U2 delivers!

Wow. What a spectacle! I've never seen anything like it.

For weeks, my appetite for spectacle has been whetted by pictures like these out on the web, making me wonder if the stage set is all hype, since it looks so fantastical.



Surely these pics had to be digitally enhanced. The stage looked like something from the movie "Transformers". You expect it to start walking around, crushing people.



Then this the other day from Google Earth, giving a satellite view of the stage footprint in Soldier Field.



But none of this prepared me for what I first saw upon emerging from the tunnel into the stadium. I just stood with my jaw open, gaping like a pathetic tourist. "God in heaven, what IS that thing?"



Yikes! I'm up here on the fourth deck and it's... AT EYE LEVEL! Parts of it are still above me!

Once in my actual seat it was a little less indimidating (since I was up another 32 rows - only 6 from going over the edge!), but still: it took a while before I stopped being all ga-ga over it. Chili cheese fries and beer helped. :)



Incredible is the proper word. I was truly incredulous at the sight. Shock and awe in peacetime: shock at the enormity of it, and awe of the engineering needed to design, build and transport this thing around the world and coast to coast. It takes the idea of being a "roadie" for a rock band to a whole new level, I'm guessing. :)

And the spectacle only got better as the night wore on. But before I elaborate, let me back up to "getting there", which was as much of an adventure as "being there", only not in the same way.

The tickets said "7PM". Checking online, I couldn't find any reference to when doors opened, so... figured it must be 7PM, then. So, opening act at 8, headliner at 9:30, show ends midnight, probably. Makes sense. Google Maps said 6.5 hours to the hotel in Palatine. 10AM departure it is, then. Check in, leave the hotel for the nearby train station at 5, take the 5:30 train in, arrive downtown 6:30, take a shuttle bus to Soldier Field 10 minutes away, be there by 7PM easy.



Hahahahaha. Real funny. No such luck, mister.

Between the train being delayed 45 minutes (which was good, since thanks to Google Maps not knowing East from West, we were late to the station!), and a 10-minute shuttle bus taking 45 minutes, we hit the stadium at 8:20 only to find out that doors had opened at 5, and we completely missed Snow Patrol, the opening act! :( Waaaaah. Oh well, guess I'll be forced to go see them when they're here in town. Go ahead, twist my arm. :)

Still, the train ride was cool. The Metra trains are all brushed aluminum (or steel... who can tell?) inside and out,



and have an upper and lower deck. They're pretty slick.



Definitely got a feel for the commuter experience. And for the first time I could remember, I actually could read on a moving train without getting seasick. Hm. Maybe I'm growing out of it, and can do that Alaska cruise after all.

So, as the scenery zipped along..



and different parts of the city swept by...




Eventually we reached the end of the line.



Later, on the way back, the passengers thinned out and what few remained were dozing off or talking in quiet pairs. All was quiet and it felt like one of those scenes in a foreign film where the lead character is on a train rolling to some as yet undetermined destination, and is lost in his/her thoughts, no one knowing or caring at all. Indie music is playing in the background as the character is thinking about everything that might have been, and of course the camera is focused not on the face directly, but only on a reflection in the glass, face turned away, eyes looking vacantly out the window, as Greg Laswell's "Days Go On" soundtracks the mood...



(sigh) Back to reality. :) Like Solider Field! (and that classic facade.)



After finding our seats (which were almost in high earth orbit), and finding ourselves with 20 minutes before U2 would appear, it was time for snacks. :) Brats, beer, chili cheese fries... after all, the venue was a football stadium! And just as we finished up, out they strode, and the place erupted, and rocked non-stop for 2 hours.



The moods in the stadium ranged from intimate (dark stage with cell phones the only lighting),



to explosive,



and everything in between. The stage was incredibly versatile and reflected the moods perfectly. Here are some of them:









This review captures the quality of the music and the experience. Extraordinary. I doubt very much that I'll see anything like it again in this life. Only in the next. ;)