U2 comes to Honolulu!

Well, I'm back from the concert. You were RIGHT, Jim: I had a BLAST. I think it helps that I picked some fun people to go with me. (Lisa, Josh and Paige)

OK, so here it goes:

Toni dropped off her daughter, Avery, and her daughter's friend, Jessie and her younger daughter (just for a while because she had to go check on stuff at work) at 5:20 or so, just when Paige and Lisa showed up. We were really nervous about parking, but it turned out to be a non-issue. Though, we were really glad we did NOT park at the stadium. We parked at Radford High and walked. It wasn't bad at all.

We got there a little before the concert started and found our seats. They were PERFECT! We could see REALLY well.

The front band was the band of the manager. It was OK. He did some covers and some other songs that I didn't really recognize/understand for about 30 minutes. It was really jumbled and I was worried that I wouldn't understand U2 (but that turned out to be fine). Then, Pearl Jam came on and played from 7:30-8:30. It was OK. They played a lot of songs I didn't recognize along with a few I did. (Even Flow...that's all I remember)

Then, there was about 30 minutes before U2 came on. They took away all the equipment from the other bands. The stage was set up with a big screen behind it. It was made up of tons of little screens. They looked like mirrors. Then, at the top on either side, there were two big screens. During the front band and Pearl Jam, there was nothing on the mirrors and the big screens just showed one view of the band. Coming off the stage were two "arms" for the band members to walk down. The arms kind of looked like hugging arms with fists at the end. Does that make sense?

Anyway, during U2's set, the mirrors turned in to a jumbotron. During the first few songs, it just had random patterns of light. Songs #3&4, the pictures on the big screens were all black and white, which was pretty cool. Also, for U2, the big screens had multiple images. So, you could see Bono and the Edge at the same time on the same screen...something like that. To start the show, across the top of the jumbotron ran all the cities in order that they played on the tour. You can imagine how crazy the stadium got when it said "Honolulu"

Here is the song line up for U2:

1. City Of Blinding Lights (Bono entered the stage quietly under the cover of no lights and went on to one of the "arms" and then they put the spot light on him and he was holding up a HUGE American Flag...it was pretty cool.)

2. Vertigo

3. Elevation

4. I will Follow

5. I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For

6. Beautiful Day

7. Angel Of Harlem (Bono pulled out the harmonica for this one!)

8. Wild Horses (for this song, Bono had pulled some guy out of the crowd and we could here Bono say to the Edge “wow, he has a pretty specific request.” Then all of a sudden, the guy goes crazy…jumping up and down and running on the stage. He ran right to the KEY BOARD! Yep, that’s right, he PLAYED WITH U2! It was pretty funny, but I think that the band members were looking at song sheets to remember the words. But the guy looked like he was having the time of his LIFE!)

9. The First Time

10. Sometimes You Can't Make It On Your Own

11. Love and Peace or else

12. Sunday Bloody Sunday (on this one, Bono was talking in the middle about the war and wishing the soldiers would come home safely soon. Paige and I yelled for that…)

13. Bullet The Blue Sky

14. Miss Sarajevo

15. Pride (In The Name Of Love) (another guy jumped up on the stage and sang with U2 for this one as well)

16. Where The Streets Have No Name

17. One (during this song, a message was shown on the big screens to text your name to a certain number, which Paige did! Then, a message showed up on her phone saying that they would show all the names on the jumbotron at the end of the show! The was all in support of the poverty campaign, One)

OK, so the band all got together at the end of this song and posed for pictures and said “Good night!” But, of course, the crowd was going wild and we knew they would come back out. And they did not disappoint. They played:

The Fly

Mysterious Ways (Bono pulled some woman on stage and she started dancing…in mysterious ways…hahahahaha!)

With Or Without You (Bono was still singing to the woman for the first part of this one. It was an awesome song…the whole stadium was singing…awesome)

Then, they left the stage again. We all cheered and we didn’t know if they were coming back out or not…then they came out and played:

Window In The Skies (which everyone sat down for. Apparently, this is a brand new song…it showed.)

Then, the lights were dimmed, but we could see that they were going to keep playing. They played “The Saints are coming” and then, all of a sudden, they showed that Billie Joe of “Green Day” was playing with them. Apparently, the song is up for a grammy.

Then, Bono called Pearl Jam out on to the stage. So, U2, Pearl Jam and Billie Joe all sang “Rockin in the Free World.” Then, Pearl Jam and Billie Joe left the stage and U2 sang “All I want is You” dedicated to their wives. It was sweet. One by one, at the end of the song, the band members left the stage until only the drummer was left…and he got up and said in to the mic “See you soon.” And that was it…

Sorry you couldn’t be there, babe. It was a lot of fun, but would have been FABULOUS if you were there…

I love you!

***The picture is from the Honolulu Advertiser***