I have no idea where to start at all, so I'm just going to do this chronologically and let the pictures fall where they may :). Yesterday I woke up off schedule at 7, zipped through shower and getting stuff together and got on the road. Lots of poor bambies on the sides, stay far far away from 95 poor deer! So got into Raleigh around noon after having a VISA not working fiasco and amazing Gramma to the rescue solution, and missing my exit and the Ihop we were going to meet at being nonexistent(!) it was really great to see Levi and park my car (in a $5 downtown lot and be done with it! So then we went to lunch at KFC and went to find the theater showing 
It was amazing! I love the dynamics of Jimmy Page, Edge and Jack White together. The film making was great, the way that the stories of all three were spliced together by like category, not chronologically or one person at a time. The music was great they picked songs that really fit the mood of the part of the movie. Edge is just Edge, I can't give a non biased review of his bit of the film, He's so experimental and technical I loves it! and the fact that Dallas (the guitar tech) gets to go everywhere with him, its cute. Jack White has lots to contribute even though he's a little strange. I think U2 could definitely learn SPONTANEITY from him, we can tell Bono, when you've told the same joke 5 nights in a row, we know. Jimmy Page,what can you even say, I mean He's JIMMY PAGE, like half Rock god half cute little old man, the best part of the whole movie is watching him play air guitar along to one of his favorite records, his face is priceless! So after the movie it was time for the show!! squee!
OK, so we get to the lot and park and start walking towards the staduim and its awesome because people are tailgating and everything and from any given point you can hear 4 different u2 songs at one, (my fav combination was Angel of Harlem/Dicotheque (with BoomChas)/ Elevation). This is the first thing that caught my eye
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Yay! THE CLAW! It is amazing and I loves it! Its so huge, apparently they had two feet of clearance, without that it would have been too big to fit in a football field! How cool is that? Ok so we were second in line in our gate and we got to hear soundcheck! They did some Gavin Friday stuff, rehearsing for today, and Jean Genie by David Bowie, YES! U2 & Bowie my two faves! According to Levi Bono had an 'Aaron moment' in the middle of hmmmm I don't remember the song, something from No Line... i think, you hear Bono go "wait, stop, I can't hear myself in the monitors!" It was priceless. Although I'm a little peeved because some of our ticket takers were students who had no idea what they were doing and at quarter to five started letting some people in before this older woman in charge rushed over to make them stop. So a few people who were in front of us got to SEE sound check, not just hear it, I'm happy for them though. So when the gates finally opened, we went straight to the merch stands with everyone else, I bought a program and a "future needs a big kiss" shirt which I'll eventually take a picture of, but not today. So we found our seats and THEY DIDN'T SUCK!!! I was amazed, we had the cheapest possible tickets and our seats were actually quite good, that means that a bad seat really isn't possible! We also had a great view of backstage area, so I got to watch all the techs run around and set things up which was cool, Saw Stu, Dallas, Sam and even Joe O'Herlihy, not that anyone other than me knows who they are ;). So we settled in to watch Muse. View from seats, Dallas (the tiny dot with the guitar), Muse:
It was amazing! I love the dynamics of Jimmy Page, Edge and Jack White together. The film making was great, the way that the stories of all three were spliced together by like category, not chronologically or one person at a time. The music was great they picked songs that really fit the mood of the part of the movie. Edge is just Edge, I can't give a non biased review of his bit of the film, He's so experimental and technical I loves it! and the fact that Dallas (the guitar tech) gets to go everywhere with him, its cute. Jack White has lots to contribute even though he's a little strange. I think U2 could definitely learn SPONTANEITY from him, we can tell Bono, when you've told the same joke 5 nights in a row, we know. Jimmy Page,what can you even say, I mean He's JIMMY PAGE, like half Rock god half cute little old man, the best part of the whole movie is watching him play air guitar along to one of his favorite records, his face is priceless! So after the movie it was time for the show!! squee! OK, so we get to the lot and park and start walking towards the staduim and its awesome because people are tailgating and everything and from any given point you can hear 4 different u2 songs at one, (my fav combination was Angel of Harlem/Dicotheque (with BoomChas)/ Elevation). This is the first thing that caught my eye
