“City of Blinding Lights” Video Shoot

Vancouver, BC, Canada, April 2005

On our way into Vancouver, the customs agent at the border asked what our business was in their country. I answered energetically: “U2 concerts!”

Teresa, who was tired from the previous two Seattle shows (and perhaps less enthused at that moment) nodded in agreement.

The next question was, “Will you be leaving anything in Canada?”

Teresa deadpans: “Only our dignity.”

The agent burst into laughter and waved us through.

And so it began.

We ate dinner that night on the second-floor Red Robin that sits atop Robson Street, and the whole way there I stopped to snap photos of the tour posters on the storefronts. I couldn’t stop smiling.

The next day, we did what we went a whole day early to do: We were extras in a U2 video!

The entire journey is detailed in our @U2 blog from that night, but one thing I neglected to mention was the fact I had a panic attack when we returned to our hotel room, certain I was breaking out in hives. “I may need to go to the hospital.”

I asked Teresa to take a look, pulling my shirt down way past a “decent” level and she rolled her eyes.

“Look at the shape of your ‘hives’,” she said, in air quotes.

I was too close to my own chest to get what she meant, so she picked a round metallic sliver off the floor and stuck it onto one of my red spots.

Turns out the confetti the band dropped (repeatedly) during the film shoot had bright red color that was no match for my sweaty body, so the color was bleeding onto me.

I quietly walked to the shower and washed them all away. Later, we both found the whole thing hilarious.