U2

If you haven't already, check out what the Banty Rooster said about our concert...

Melodee says:
This better not mean that you aren't going to write your own report. Andrea told me that it would be "too cheap" just to link to Brian's, so I had to go to all that work to write my own. I expect you to do the same, pal!

Amanda says...
Even though I'll be leaving in three days and am really, really busy right now (ha!), I'm going write my own report just for you, pal. ;-)

Annie and Andrea, maybe you shouldn't read this...

U2, baseball, and friends - those were pretty much the highlights of our trip. I had a such a good time!

The first few song seemed a little surreal - I'd been waiting so long that it took a while to sink in that I was really there, that this was real life! The band came out in pitch dark, except for the spotlight-flaslights they were carrying, shining out into the audience. That's a good way to get the crowd excited... But through the whole concert, light and color were used to go with the music and audience participation, not to distract and become just a big show, which I thought was pretty darn impressive.

Anyway, 25,000 people screaming "Uno, dos, tres, catorce" and "Hola!" at Bono was pretty fun! That was one of my favorite things about the concert: being completely surrounded by really LOUD singing, on everything from the "Oh, oh-oh-oh"s on "Pride (in the name of love)" to "How long..." on "40" even after the last band member had left the stage and we knew it must be over. Everyone seemed to know every word to every song they played from How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb, too, which surprised me. It was great; you just can't get that experience by watching a DVD of them or listening to their CDs!

One of the things I appreciate about U2 is their interaction with each other and with the crowd. They get up there on stage, and they seem almost like your friends - "Oh, look, it's Edge down there playing the guitar." :) I think that's not so much from knowing who they are from as seeing how they like what they do, how they just get into the music and the whole experience. Bono, of course, is a born spokesperson and crowd-pleaser, but we got the pleasure of seeing grins from Larry and Adam, too...

Anyway, hearing Bono talk passionately about ending "stupid poverty" in Africa (e.g. kids dying for lack of 20 cents' worth of medicine) made me want to talk to him about Africa, too. I know what he's talking about, I believe in supporting research to find a better cure for malaria and one for AIDS (Amen to "Miracle Drug"!); but I realized as I was listening to him that life is more than food and clothes - the "soul needs beauty" (to quote U2) and there's ultimately only one way to experience that life, through a new heart. THAT is what I want the very most for Africa. (Sorry to turn that into a mini-sermon, but it's what was going through my head at the concert. I was feeling a little passionate for Africa, too. :) )

OK, I don't really know what else to say. It all blended together into one intense (but beautiful!) experience of color and music and emotion. It was a joy to be there - as Brian said, sort of a foretaste of heaven. Just remember being exquisitely happy about something, in the kind of way that just makes you feel awed and thankful, and that was pretty much how I felt...

Melodee says:
Thank you! I know we've talked about it for hours, but it is still different to get your reactions in a succinct, compressed form. I heartily agree with everything you said about Africa. God created us body and soul, so we need to fight the curse in both arenas. We fight the curse when we work to end "stupid poverty," and when we help provide the 20 cent immunizations. But we need to fight the curse by preaching the gospel, too. They both go hand in hand, and one shouldn't go without the other. Both the corruption of the flesh and the corruption of the soul are ugly, and to quote another U2 song, grace makes beauty out of ugly things.

Your reference to the end of the concert made me realize that none of us has really described the end. The band went from Yahweh into 40. The lyrics to the latter are:

I waited patiently for the Lord
He inclined and heard my cry.
He brought me right out of the pit,
out of my miry clay.
I will sing a new song,
How long to sing this song?
He set my feet upon a rock,
and made my footsteps heard.
Many will see,
Many will see and fear.
I will sing, sing a new song.
How long to sing this song?

As the crowd sang "How long to sing this song?" Bono and Adam waved their goodbyes and left the stage. The crowd continued to sing with just Larry and Edge playing. Then the Edge left. It was the crowd singing, and Larry drumming. The lights went dim; Larry stopped; the crowd stopped singing and began to cheer. Then Larry started again as if to say, "I didn't tell you to stop singing!" The crowd began singing again, kept singing as Larry left the stage, and didn't stop until the house lights went up. It was so cool.

Andrea says...

Like Melodee, I thank you for putting it in your own words, even in spite of your busy life. And even though I still think you guys are a little obsessed, I like what you had to say. The 'foretaste of heaven' comment made me think of Alfred's sermon yesterday and how everything in this world is a shadow of the things to come - how the music, the art, the BEAUTY is going to be on an immeasurable scale higher. If you thought this concert was good, imagine the "U2 concerts" in heaven!