From 5:30 PM when I found the spot I wanted behind Trish and Sam, until 8:40pm when the band hit the stage, the stimulation kept on coming. The irritations, the joy, the excitement, the nerves... it kept coming.
It was good to look around the stadium and watch it fill with happy souls. Mumford and Sons was very well received by a much more filled up Stadium than they'd had in Vancouver, and the Seattle crowd was nice and warm by the time they left the stage. Nearby, there was a sign to the left of us that read "I'm here for the 20th anniversary of POP", which I greatly appreciated, considering my costume. Brigitte Rebecca was stationed at the rail closer to the center of the tree stage. She spotted me, and waved and shared her beautiful smile. Margaret was behind her by just a couple rows of people, though she had been in front of me in line. She had sacrificed rail for a more central point of view. Joy was down closer to Larry's drumkit, right on the rail, and she gave me a nice big smile too.
I talked with Sam and her companion Johnny while we waited. I listened as a woman several people back tried very hard to buddy up to them. She seemed drunk and also seemed to think she had a chance of manipulating them and get herself closer to the rail. Johnny muttered under his breath, "Yeah right we've only been through this a few times, love" as she tried to get them to "be in a picture" with her. I thought she was being so obvious at the time... I was glad to hear that they weren't being fooled by her manipulations (unfortunately, we can't all be so immutable to flattery, but that's a story for down the road a bit...). Between the rail and the stage, AJ Rankin, a crew member (and Bono's cousin) who was known to the fans in the know, walked past me and asked what the license plate around my neck said. I showed it to him, and he said, "ah yes, I remember that one". I was chuffed, for sure.
Johnny shared stories of staying in Stuart Morgan's guest house in Ireland and, while there, admiring Adam's lemon colored bass from the PopMart tour that Stuart's missus had shown him. As the bass guitarist's tech was onstage setting up for Adam, I reflected fondly on memories from the Elevation Tour, when I would usually station on Adam's side of the stage after about halfway through my 15 shows on that tour. Stuart had kindly remembered to hand me Adam's setlist after Boston 1 in 2001 after the show right away, as I had asked him for it pre-show, and subsequently earned himself a warm spot in my heart forever. As the twilight set in, and darkness began to fall, I turned on my three light up barrettes, removed my purple heart-shaped reflective blue sunglasses, secured the U2opia plate around my neck, and...
At long last, the Pogues song played over the sound system, and then, Larry was striding forward down the ramp from main stage to tree stage. We were finally off into the next dimension of U2opia!
There they were, all four of them. right in front of me (well actually Larry was to my right and I didn't see much of him during the show). Adam, Edge, and Bono, took turns in a seamless rotation around the branches of the tree stage. It was a beautiful dance to witness, indeed. I carefully raised my license plate now and again, when I thought one of them might spot it.
The show started again with "Sunday Bloody Sunday" and "New Year's Day" before the one I had been waiting for; "A Sort of Homecoming". I pulled out my phone and took a few pictures with the last bit of juice in my phone's battery...
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| My favorite, where my friend David from Vancouver show told me, he's looking right at me! I told him, naw Trish was in front of me so, he was probably looking at her, and he said nope, it was all me. Then I zoomed in to study a bit closer and.... well, maybe he's actually not looking at either one of us, or anything in particular... nice fantasy though! ha |
(Or was I intoxicated by the proximity of the band?)
As I write this, I'm listening to a replay on YouTube, and the chills are running through my body. Especially now, as Bono sings "We've all come to look for America... we've all come to look for America....".
https://youtu.be/864WfxdepL4
Then, as "Bad" wound into "Pride", Sam was jumping up and down in front of me, and I was recovering from "Bad" and ASOH during a song that I've heard so many times live, it would be one of the top on a list of bathroom break songs, if I were to take bathroom breaks while U2 is in the same airspace with me.
Then the retreat to the main stage, and I turned off my barrettes, as the red dawn of "Streets" began to fill up the surrounding open spaces.
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