I have had a crappy year, 18 months, whatever. My best friend had brain cancer, she passed earlier this year. Financial crap…. Just, not a lot of good memories in the memory bank. So last summer I had a “f*ck it” moment. U2 was touring & I bought a ticket to see them in St Louis. Even buying the fancy ticket (Red Zone, benefiting their AIDS charity — ticket lets you in early & a special section up front), I could just swing it if I maxed out my credit cards. I couldn’t get any more broke (the bad financial news I had was from the HOA of my condo complex, that due to some long-neglected maintenance, every owner has to fork over ~$20K to keep the buildings from falling apart, so when I say I’m broke, I mean in the sense that I’m never going to get to retire; hence the “eff it”). Then in August, some idiot hit my car; about 2 weeks after that I had sudden excruciating pain in my hip. Like “redefine your maximum level of pain” excruciating. It was sudden & so intense I’d nearly collapse; I’d seize up & had to grab a wall. Actual breath-taking pain. My doc & I never figured out what it was, but I walked with a cane for September & October. The pain vanished as mysteriously as it appeared. And then — well, you remember what happened last fall in St Louis? Yeah, the show was canceled as my plane landed. Because of the riots, there were no off duty police to work security, they couldn’t come. So I got a refund on the concert ticket but not the flight or hotel. I tell you this only to give you an idea of what I mean my “crappy”. So when the pre-sale codes went out to fan club members, I bought another Red Zone ticket. Then it hit me that I can’t afford this. And then my upstairs neighbor’s tub flooded my bathroom & I lost it. Just totally lost it. I was afraid I’d have to pay for repairs (her insurance company sent me a letter saying they aren’t) and I posted on FB about selling my RZ ticket. And then a miracle happened: a few amazing people told me that I was going to go to this damn concert and they made it happen. I have breathtakingly generous friends. Seriously, the most amazing people.
Tuesday was the concert. I thought I’d bought a ticket for St Louis again, but I somehow ended up with Chicago. I would never have picked a gigantic city, if I hadn’t gotten St Louis, I’d have picked Phoenix or Nashville. I’m not a country girl — Austin is a cosmopolitan place, I’ve lived all over the world, but I just would have picked smaller. But Chicago was great. And where I was in the venue -— if a genie had appeared & asked for my ideal place, this would have been it. Adam side, right at the rail, on the wing where he walked out quite a few times. I swear I got a smile from him just for me. So I wrote this to share pictures & tell the story & tell the legit best people on the planet “thank you, you are amazing”
So when I got to Chicago, I went from hot (we’ve already hit 100 this year) and dry to 40s & raining — raining really hard. But I still took the train into town & saw the Bean:
But what I’m really here for is to share my concert experience. Starting with the pre-show images. The guys really are quite into technology, and even without their “augmented reality” app, their screen/walkway is amazing. First was just some great political messages:
And then this amazing waterfall, and then they added a comet flying across the waterfall:
Ok, yes I will get to the real deal. Did I mention I had a great spot? Here’s the B-man himself, in the opening number:
And now many pictures demonstrating my slight obsession with the bassist, Adam:
And yes, there are other people in the band (actually, Bono said that he’s discovered that he’s only ¼ of a musician without the other members, and half a person without his wife, Ali):
I have some shots of the whole band, but I’ve had a challenge loading pictures. And sharing pictures was the point. Also saying thank you to my friends who made the trip possible.
This is from the 2nd night, not mine, but I so love this song — and the message of the song, Love Is Bigger Than Anything In It’s Way