U2 not YouTube

When I called my mom, *screamingfreakingout*, yesterday afternoon to tell her we got tickets to U2, she asked in confusion, "why would you need tickets for YouTube? I thought it was free online."
Silly mama.
Seriously, I've only dreamed a little bit about attending this concert, because I figured it was a waste of thought. These tickets are super expensive, and always sell out so fast.
So when Brian called around noon, saying one of his customers just tried to bribe him for a free upgrade with U2 tickets, I thought he was just teasing me. I kept saying, "that's not funny Brian." I didn't even start my frantic search for a babysitter until he came home for lunch and I saw the tix myself. And then I still thought this couldn't really be happening, because the tickets were dated June 2010. But I guess the original concert a year ago had to be rescheduled cuz Bono needed back surgery. On stage, he talked about his new spine, and thanked the Germans for operating on him so well.

As if this couldn't get any better, we found awesome free parking nearby, and our nose-bleeder seats were taped off when he got there (over an hour late, and missed the opening band, The Fray.) We went to guest services, and sadly, they had no seats left....except amazingly good ones!! No one was closer to the stage than us, except the people standing the whole time. And standing up for 3 hours squished next to strangers doesn't sound like fun to me. Maybe I'm too old and mommyish for cool concerts. But I was quite content to rock out from our seats (except when we had to stand cuz the drunks in front of us were standing and dancing with their bums in our faces).

The pyrotechnics and other special effects were unbelievable and very entertaining. Though I couldn't help but think... isn't Bono supposed to be an environmentalist?  Nothing green-friendly about the 50 semi trucks parked outside the arena for transporting all their stage props.  Seriously... I'd be quite thrilled to have a simple acoustic concert with no hoopla, and donate all the freakish amount of money spent on the bells and whistles to orphans in Africa.  F'rills.
Bono is a weirdo . He was doing some freak-out dances and some odd fan-interactions (like having 3 girls come on stage and then laying in their laps). And making a bunch of nonsense political statements. But still, it felt so awesome hearing some favorites played live. Elevation, Beautiful Day, Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For, With or Without You, All I Want is You, Walk On, Pride (In the Name of Love), Where the Streets Have No Name.... but there were also several songs I didn't know, and really didn't care for. Like when the whole crowd joined in on "I'll go crazy if I don't go crazy."  Wasn't crazy about that. Or about how deaf I was the rest of the night. I'm glad I woke up this morning with my ears healed.
Brian had a really good time rockin' out too. I'm so glad, because our last concert together was Josh Groban, and I don't think he enjoyed that one  (maybe because I screamed "I love you Josh!" when Mr. Groban came right next to our row).  But I don't think we'll have any more concert adventures in the near future. Apparently our babies did not appreciate us being gone, and our poor babysitter (my eldest cousin's daughter) had a rough, late night. I'm glad we had the self-control to leave the concert early (it was seriously hard. I wanted to stay to the end. Bad). At least Brianna was easy for the sitter. She woke up this morning asking "where's that girl??" and "where did you go, mommy? Did you make new friends?"
So I guess when all our kids are at least 3, we'll be free again to be roadies.