This is a great photo, one that I have waited to receive so I could post this story up with visual aids
as well. All the photos were taken by Rush fiend Steve Bullert, an amateur photographer currently
under my tutlage, and who's work is improving! Ha. We owe a lot to Mr. Bullert because he is responsible
for providing us all the U.K. R30 images that appear on Echoes of Old Applause. Notice how he also likes
to take photos of, er, people cheering! Influence is nice to see. As usual when I need a photo, Steve
seems to come through, so thank you very much! If you can catch one of the U2 Vertigo shows, despite
the ridiculous pricing scheme for tickets, I'd highly
recommend it. The photos are from Glendale, AZ. All photos: Bullert.
On Monday, March 28, 2005, U2 opened it’s Vertigo World Tour in San Diego, of all places. If past memory serves me well, U2 strangely has chosen San Diego as a launching point for the last several of it’s tours. I do not know the significance of this, but I do know that it is true, to the best of my recollection.
Unfortunately I did not go to opening night, but as you will read later, that was probably a good thing. On Monday night I was sitting at home, pondering my future and filling out online job applications like a baker filling doughnuts with raspberry filling at 2 a.m. in the morning, getting ready for the next day’s customers. I can say that I was “bummed.” Opening Night, great band, great songs – and ever since U2’s performance of “Beautiful Day” at the 50 yard line of the 2002 Super Bowl, I have wanted to see that song live. And after that heart-wrenching performance that included references to 911 from the always sympathetic/humanist Bono, I promised myself that I would see them the next opportunity that I could.
So it was hard sitting at home, unemployed, knowing that was going down at the Sports Arena. It’s now called the “Ipay” Sports Arena or something like that, some new sponsor – whatever. You know how corporate America tends to take over everything that it can get, including my life at the moment. So maybe it was fitting that I was at home and not at the show.
So I dealt with the gut-wrench of not seeing them. But I did catch a 10 second clip on the 11 O’Clock news, which was also gut-wrenching. I came to find out that U2 was actually in town for TWO nights, with Tuesday an off day. That meant they were playing TONIGHT. Two nights of gut-wrenching. I could only take one.
I’m not the biggest U2 fan and I really can’t tell you much about the band, except that after looking around online I found out that Bono and company have pre-sold like 180 million tickets and have already pocketed like $300 million BEFORE Monday’s show went down. Those are some astounding numbers, if not influential in and of itself.
At 2 p.m. before the second night I drove down to the arena to see if I could maybe score a day of release ticket. Damn straight if it isn’t the “Ipay” Sports Arena.” I was not allowed to drive onto the lot and to the ticket office unless I paid $10 for parking, with no refund just to pull up to the ticket window and check. That’s a first for me. One can usually at least get a refund ticket to exit after checking. I wasn’t checking.
Nope.
Then I turned around and went to the Krispy Kreme doughnut store on the lot (which was completely empty), went inside, and asked the MANAGER if it would be okay if I parked in a spot for 20 minutes without getting towed to go look for a ticket, and upon my return I would purchase a dozen doughnuts.
The answer was a stern and immediate “NO, your car will be towed.” I responded by telling her that I would never eat another Krispy Kreme doughnut for the rest of my life. Her employees and a couple of people enjoying their mid-afternoon doughnuts looked at me, looked at the manager, and from the looks on their faces, it seemed as if I had won their approval or respect. Now that’s what you call customer service corporate America style. I felt like I had asked for something unreasonable – 20 minutes - I paid a price for trying to be nice.
You have to also know that I went to the beach to go surfing (but didn’t because it wasn’t any good), and the board was in the back of the truck and I could not leave it unattended. So I drove to another larger parking lot, parked behind Chili’s Restaurant and took a chance. I pulled up to the ticket window on foot with surfboard under arm thinking this wasn’t such a strange sight, it being Southern California and all. Maybe one of the band members would see me and like the oddity of it. But the looks weren’t from the band, it was from the people already there. “What is this moron doing?” is what I imagine everyone was thinking. Well, I wanted to buy a ticket. Just like everyone else on the face of the planet as it turns out.
None of this effort really mattered. Because when I went to the window a security guard immediately said there were no tickets, and “that was the line for tickets” behind me. Which was approximately 100 people long. I thought to myself, I’ve never seen such a thing before in all my concert-going experiences.
But I went up to the window anyway to see what was what, what the setup was and how much the tickets would cost if I came back later and lucked into one. I was just a lurker.
Ipay Arena or whatever it is was highly appropriate. Face value tickets in the entire seated area, including the rafters, was an astounding $162.50. The GA seating on the floor was $52.50. So there really was only that as a choice, but none were available and I wasn’t paying $162.50 for a concert ticket. No WAY. That’s the most I’ve ever seen, with maybe the exception being a pit seat to see Sting that I actually hooked up on Ticketmaster.com one day (something like $205.00) but didn’t buy that. No WAY!
