Nini and I saw U2 last night.
We braved a massive hailstorm, backsplash on the overwhelmed highways, and bone-crackingly cold rain to get there. It was worth every drop of rain that frizzed my hair. It was worth having my cute black ballerina flats fill with puddle water.
The opening band was the “Blah-mumble-mumble Kings”. This isn’t their real name, I hope. The lead singer garbled his introduction so I have no clue who we listened to for nearly 45 minutes. They were pretty good. But they weren’t U2.
Being rock stars, they had the responsibility to keep the crowd waiting for a very, very long time. I would have been disappointed if they hadn’t, actually. From the moment they took the stage I was captivated. They are such icons. The visuals were brilliant, too. They opened with “Love and Peace or Else”. Next was “Vertigo”. If my life story had a soundtrack for the past several months, this song would be included.
Hello, hello,
I’m at a place called Vertigo,
It’s everything I wish I didn’t know,
but you give me something I can feel…
They played a great mix of old and new, including absolute classics like “Sunday, Bloody Sunday”, “New Year’s Day”, and “Where the Streets Have No Name”.
One of the songs that made the biggest impact on me was “City of Blinding Lights”. I almost cried when they were playing it. It reminds me of my getaway with hubby to the Broadmoor about a month ago when we were still really grieving. Here is a link to the lyrics.
I could describe how each song made me feel, what it reminded me of, but I won’t. It was a great experience.
Happy pre-pre-birthday Mopsy 🙂
I’d read how each song made you feel. “City” is the track I skip to after “Vertigo”. Bono’s lyrics are some of my favorite.
That’s a tall order. I started listening to U2 in high school. They were a huge part of a family road trip from Colorado to California, with a stop in Las Vegas. This was right when “The Joshua Tree” was released. There I was, in the backseat with my walkman glued to my ears letting the music carry me away from the car with my parents and my youngers siblings—things like that are intolerable to a teenager and music is a great escape (that, and my copies of “Clan of the Cave Bear” and “Slaughterhouse 5”).
I could go on and on and on. “Sunday, Bloody Sunday” was a huge controvery at my junior high church camp—was it good or bad?
And “City”—wow, it really gets to me. It reminds me so much of mourning and trying to find the beauty in the ashes. Also, the line “time, time, won’t leave me as I am”. It reminds me of something our pastor says—God loves you too much to leave you as you are. He loves you where you are, but he loves to see you change, too. There is no bigger catalyst of change than profound sorrow.
Wow, that was way off course…
From junior high, they have been part of my musical life. At church camp in jr. high there was massive controversy surrrounding “Sunday, Bloody Sunday”…should it be played at the camp dance? The final answer from the director was no.
They were a major part of a family roadtrip from Colorado to California when I was in high school. They helped me escape from the confines of the family sedan—it was at the height of “my family is the most embarrassing on the planet” phase I was going through. My copies of “Clan of the Cave Bear”, “The Awakening”, and “Slaughterhouse Five” also helped.
“City” makes me teary—even now, at this moment, I get misty thinking about how sorrow seems to steal beauty when in reality it makes life lovelier. The line “time, time won’t leave me as I am” reminds me of something our pastor says: God won’t leave you as you are. He loves you, but he loves you too much to let you maintain the status quo. That song struck my heart at a time of massive sorrow. When they played it at the concert with swirling pastels on a curtain of round lights it was overwhelming.
That was a tangent…