U2 North America Tour, Chicago IL -- Opening Night!!
I missed the Atlanta show of U2's Vertigo tour a few years back by a hair, much to my (and Andy Ewing's) chagrin -- that's a whole other story on it's own, actually, so I won't get into details here...
Anyhow, to make up for it, Annie and I made the trek from Ann Arbor to Chicago for a night out (without the kids, even!) at U2's 360 Tour, which kicked off in Chicago last night (the North American leg of it, anyways). Here's our photojournal of the evening:
We parked in a nearby downtown lot, grabbed a bite to eat at the first restaurant we came across (a yummy and affordable Japanese restaurant, as luck would have it) and walked over to the stadium -- in good company, as you can tell!
I can't really do it justice, but this panoramic hopefully gives you a sense of the stadium and just how gi-normous U2's 360 set was -- this huge 4-legged tarantula-spaceship thingy arching over a good half of the field. Biggest set for a rock show I've ever seen.
Check out where the cameramen get to sit -- 12 of them (3 on each arm) were hoisted up snugly against the legs of the spaceship before the show got started, and there they stayed throughout the whole gig.
Annie and I waiting fo the show to start. (Don't ask about the scar on left brow, that is, again, a story for another day...)
The grand entrance -- the band kicked off things with "Breathe" from their new album.
The set is billed as a 360 stage, and it really is a good design, but there's definitely still a front and back to the performance -- we were sitting in back, which sometimes kinda sucked, but on the other hand, we 20% of the audience who were behind the stage felt really special when anyone from the band came around back to play -- just for us. Larry Mullen Jr.'s drums were even set up on this rotating lazy-susan-type thingy that every once in a while would spin around so he could face us for a song!
The video monitors on the set were honeycombed together -- during the concert they started up high, then expanded until they seemed nearly to touch the stage itself, and then collapsed back together again down low before lifting back into their starting position. This configuration is during their rendition of The Unforgettable Fire.
And, if I remember correctly, this is during Where the Streets Have No Name.
Nearing the end, Annie offered to take a shot of me with Bono singing on the monitors in the background, but I botched it and blinked when the red-eye reduction flashed me!
Alas, all good things come to an end... what a fun night though! Definitely worth the trip -- looking forward to next time!
2 comments:
Wow, you have a blackberry and an iphone?!! haha, like how that's what I pulled out of your story? hey, i'm just glad you made it though, although if we had an atlanta part deux that would've been kind of funny for your readers too... -- this is J btw.
I had a smidgen of a hope that just maybe you recorded he ENTIRE concert that I could watch on your blog! It's pretty good resolution with the big screen...I loved the clip of it! I WANT MORE!!!!
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