September 27, 2005





  • Neil Diamond was good, but... There are no words. I realize that I may never see a concert that holds a candle to tonight. That sunk in during the first song. Let me get this out of the way. Dashboard Confessional, God rest their soul, played their hearts out and tried. But I seriously wonder if U2 had them open simply to make their concert outshine theirs like the sun next to a wimpy flashlight on the last bit of D-cell Duracell juice.

    U2 is a classy group of guys who celebrated their 29th birthday together here in Milwaukee. They are quintessential musicians who take 3 instruments and a voice soaring through the roof of all my concert expectations. All of them had a "tight loose" style that demonstrated their complete comfort with every song that they had the liberty to play within close tolerances. As boring as it may be for them, they painstakingly recreated every song as you remember it. But live.

    Not a flawless performance. No. But excellent in every aspect. The lights blew our minds! A song would explode, and we would look at each other then quickly scramble for the camera. More pics coming, yes. If you had a million dollar light budget and 12 people on spotlights, I guess this tends to happen, but most importantly, it was the confluence of creative mastery and technical genius. You would have to see it to know what I mean, but the whole time you're stunned by the beauty, you're constantly thinking how did they do that to make literally hundreds of thousands of light bulbs work in synchrony.

    Political, yes. But Bono tended to stick to topics that most of us would agree on. The ONE Campaign...eh...I've long felt that it still falls short of the addressing the real problem and is still fixing symptoms instead of curing the ill. Human rights, yes. I can agree with that. It was only a brief part of the whole performance anyways.







    Thank you, Matt! Matt's fiance couldn't make it to the concert, so I was stuck being his date for the night.   I don't know what I can do to repay him. Ever. Between the two of us, we kept a constant chatter on the topic of audio/visual equipment, debating what what was for...being geeky is best form of cool.

    Has anyone else seen U2 in concert? I missed Johnny Cash...but I strongly recommend that YOU don't miss U2!

     




     

    Edit: U2 captures their concert atmosphere beautifully here.

Comments (15)

  • Looks like you had an awesome time, nice work with the picture.  How about that meeting with Sting??

    And why are you giving away bonus points on MY site??

  • Nick.  What an interesting post!  I sent it over email to our sons; both are technical and 'geeky'. :)   Glad you had this chance of a lifetime!

  • Sounds amazing! I can't imagine the kind of energy there - mind blowing! Glad it was fantastic :o )

  • Oh, and love the new picture!

  • *sigh*... you are one lucky guy

  • i was eight months pregnant with jakey when i saw them in oakland.  i wept.  i agree. blink and barry manilow were great but u2 phenom!

  • hey nick! i've only met you once but we're practically good friends right?? lol. yes tell beth to get her own site! cya around!

    <3 dianne

  • U2...Weird Al...Weird Al...U2...ok, maybe U2 has the better light show. Maybe they're the Devo of light shows. But do they sing Amish Paradise or Yoda? I think not. Yoda is the ultimate trump card my friend!
    BTW, I may not be at XA 2morrow.

  • Re: SuedeKnight  ^
    Weird Al's finest work is the eBay song.

  • I have to say, my favorite Wierd Al offering is either "The Rye or The Kaiser" or "Eat It" ~ both OLD SCHOOL offerings, oldies but goodies.

  • "King of Suede" is my personal theme song.

    And NO, at no time was "Young, Dumb, and Ugly" my theme!

  • The theme here is U2!

    I'd delete those comments if I weren't so desperate for feedback.

  • U2 can like Weird Al Nick. :)

  • It's a tangent.  We're tangenting!  Besides, I know you like to see those comment numbers going up, and, well, you just love us all too much

    So, David, King of Suede, huh? I should've seen that one coming.  I'd like to see a suede-themed haiku. Can you believe Nick didn't know the structure of a haiku? "Five-seven-five, what's that??" ::sigh::

  • Nick is desperate for feedback?  Seems odd - until, as I was scrolling down on this page, Mari asked me to slow down, "I want to see how many comments that was."  I guess the numbers do mean something. 

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