It was a Beautiful Day.

June 26th 2011 is a day that will go down as one the most memorable in my life.  It was the day I saw U2 in concert.  I have been a huge U2 fan since War, and this is the first time I have had the chance to get tickets.  We tried about 20 years ago and they sold out so back in November 2009 when I got the chance again I said Hell Yeah! The concert was at Spartan Stadium at Michigan State University, one of my favorite places in the world.

We were supposed to go in June 2010 and then Bono decided to hurt his back, which meant one more year of waiting.  This was worth the wait.  I went with my friend Nicole (the person I tried to go with 20 years ago)  and her niece Micala.  We had general admission, which means if you want a good spot, you get there super early and wait in line all day.  I  will be the first to admit that this was not the most appealing idea.  In fact I pissed and moaned about it most of the week leading up to it.  All was for naught because we scored a prime spot under a tree and stayed out of the sun and it was a perfect day out.  We got in line about 7:00 AM with our lawn chairs, blanket, cooler, snacks and games.  It was interesting to see all of the different people there.  It certainly ran the gamut.  We did an hour by hour update including signs, we went for walks and had some delicious  sandwiches, our mood was not even dampened by the annoying young boys behind us who decided to talk about every U2 song in depth for the entire 10 hours.

Finally, at 5:30 the time had arrived, we were one of the first 200 in the door and in prime spot to get into the "Inner Circle".  We decided to stay out of it for some reason, instead standing on the outside against a rail center stage.  It was the best idea we had, for we found that with a catwalk encircling the inner circle and some tips from the press and the tour people, the band would be performing at times right in front of us. 

Florence + the Machine were the opening act and they were great but nothing could quench our desire for U2.  Finally, at 8:45 PM, they took the stage.  The stage itself was unlike any I had seen. The top of it was 164 feet tall, it looked like a giant, alien spider all lit up with a screen that went 360 around so everyone could see everything.  Sure enough, third song in , who do we see coming at us but Bono and The Edge.  They stood just feet away, the only thing keeping us back was a black iron barrier and several scary looking security dudes.  We screamed, we swooned, we acted afool, as you can tell because the picture of me in The Detroit News looks like I have completely lost my marbles. 

The show was just incredible. I have been to tons of concerts and nothing will ever top this.  The songs, the performance, Bono himself, nothing will be this cool.

It was worth the wait.....