nearly as excited as Carole was... I mean, with nearly 400 concerts under my belt already, it takes a lot to excite/surprise/entertain me these days. But last night, U2 did NOT let me down. There's a reason why they're on top of the world right now, and they proved it to all of us last night. THAT has got to be respected, and dare-I-say 'admired', no matter WHAT kind of music you prefer. I already had plenty of respect for U2 before last night, but waking up today, I can safely say I admire them a whole lot more.

So back to the concert! The opening band was "Kings of Leon" - four brothers (yes, real brothers) from the U.K., who have risen from absolute obscurity in 2003, to "World Tour with U2" status in less than 18 months. Wow guys, can I have your manager/promoter/booking agent's phone number? I think I'd like to be his friend!
The band was good, entertaining, and polite... the singer at one point thanked the cheering crowd for "being respectful"... I can't even imagine what kind of crowds they've played for in the past if you're grateful for a 'respectful' crowd! Musta been some rough stuff???
But undoubtably, the most entertaining part of the band (for me, anyway) was the drummer - who I have now officially dubbed "Bubblegum Jesus". Don't even think about stealing that by the way, I think it's an amazing name for a song, or maybe even a band... and i'm gonna use it one day! So anwway, this guy's got long flowing hair, and a big beard, and while he's crazily pounding away on a (pink!) drumkit, he's casually chewing gum and blowing bubbles, right through the whole show... it was hillarious - kinda surreal, but I love the unexpected - and that was certainly something I've never seem before. Yeah, I know... it's the small things that amuse me... but Bubblegum Jesus did just that. I also thought it was amazing that he could drum and chew gum at the same time... as lame as that sounds, he was lazily chawin' away while drumming franetically. Pretty cool multitasking if you ask me! I just wish I had a picture.

I had forgotten that GM Place stops selling beer after the first band is done, so I ended up standing in line between bands for nothing, but that's okay - my first three beers rang in at a whopping $23 anyway, so my wallet thanked me for sparing it. I got back to my seat just in time to see the riggers hauling ass up the ladders and being raised by cables into their positions five stories above the stage. Most people probably never even notice those guys hanging out in the rafters above every stadium show, but since my buddy BobDog is one of the main riggers at GM Place, and had been working with U2 during all their rehearsals and video shoots, I was looking out for him. Tonight, he was supposed to be manning Adam Clayton's personal spotlight. Check here to see Bob on the job, and read through the thousands of concerts he's worked on... pretty cool job if you're not afraid of heights! (and you have a really strong bladder). Bob had told me some stories about how the rehearsals were going, and about the more human side of these rock gawds (yes, they do actually flub lyrics and forget their bass lines, just like mortal musicians!) so throughout the concert I was half keeping an ear out for flubs, and Carole and I both cought quite a few! I'm sure 99% of the crowd had no idea though, as the gig was POLISHED. The light show was spectacular - the set was powerful, and the guys were primed and in shape. It's hard to believe that these 45 years olds can get up there and play for over 140 minutes straight... my legs are usually trembling after a 60 minute set! And my fingers just don't wanna work after that point either, but these guys had it goin' on!

The only "Booos" of the evening were when Bono paused for a minute and said "I want to talk to you about your prime minister, Paul Martin" - The crowd didn't like that at all... (Read the National Post Article: Martin Booed at U2 Concert)
But Bono said "now hold on a minute, this is an unfortunate turn of events of late, but I like Paul Martin. I know he's a good man, and I know we can get past this. Canada is leading the fight to end world poverty, and that's because of men like Mr. Martin." - and then the crowd's boos magically turned to cheers - simultaniously, a messages starts streaming across the video screens that says "Call Paul on 613-992-4211 or visit www.makepovertyhistory.ca " and the cheers turned to a ROAR of deafening cheers. "If you people believe in it, I believe Paul Martin is the kind of person who will listen to you. Let him know. Get out your phones. Dangerous little devices, these cell phones are. We want to make poverty history," Bono encouraged... "This is the year!"
And then the coolest thing happened - the entire stadium turned a pale blue-green glow as thousands and thousands of cell phones came out... I had no idea THAT many people had cell phones, and I suppose I completely underestimated the luminescent candlepower of 3,000 cellphones, cause those puppies were bright! The song "One" continued, and in place of the traditional (and debatably more dangerous?) lighters, cell phones were held high, and swayed back and forth to the music - I couldn't help but wonder how much radiation that was causing - lol.

Bono pulled various kids with "One" T-shirts up on stage to dance with him, and continued that generosity by pulling extatic teenie boppers up on stage with him another three or four times throughout the show - making their LIVES complete, I'm sure. Seriously - for those kids, life's gotta be all downhill from here ... how do you top that?
One particularly greatful girl had been holding up a massive cardboard sign that read "I just ditched my wheelchair - will you dance with me?" Bono went over to her, exclaimed in his thick Irish accent "It pays to advertise!", and had the bouncers bring her up on stage. Very touching indeed.

well, two encores (of three songs each) later, it was finally over... or was it? They left the crowd singing "How long, how long to sing this song" as they left the stage. I "got the joke" immediately, but Carole wasn't convinced. "Seriously," I said, "They're gone - look..." - I pointed to the back of the stage (which we could see perfectly from our vantage point) where the band was removing their in-ear monitors, just in time to see them all exist through the back doors. "Don't you get the joke???" - Carole had a blank stare for a millisecond, then a big grin spread across her face and she clued in to the very clever trick U2 had just played. As we exited the building, ten thousand fans were still in their seats, chanting "How long, how long to sing this song". We got a good chuckle out of that. I wonder if they're still there...

Posted by Calvin at April 29, 2005 07:56 AM