So, I turned around defeated and returned to the truck, which thankfully was still there. Just as I’m getting in a Western Towing tow truck cruised by. I could not believe how many people were lined up. Also, with the floor being general admission (standing with no seats), people had already lined up to get inside beginning at about 7 a.m. that morning. It was a mad house at 2:30 p.m. Police. Tow trucks. Lines. Unbelievable. It was so unbelievable because I guess I knew nothing about what was going on. But I kind of liked that.
So I went home with no doughnuts and no ticket, pretty pissed and frustrated and took a nap to think things through a little bit.
I woke up at about 7 p.m. There was an opening band at 7:30, and U2, according to reports from the field, went on promptly at 9 p.m. “Ah, the hell with it, I’m going to go down there and see what happens.” I’ve used that line of reasoning in my head lots of times. Both nights were sold out. And by the time I got down there a half hour later, I couldn’t find any parking in any of the “secret spots” that I know that are on side streets. Because I was NOT paying the Ipay Arena $10 for a piece of concrete for a couple of hours. I ended up chasing a spot that was about a mile away. More payment – a very long walk – and not a good sign of continuously “paying dues” trying to get to see this particular show.
According to my well-kept concert archive records, the last time I had seen the band was back to back nights, April 13th and 14th, 1987, at the same venue. I reasoned that the higher ticket price might be somewhat reasonable, seeing that I’ve missed about 10 tours and I hadn’t paid anything to the band for about 18 years. That’s about $8 per year, right? Hey, that’s a bargain. What can you get for $8 per year these days? Ah, the things you come up with in one’s head on a long walk in San Diego trying to see U2.
But there was just no WAY I was paying that amount of money to see a concert – not at the moment. Forget it. The line for any release tickets was still 100 people long. Standing in this line was just useless. And there was plenty of buying and selling activity going on all around the place. Except that everyone wanted $200 for the seat areas. A couple of people even had the nerve to be asking that much for the GA seats, too. No one bought. I brokered a deal with one guy for $60 for a ticket that was behind the stage in the rafters. Then turned it down after looking at the seating chart I had printed out and put in my back pocket just before leaving the house. They must be out of their minds. All us ticket seekers turned all that down. Purchase opportunities came and went, and I turned everything down. I always hold out hope in this regard at a show without a ticket.
A group of four women came around and had a pair of killer tickets on the lower level and five rows up and about mid-Arena. Those were awesome. $140 each. A bargain. But I wasn’t paying that, either. She thought she was all special having those tickets. “You’ll never get another opportunity to see this band from these seats ever again,” she yelled with much excitement and saleswomanship, trying to sell the pair to some interested parties who had gathered around the hoopla. I didn’t buy into it, emotionally or financially. My time would come.
Two Mexican guys talked her down to $120 each and they were sold. There was a very large contingent of Mexican people there. When a show of such magnitude comes around, many fans of bands like U2, Rush, etc., cross over from Tijuana to catch the show. Both the guys completely emptied their wallets with barely a few dollars left over and went to see the show of their lives from dream seats. I have seen similar things with Rush, especially in Phoenix last summer where the same International type of people will do anything it takes to get in. But not me and U2. I was trying to get lucky. It was still about 45 minutes before they went on. I was willing to wait it out and go home, if necessary.
After turning down more junky seats at $200 for everything (everyone wanted that amount for their tickets no matter where they were), I was just walking around near the line with people holding out for a ticket release at the window. I was beginning to resign that I would walk back and not see the show. Even if there was a release, I was so far back in line I would never get a seat.
My personal number was $100 and even that was definitely over my current budget anyway, but to get in at that number was all I had to work with. And even then, that was a stretch. A painful one.
At about 8:40 p.m. or so a lot of people were gone and things thinned out a bit. People either gave up or bought in desperation and went in. A guy was kind of walking around and I approached him and asked if he had a single. He said yes, I said where, pulled out my seating chart for about the 20th time, somewhat decent, “$160. I just want to make my money back,” he said. Somewhat reasonable. Most reasonable of the night. Nice guy. “I can give you $100. That’s all I have, and that’s all I can spend,” I said. “I won’t have anything else to buy a beer with.” He walked away, I was wishing maybe that I had the extra $60 because it was a seat, half decent, almost a sale.
A couple of minutes later the guy came back, it was getting late in the game, and said, “Okay, give me $100, and I’ll buy you a beer.” The beer statement on my behalf is always a psychological weapon. I have used it with much success in the past. It hits that part of a male’s brain that says “Damn, the dude won’t even be able to have some SUDS once he gets in.” And then they feel sorry for you. And give you a good ticket. So he got his $100, I got my ticket, and a beer delivered to me at my seat.
The seat was a couple of sections forward of the rear of the “I Just Paid $100 for a U2 Ticket Arena”. L16, Row 5, Seat 2. I was very, very happy with the seat. It had a great overall view of the huge stage and was well-elevated above everyone else’s heads. The stage was standard square, but had “wings” that extended in a circle to almost mid-arena, bringing Bono and a few other band members much closer from time to time.
