October 26, 2009

  • It can easily be argued that U2 is the biggest band in the world today. To think that I've never seen them live before is unbelievable to me, but I changed that this past night, as U2 performed at the Rose Bowl Stadium in Pasadena, CA. I also never been to the Rose Bowl before, so this was a first for me too.

    The night began with me and some friends of mine getting dropped off at the Metro rail system in Pasadena; which BTW is also a first for me to use (it's LA's subway system too). We opted for this mode of transportation to avoid the hassle of traffic and parking. I believe I heard them saying that there is going to be around 100,000 people there just for U2, so wow indeed. From where the train dropped us off, we opted to just walk to the venue. Now like I said, I've never been to the Rose Bowl before, so I didn't know how far it was. Well it took about 30 minutes to walk what was essentially around 2 miles of a distance. Maybe we should have opted for the shuttle service, but I don't mind walking, so whatever.

    If we didn't walk, how else could we have come across some Christian radicals on the streets, saying that we should tear up our U2 tickets and heed the word of God. "You know more lyrics from a U2 song, than verses of the Bible!" one guy yelled. I can understand these kinds of people in front of... say...a Slayer or Children of Bodom concert, but U2? Really? I mean, sure there we were, walking with hundreds of other people in the streets, enthusiastically going towards a single destination, where we will all celebrate a grand experience as one. I guess it is like going to church.... no, wait...

    By the time we got to the Rose Bowl, we had to figure out where to get in. There were a mass of people in front of gates in one side, and mass of other people in front of gates in another side, and so on and so forth. How do we get in? Turns out the best way to figure it out is to look for the section number written on the ticket, and look up near the top of the stadium for the same number. Go to the side of the stadium with that number, and go in the nearest gate to that. I was seated in a different section than my friends, so we separated and went on our way.

    The Black Eyed Peas was the opening band (also a first time for me to see them live), and they were actually already performing on stage in the minutes and minutes that I was trying to get myself in the stadium. I could hear all their songs while I was still outside, but I just couldn't see them. Since there were tens of thousands of people at the Rose Bowl, I decided that once I get to my seat, I'm not leaving it until the end of the concert. Used the restroom at that point, and I was going to buy a souvenir shirt, but the lines for that was really long. I can hear that Fergie is singing her solo song "Big Girls Don't Cry," which reminded me that I really do want to see the BEP. Decided that I'll get the shirt after the show is over.

    Once inside, I was like "WOW, this place is huge, and WOW there are a lot of people." It took me the whole time the BEP was playing "Pump It" before I could get to my seat, because there was something like people traffic that prevented me from moving faster. Found my seat, it was near the end of the aisle which is great, busted out my camera and started recording the next song; "Where Is The Love?" The Black Eyed Peas was really impressing me with the energy that was coming from their performance, and it sounded great. To the surprise of all of us there, none other than Slash from Guns N Roses fame shows up on guitar, and the BEP do a cover of "Sweet Child O' Mine." WOW. I kinda wished that I was able to see their whole set live though, but from what I saw so far "Tonight's gonna be a good night" indeed.

    The crowd at the Rose Bowl was a huge mix of people. Different ethnicity and ages. People for the most part was socializing with each other, because we all love U2. The person next to me was an older woman who followed the band since the 70s, so she was telling me stories. Of course she was unhappy about seeing U2 with tens of thousands of other people, when she used to see them in venues with only around 100 people max. But hey, U2 is THIS big now. One moment that stuck in my head was when this unbelievably hot girl with a micro mini dress was walking up the aisle, and literally every single man turned their heads to look at her (some did double takes). Wow indeed. On the down side, I hate it when people in concerts decides to smoke, spreading their second hand smoke, seemingly not caring whether the people in a close vicinity actually wants that. This person wasn't even smoking weed (which I don't mind so much), but some kind of strong cigarette or maybe even a cigar, but by the end of the night, my throat felt like it was on fire because of all the second hand smoke I inhaled. Seriously now. For the A-Hole sitting somewhere around Section 1-L, row 57-63, seat 1-7 (I saw the puff of smoke coming from that direction)... F YOU!

