VH in Melb Day 2 - The City of Blinding Lights

This is the day I have been waiting for since last year December. U2 Vertigo Tour 06… AAARRrrrraRRRgggHHh!!!! YeaH yeah yeah Woahoooooo!!!.... and man what a day it was. We had free standing tickets… so it was a siapa cepat dia dapat…. We called the Stadium and found out that Security was not allowing anyone to camp over night and that people will only be able to wait in line at 7am. So we all agreed that we will be up early get there by 7, but somewhere between my tummy giving way because it could not handle all that good food yesterday and us looking for coffee and breakfast in the city, and picking up the tickets from shanti’s friend, we only managed to get there at around 9am. There was already a big crowd all patiently waiting… but not as many as I thought would be there. There were barricades arranged and divided into equal parts of space, which lead from the entrance to the perimeter around the stadium. Each pen was closed off once it was full. Now it was just a waiting game….

The sun came out …. and the wind subsided … and for the first time since I touched down in Melbourne…. I started to sweat… it was at least 30Cs… there was no shade and my skin was on fire. Now I regret cursing the cold freezing wind……

Around 4pm or was it 5pm we where asked to get ready…(yes we all patiently waited that long)…. we could hear The Edge (David Howell Evans) practicing inside the stadium…… u2 were beginning to warm up!… They started to play ‘One Tree Hill’… I just froze… oh how I wish I was inside now…. Everyone cheered when the song ended….. ….. Then goose bumps spread thru out my hand …as the opening notes to ‘Walk On’ ….began… I could not believe it… I was listening to them LIVE… even though it was from outside the stadium… it was still invigorating… Are they going to sing these songs during the concert? Well they didn’t. Apparently they where practicing for Auckland.

They started letting us in after U2 had stopped practicing. That was like 6ish….thats when they slowly opened each pen to let us in. It was really well organized ….and the crowd even though a little rowdy did not push or shove their way thru. Unlike the experience I had at the Bon Jovi concert in M’sia back in ..was it 94 or 95. I was stuck in a wall of people and I almost lost an arm. ….Anyway it was still a long wait because the show is only at 9.15pm and the opening act by Kenya West started at 8pm. So, we waited 12 hours in line to get really close to our favourite rock band. How close?...about 25 feet from the main stage, 7 feet from the ramp leading to the small secondary stage which was 15 feet behind us. There was another ramp and stage on the other end of the main stage. Talk about a window seat. For safety reasons 1 third of the field closes to the stage was sectioned off and they limited the number of free standing ticket holders getting in. Suddenly the 12 hour wait was worth it. Even though I wasn’t looking forward to Mr West, I found myself moving to the beat when the P Diddy look-alike got on stage. Not too bad….he was entertaining.

The stage backdrop was this huge wall filled with tiny diodes… I had seen the Boston concert on DVD and what they did with the wall was fantastic. U2 concerts are known for this, which they started using back in 1993, for their ZooTV concert tours and again for their Giant Lemon tour (Popmart Tour). I was very much looking forward to it… and as the sun slowly went down at nearly 8.45pm the crowd was getting intense and to pass the time we all played with beach balls (like 10 beach balls being tossed around the whole stadium by the crowd) and we did Mexican waves.. Stuperb crowd I tell you.

….then it happened… The Edge started playing the opening to ‘City of Blinding Lights’ on the keyboard and the stage light up as a surge of adrenaline shot thru my body…. The crowd roared!!!!... then Bono (Paul David Hewson) walked up the small stage on the other end and began to sing…. The crowd roared again!!!...The concert was simply awesome. All that I have dreamt of, and much much more…. Song after song after song… I was just filled with all kinds of emotions all at once. And I just don’t know what else to say… I know I have been writing some lengthy blogs about my Vertigo Honeymoon in Melbourne but for the 2 hours of being bombarded by U2 LIVE… all I can say is that it was the best 2 hours of my life. ……. Below is the order of songs they sang that nite.

City of Blinding Lights,
Vertigo,
Elevation,
I Will Follow,
New Year's Day,
Beautiful Day – sang bits of Sgt. Pepper's - Here Comes the Sun,
Stuck In a Moment You Can't Get Out Of,
Angel of Harlem, - Bono brings an Indian girl near the secondary stage and gives her a piggy back ride around the main stage. lucky girl.
Sometimes You Can't Make It on Your Own,
Love and Peace or Else,
Sunday Bloody Sunday, - Bono brings young boy on to the stage to say No More, in the middle of the song
Bullet the Blue Sky,
Miss Sarajevo,
Pride,
Where the Streets Have No Name,
One

The Fly,
Mysterious Ways,
With or Without You – Bono bring a woman on stage and sing bits of Love Will Tear Us Apart,
The Saints Are Coming, – Latest single.
Desire,
Kite






mo
to be continued.......