I'm Gonna Go Crazy If I Don't Go Crazy Tonight

Okay, so I think I can easily say that Thursday, September 17th was one of the best days of my life. It was the day I went to see the U2 360 tour.



For those of you that do not know, I am a huge U2 fan. It was the music I was raised on; my parents had surprisingly good taste. And, as I got older I only learned to appreciate their music more.



As I entered the stadium, I could already feel the electricity in the air. (Little did I know U2 wasn't due on stage for another 4 hours.) During the duration of this time, Snow Patrol was busy pumping up the growing crowd. And, I'll admit they made a fan out of me, but the anticipation was killing me, so I don't feel I appreciated it as much as I could have.



Finally, as the lights dimmed the crowd erupted into screams and applause. It felt surreal to me. As if I wasn't actually there but watching it from afar; in a theatre where silence was definitely NOT golden, but screaming as loud as you can, singing until your voice was hoarse and applauding until your hands hurt was. The dome of the Rogers Centre was open, allowing the music to be carried out into the Toronto sky. As Larry, Adam, The Edge, and Bono came on stage, the atmosphere became...indescribable. Above us, the lights of the CN Tower seemed to dance along with the music.



U2 carried out 23 songs, including some personal favourites: Beautiful Day, Where the Streets Have No Name, Stuck in a Moment, With or Without You, and One (to name a few.) It was an amazing experience to see my idol performing the songs that illustrated my life. I felt as though I never truly appreciated U2's music until I saw them live. I had underestimated the power of a guitar riff, or a well written lyric: sixty thousand of us were united with the love of the music. It was exhilarating to be a part of such a large crowd. To be a part of the voice that sang U2's songs. That is what Bono said: that his goal for the 360 tour was to make the audience the 5th member of the band. And that crowd, that crowd of sixty thousand people that I was able to be a part of, definitely accomplished this.



Along with hearing my favourite songs, another highlight of the night was simply Bono's ability to unite the crowd: everyone belted the lyrics back to him, the entire stadium waved their hands in the air under his command, and screamed purely in appreciation of the music and the honor it was to be a part of that crowd. One of the most awe-inspiring moments was when Bono said "let's bring the stars inside," and told us to bring our our cell phones and wave them in the air. And it literally looked like the night sky.



At each intermission I felt a flood of panic. The pause in the music made me fear that the night was already over. And when the evening came to a close, and it actually was the final goodbye my heart sunk, because I knew that this moment I was in, would now only be a memory. But a memory I will never forget. I just hope I will get the chance to see them again; that they continue to make music until they're old like the Rolling Stones and timeless like the Beatles. If I could describe the night in one word it would have to be



Magnificent.






So there's my first blog post. And what was initially intended as a review of the concert turned entirely into a recapping of events. But, I suppose that its for the best because I'm pretty sure my review would be all too biased. And I know the flow isn't as great as I would have liked it, but there was so much to talk about, I was rushing to get all my thoughts out.

So what do you think? Are you a fan of U2? How can I improve the flow?
xoxo Rebecca