Just Feet Away from Bono
2:00 pm: I’m sitting on a folded sleeping bag on the pavement. It’s gray out and balmy- perfect weather for camping out on the sidewalk for seven hours. I’m in line with several other hundred U2 fans waiting with General Admission passes for the doors to open. Some of them have been here for days, having signed into a fan-created numbering system for admission. There are disputes online regarding the fairness of the system, but it’s simply an organized form of first come, first serve. I see no problem with it, and neither does anyone I speak to in the queue, even though we’re behind the numbered crowd.
Upon our arrival two hours earlier, a grinning man with shaved head and broad shoulders welcomed us to the line and asked us to sign a poster. He wants the autographs of all those queued for GA. “I’ve been here for a bit,” he said jokingly. “My wife and I are celebrating our twentieth anniversary. We just decided to come on Friday and make a weekend of it.” It’s Tuesday now.
During the wait, we meet a man who flew in from Turkey to Tulsa, Oklahoma for the opening tour of U2’s Experience and Innocence 2018 Tour. There are others from Canada, Great Britain, Mexico, Cuba, and from all over the United States.
A man named Rodney tells me he first saw U2 in concert in 1987 on their Joshua Tree Tour.
“I was a senior in high school and on the baseball team. I bought the tickets way in advance, so I didn’t have our game schedule yet. Turned out we had a game the night of the concert. Fortunately, the team we were gonna play against didn’t get enough members together so my buddies and I went to the concert,” he chuckles. “We drove the three hours to Chicago, saw the show, drove back home and went to school the next morning.”
This U2 concert will be his fifty-seventh.
We hang out for a solid seven hours, but time passes kindly. There’s a feeling of family among the fans. Many of them know each other from other concerts, and will continue to bump into each other as they follow several or all of the tour’s concerts around the world. My dad and I are outsiders to this world of die-hard fans, this being our first U2 concert, yet we quickly make friends. And despite our concert inexperience, our love for U2 is strong.
8:30 pm: We’re on the second row from the catwalk, just a few people away from the main stage. The speakers grow silent and Bono’s voice drifts through the air. Two massive screens lift from the catwalk to reveal the band, elevated above us. Twenty thousand people erupt in a roar. Finally, after over fifteen years of waiting, I’m at a U2 concert, and one of my greatest role models stands but a few feet above me, singing from the depths of his being.
People ask me why I like U2. “They’re old. They’re by-gones.” But U2 is far from expired. Somehow, they keep putting out new music, allowing their style to evolve and their lyrics to be honest. They struggle with the difficult truths of life and the human state, wrestling with their own questions out in the open. In any craft or art, the true masters are creative and ever-learning. And have years of experience. U2 is all of these things.
As for the “by-gone” claim, all I have to say is that their shows are selling out months ahead of time, and tickets are re-selling for hundreds of dollars. They’re not done yet.
The air is heavy with the cold smell of theatrical smoke and the air lights up in deep purples, blues and reds. The show crescendos through Songs of Innocence and into classics like Vertigo and Sunday Bloody Sunday. Bono shares personal stories, then challenges sexism and prejudice. He calls out Trump and racism as footage of modern-day KKK marches rolls on the screens. He warns us against the deceptions of the devil. He calls us to arms, to take a stance, and to fight for love. The arena is set afire in colors for City of Blinding Lights. Then a pause, a few words, and a quiet transition to Song for Someone. And the music fades.
I’m shaken. Bono’s been a hero to me for a decade, but to hear him in person, to be so close I can witness his emotion, takes it to a whole new level. I wonder if the reason I hadn’t been able to see U2 before is because it was meant for now. With a year of college left and some heavy years just behind, I feel it must be so much more relevant and inspiring for me than it could’ve possibly been before. And I truly begin to seek a direction for the first time.
I haven’t felt more alive in a long time.