I was a happy concert attendee. Not only that, the guy who sold me the ticket was a huge U2 fan and quickly filled me in on what the set list was, what to expect and knew a lot about the band. He was there on opening night on Monday and was very nice company. Maybe this was some good karma being given back to me for all the investments and tickets I’ve made and tickets I’ve given away or helped people with in the past. So I had a beer, a seat and a U2 Encyclopedia all in one. A bargain!
After the first couple of songs Encyclopedia told me this was much better than Monday. The sound and the lights and the stage were throwing off more effects that were not present on Monday. The first night of a big tour can be a technical train wreck for a band and it’s crew and apparently that was somewhat the case, but not on the second night.
The lighting was really incredible and hard to describe. Special “strings” of lights descended from the light rigging and played out lyrics and statements amongst the bulbs. Huge crowed-illuminating high power lights lit the entire arena at the end of songs and the place was just completely sold out – capacity is around 16,000. Lights also trailed behind each other around and around on the “round wings’ of the stage extension which were most excellent and really stimulating to watch synced to the exact notes on the guitar.
I’m an old school U2 kind guy and told Encyclopedia that. When U2 launched into “Gloria” he freaked out. They had not played that song on Monday, and this is when I really got into the concert. With such a long list of songs, bands sometimes rotate songs every couple of nights and boy did I get lucky on this one. That’s such an old, fantastic song, and I could not believe my good fortune to be able to hear it, see it and live it live.
Then the party really started. I became blown away. “Beautiful Day” followed “Gloria,” and there was my $100 cost of admission fulfilled within the first five songs. That back to back combo blew my mind and the evening really started spinning, with, “With or Without You,” “New Year’s Day,” and “Sunday Bloody Sunday” all following back to back in a burst of high energy concert magic. Oh my gosh. This is why I was definitely here tonight. A wave of compassion, relaxation, satisfaction and excitement just washed over me and time and money disappeared into a place where it is all worthwhile.
“Blue Sky” and “Hands of America” kept me interested a little later on, but it was “Elevation” that brought me way back up. Oh my god. What a song THAT is to see live. The stage presentation and Bono running around the wings was driving everyone crazy and the place went into a frenzy.
I’ve been going to concerts since I was about 14 (I’m 40 now), “Elevation” made me think a little bit about what I was going to come home and write about tonight and what I was doing at the Sports Arena. That song made me realize, not for the first time, but, what separates these types of acts, such as Pink Floyd and Rush and U2 and Led Zeppelin, etc. is what the actual NOTES do to your brain.
The resonance. How your brain responds and perceives and processes the sound, and associates the sound with the band members and the band name and individual notes from guitars and drums used to make those notes. And as everyone was going crazy during “Elevate” (including me) I could hear and feel the appeal, the calling of U2 to it’s fans, the same appeal that I had heard years and years ago. “Elevate” quite possibly surpassed “Gloria” and “Beautiful Day” within it’s presentation and was quite possibly the “sleeper” song of the show for me – bringing an unexpected surprise positive reaction – one that will last for a very long time. Such energy. It elevated me to the top of the night’s experiences.
Two encores that contained “Pride (in the name of love)” and “Where the Streets Have No Name” fulfilled my U2 Fantasy Evening. Those two older gems were fantastic renditions for an “old schooler” like me.
The final song – “40” was very unique, not in within it’s content but within the way it was the last on the set list. As the song wound down, Bono walked off the stage, leaving guitar player, drummer and bassist. Then the guitarist stopped playing, waved goodbye, and then disappeared, leaving only the bassist and the drummer staying on the tune. Then the bassist keyed it down and slowly walked off stage, leaving on the drummer to keep the beat, and the audience, which had been seriously verbal in singing along all night, to keep it all together. As the audience started to lose either interest in keeping going or the beat, the drummer stopped…but then started the same beat again, and the crowed went wild one more time and started singing the last few lines of “40” all over again, for maybe an extra 60 seconds. A final hit on the snare with both drumsticks, the drummer stood up, tossed ‘em into the audience, the stage went dark and my show was over.
But noooooot quite the experience.
I had the long walk back to the truck. I was hungry. I did NOT go into Krispy Kreme, where many people WERE going. I was going home. Humph. But it made me want to have a late night doughnut myself. As luck would have it, a small little mom and pop doughnut place was open, on the way back to the car. The place was deserted.
The nice man behind the counter offered up 15 doughnuts for $5.50. Excuse me? I just wanted like, maybe, a couple of old fashioned glazed and say, an apple fritter. But 15? For that price, and with just a little cash in my wallet, who could refuse such vicious revenge on Corporate Krispy Kreme. I thought Bono would approve of my patronage at the small place and just got two of everything.
- jman2112