:Yay! THE CLAW! It is amazing and I loves it! Its so huge, apparently they had two feet of clearance, without that it would have been too big to fit in a football field! How cool is that? Ok so we were second in line in our gate and we got to hear soundcheck! They did some Gavin Friday stuff, rehearsing for today, and Jean Genie by David Bowie, YES! U2 & Bowie my two faves! According to Levi Bono had an 'Aaron moment' in the middle of hmmmm I don't remember the song, something from No Line... i think, you hear Bono go "wait, stop, I can't hear myself in the monitors!" It was priceless. Although I'm a little peeved because some of our ticket takers were students who had no idea what they were doing and at quarter to five started letting some people in before this older woman in charge rushed over to make them stop. So a few people who were in front of us got to SEE sound check, not just hear it, I'm happy for them though. So when the gates finally opened, we went straight to the merch stands with everyone else, I bought a program and a "future needs a big kiss" shirt which I'll eventually take a picture of, but not today. So we found our seats and THEY DIDN'T SUCK!!! I was amazed, we had the cheapest possible tickets and our seats were actually quite good, that means that a bad seat really isn't possible! We also had a great view of backstage area, so I got to watch all the techs run around and set things up which was cool, Saw Stu, Dallas, Sam and even Joe O'Herlihy, not that anyone other than me knows who they are ;). So we settled in to watch Muse. View from seats, Dallas (the tiny dot with the guitar), Muse:
When Muse finished, it took about 15 mins to tear down their stuff and set up for the lads. When the Arctic Monkeys/Coldplay mix (blech!) they played to keep us entertained finally died down and Space Oddity started up the crowd went crazy. I finally understand what Bono means when he says that when the audience screams, they're not screaming for the band, but for themselves. I agree completely, its like getting away from everything, its like "look, here I am, to enjoy music and comradery and time off..." the atmosphere just changes its like electric and peaceful all at the same time.
So larry walked out and started playing the first beats of 'Breathe' and it was so powerful, He just unleashed himself on the drums, wow, loud amazingness! And then Edge and Adam were there filling in on either side of him, and then Bono walked out with his usual flair and we were off! Instead of the dreadful 4 new song opening they did in Europe, we got 'Breathe' followed by 'Boots' and then a lovely break with Edge's rickenbacker came out for 'Mysterious Ways' (the spirit was movin in the house!) and then, 'Beautiful Day' with, in all of its 33 year old, pure 
sound beautiful body splendor, THE EXPLORER! (iwasinaroomwiththeexplorer!) It was spectacular, Edge is so attentive to the back of the stage too, sweet man, he, more than any of the others ventured behind the drum kit to visit us! After those little bits of amazing, they got back into boosting sales (lol, riiiiight) with 'No Line...' and 'Magnificent' which truely is! I will never forget going to chapel at CIU preview days in march and hearing them play that song, wow! The truth in it is spectacular to behold, really cool and kind of sad to think that some fans there don't even know who they should really be singing that hymn to. After the always potent 'Elevation' we got a real treat with 'In a Little While' I love that song sooooo much and there was no indication that they would play it, so when we heard a snippet during sound check i was already calling them teases in my head but they did! And it was mind blowing, the goal is soul? Well they accomplished that on this one.