    "Ground Control To Major Tom" by David Bowie started playing and we all knew U2 was about to come on stage. A lot of people were singing along too, so everybody was clearly pumped, ready to go. Larry Mullen Jr.; founder of U2, walked on stage by himself towards his drum kit, started off the song "Breathe" then Bono, The Edge, and Adam was suddenly on stage playing the song with him (came from under the stage it seems). They played a lot of songs from their most recent album "No Line On The Horizon," which sounded great live. I was hoping they played "Sometimes You Can't Make It On Your Own," which I wanted to hear live, but nope, maybe next time. I did enjoy how they did add little cover snippets from other songs into their set list, like at one point they played "Stand By Me" after they performed "I still haven't found what I'm looking for."

    Besides the great stage presence that U2 has, the stage itself also contributed a lot to the show. It has this circular walkway that loops out towards the audience that the band can walk (or run) on, to. It also has moving bridges that also serves this purpose, except this one goes over the people in the front pit, which is pretty cool to look at. Then there's the video screen; or is that screenS, that has it's own gimmicks from being a projector with a 360 degree view, and even stretches down into something like a huge upside down cone at one point. This 360 tour stage was definitely quite uniquely memorable, and only a band like U2 could pull something of this grand in scale to a huge crowd such as this.

    Going into the concert, I already had an idea what their set list was going to be, so I consciously made the decision to leave during their final song (Moment Of Surrender), so that I could beat the crowd and grab the souvenir t-shirt I wanted. Went to one merchandize stand, but nope sorry, sold out. Went to another merch stand, nope sorry, sold out. "Can you tell me what the size of the display t-shirt is? If that's my size, I'll buy it." Nope, it's a small. Went back to the other merch stand, and asked about the display t-shirt, but it's also a small. I started walking; and running, towards the other merch stands, going against the traffic of the crowd. I was on a mission to buy a particular Navy T-Shirt in my size, and during that time, U2 finished the last song already, with the crowd of people finally spilling out. I got to one merch stand that seems to have what I was looking for. I tried to squeeze in as much as I could, and I got near the front. I see the shirt I want, and it has my size! The people in the merch stand was still helping others, so I patiently waited until it was my turn. One other person from the other side of the merch stand grabs the shirt I want, so I was afraid that was it. I asked if that shirt is still available in my size, and the guy says yes, but that I'm still only next in line after the guy in front of me. Well, the guy in front of me goes "I'll have *that* shirt." That's right, he got "my" shirt. If I was there maybe a minute or two earlier, I probably would have gone home with my first choice, but I did have a second choice that I was happy with.

    I was suppose to meet up with my other friends underneath the Rose Bowl sign, but I get a call saying that they already left. What?! Apparently they didn't stick around for the encore songs, and left much earlier than me. We were all suppose to get picked up at the Metro Rail Station that we got dropped off at, and I'm the guy lagging behind now. I quickly started walking out of the Rose Bowl when I realized I have no idea where I was, and had no bearing to where North or South even was. I just started walking, followed the crowd, until I decided to check my GPS on my phone to where I was. Sure enough, I went the absolute wrong way. I walked North, instead of South-East like I was suppose to, and this became a long detour to where I needed to go. My friend was still waiting to pick me up miles and miles away from where I was, and to top off the fact that I've already been walking 30 minutes as it is, I honestly was at least another 30 minutes away from the rail station. Not to mention the fact that it's only the place I need to get to, so I could get to the place I really needed to be at. I was walking and walking and am now regretting the fact that I did not take the shuttle instead. My friend calls me up and suggest to just pick me up at the nearest major intersection I was near at, and that was that. Almost an hour after U2 finished their set, I was in a vehicle, on my way home. It's a good thing, walking around at the middle of the night wasn't too bad of a thing this time, since tons of other people were doing the same thing.

    Despite that short adventure involving a shirt and getting lost, I personally had a spectacular and memorable night. U2 doesn't come back to my part of the country until at least summer of next year, but I'm pretty sure I'm going to want to go see them again. Until then.

    BTW, This was also the first large concert of this kind to be streamed live via webcast on youtube to a worldwide audience. You can watch the whole concert in this link below...
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V4QLFVrZ-fw

    * click here for the PHOTOS I took from the night *

    * click here for my (BEP) VIDEOS of the night *

    ps: apparently even though there was no indication that no video taking were suppose to be taken that night, my U2 vids got slapped with copyright infringement by youtube. bleah. I'm near close to losing another youtube account again.