U2

U2 is my favorite band of all time. Grace and I were supposed to see them in concert with Jen in NYC at Madison Square Garden last month, but that weekend turned out to be the same weekend of Jeffrey’s wedding. Linda surprised Danny by taking him for his birthday – I hope they enjoyed it.

I’ve been obsessed with making sure I didn’t miss this concert tour and dates were running out. I considered seeing them in Vegas this past weekend, but realized that had bad idea written all over it. I decided to make it my mission to get tickets for their last stop in the Bay Area at Oakland Coliseum. After a few attempts on Craigslist, I got serious and pulled the trigger on some General Admission (floor) tickets on eBay. For 4x face value, I had a chance to be up close and had tickets in hand a couple days later.

The show was last night and it turned out to be one of the greatest concerts ever – second only to the Joshua Tree show in 1987 at the Pontiac Silverdome. That was a musical experience that changed my life forever and I was lucky to share it with a group of my friends from home who all remain among my closests friends.

It was a “you had to be there” kind of experience, but I think the setlist says a lot:

• City Of Blinding Lights
• Vertigo / Rockaway Beach (snippet)
• Elevation
• I Will Follow
• Gloria
• I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For / Exodus (snippet)
• Beautiful Day / Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band (snippet) / Many Rivers To Cross (snippet)
• Miracle Drug
• Sometimes You Can’t Make It On Your Own / Torna A Surriento (snippet)
• Love And Peace Or Else
• Sunday Bloody Sunday / Rock The Casbah (snippet)
• Bullet The Blue Sky / The Hands That Built America (snippet) / When Johnny Comes Marching Home (snippet)
• Miss Sarajevo
• Pride (In The Name Of Love)
• Where The Streets Have No Name
• One

Encore(s):

• The First Time
• Stuck In A Moment You Can’t Get Out Of
• With Or Without You
• All Because Of You
• Fast Cars
• Bad / People Have The Power (snippet)

I love so much of their music, but last night could certainly qualify for “greatest hits.” Can you imagine I will Follow and Gloria in addition to all the great Joshua Tree songs and finishing with Bad? Incredible.

We ended up in the middle of the floor, not far from where the circular part of the stage comes out onto the floor. Here are some movies (Pride/Where The Streets Have No Name and One).