sound beautiful body splendor, THE EXPLORER! (iwasinaroomwiththeexplorer!) It was spectacular, Edge is so attentive to the back of the stage too, sweet man, he, more than any of the others ventured behind the drum kit to visit us! After those little bits of amazing, they got back into boosting sales (lol, riiiiight) with 'No Line...' and 'Magnificent' which truely is! I will never forget going to chapel at CIU preview days in march and hearing them play that song, wow! The truth in it is spectacular to behold, really cool and kind of sad to think that some fans there don't even know who they should really be singing that hymn to. After the always potent 'Elevation' we got a real treat with 'In a Little While' I love that song sooooo much and there was no indication that they would play it, so when we heard a snippet during sound check i was already calling them teases in my head but they did! And it was mind blowing, the goal is soul? Well they accomplished that on this one.Next was 'New Years Day' and Adam took a little walk to see us, good thing to since he was the one most hidden by the leg of the claw in our way, i have tons of pictures of blank space where he stepped in front of it for just a minute only to pop behind it again before my camera caught up, its cool though, He did come visit on occasion. 'Still Haven't Found...' was next with an awesome snip of 'Stand by Me' Bono even let the crowd sing a bit solo, it was really coo
l, so loud! lots of us singing together makes a big noise! My fav. version (ACCOUSTIC!) of 'Stuck in a Moment' was next, the bridge almost brought me to tears as usual. 'The Unforgettable Fire' was next, I still think its a little strange that of all the really great old songs to bring back they chose that one, but thats probably just because I'm biased towards War. City of Blinding lights brought out the magnificence of the claw wow wow wow, it was so beautiful, I almost forgot to watch the band! As per the new norm, Bono plucked somebody's young son out of the crowd for a lap around the outter rim of the stage, and even let him wear the shades for a little while. Nonexistant Adam, Shadeless Bono and accoustic bliss pictured below: 
l, so loud! lots of us singing together makes a big noise! My fav. version (ACCOUSTIC!) of 'Stuck in a Moment' was next, the bridge almost brought me to tears as usual. 'The Unforgettable Fire' was next, I still think its a little strange that of all the really great old songs to bring back they chose that one, but thats probably just because I'm biased towards War. City of Blinding lights brought out the magnificence of the claw wow wow wow, it was so beautiful, I almost forgot to watch the band! As per the new norm, Bono plucked somebody's young son out of the crowd for a lap around the outter rim of the stage, and even let him wear the shades for a little while. Nonexistant Adam, Shadeless Bono and accoustic bliss pictured below: 
'Vertigo' was next, I don't remember anything being spectacular about it, its just vertigo other than more fun screen shiny effects. The absolute highlight of the show, most amazing song awesomness, was the Redanka remix of '...Crazy Tonight' wow, the whole in the round thing really came out during this song. Larry was able to play his 'very own conga' so he wasn't trapped behind his drooms, and all four of them were on the outer circle rotating slowly so that everybody got to see everybody which was fantastic, the graphics on the screen were great too, the heads of the band bobbing to the music, with an occassional Bono snarl, very funky I loved it!! They followed that by spinning Larry's drums towards the back (us) for a green revolution version of 'Bloody Sunday' very powerful and dude Edge solo guh! mind-blowing as usual. This was followed by a snip of 'People Get Ready' Bono was so funny, holding out his mike to a fan and saying something like, "I'm gonna give this to you so you can sing alright. Be cool." like a lecturing father lol, the fan btw sang very well and knew the words better than the B man himself. so there.
Things slowed down after that with 'MLK' leading into 'Walk On' and a snip of 'You'll Never Walk Alone' for Aung San Suu Kyi, really moving, what a woman (google her, I don't have enough space to describe her incredible courage here) That was the end of the main set, time for a break to change camera batteries lol. Some of my faves mostly from 'Crazy':
The two encores that followed were wonderful, 'One' actually didn't bore me to death like Ithought it would and 'Amazing Grace' after it was probably the musical highlight of my life. Wow wow wow, it was so pure, just Spirit-filled, everybody singing from their hearts. Superb.
'Streets' was the first song of the second encore, they're back to the original red background not the African flags, which I think is a good decision, its much cooler that way. I love that song because you can just let go and belt it! Watching Bono play with his flashy red wheel mike and laser jacket during 'Ultraviolet' was fun, I got to sing 'Baby baby baby light my way' to my love, I'm so glad he was there, it wouldn't have been nearly as much fun with anybody else! Thanks Levi! 'With or Without You' was just as good the thousandth time as it was the first, such a pretty instrumental bit. They closed with the new 'Moment of Surrender' I love that song, it was a fitting end, serene, hopeful, personal, spiritual, touching, it summed up the night really well. (But it wasn't '40' just sayin')
I'm so thankful that I was blessed enough to be able to go and share it with someone special, this blog is more for me that you guys, its so that I don't forget what happened at the concert because its so crowded with my own spin on it. The things I'll remember from yesterday are losing a whole parking lot (only us!) but getting through it, hearing Levi confess that it was cool at Ihop, making plans for next time (GA baby, somebody find me a tent and some MREs!) and the look on Levi's face as he watched the look on my face and the reminder of the reason I love U2. Because they are like home, they're comforting, reassuring, fun, flirty, challenging and easy, serious but not pretentious and all about Love. Somehow these four guys have stayed together and not killed each other for 30+ years, if they can get through all the crap that comes with that, the rest of us can pretty much make it through anything!
"...Through the sleet and driving snow, across the fields of mourning, lights in the distance...I'll be there, I'll be there..."