So on Thursday a friend found himself with an extra Red Zone ticket to see U2 play at the Angles Stadium of Anaheim Los Angeles California Orange County USA. I, of course, jumped at the chance. For those not familiar, Red Zone tickets guarantee you access to a special area close to the stage as well as the GA area in front of the stage. With the benefit of a short line and my recent exercise kick, I was able to get to the front row just to the left of the stage.
Before I talk about the concert I should mention that these Red Zone tickets are very controversial with the hardcore fans who pay the GA fee rather than pony up the extra dough. The GA fans essentially line up hours (and I have heard even days) in advance to get a chance at getting close to the stage. I definitely got a great spot because of my red zone ticket, but totally understand why the fans were cheesed off. Still, they should be cheesed off at the band not the people who paid for the tickets.
So, being in such a great spot, I was able to take some AMAZING shots of both Lenny Kravitz and U2.
It was the first time in 15 years or so that I have seen Lenny Kravitz, and while it's a different energy, he still had a lot of it. I was surprised at the number of songs he played that I knew. Fly Away, Are you Gonna Go My Way (which Bono slipped a weird ref in to later), Let Love Rule, It Ain't Over Till its Over and a bunch of other songs I remember but don't know the names of.
Typically I despise large concerts. There's such a disconnect between the band and the audience that its essentially just listening to the album really loud while crammed into a small space. This is never the case with U2. I saw them on their last big tour in 2005. That time my seat was as far from the stage as you could get (back wall top row of the venue). Even still, the visuals were amazing and the camera work so good you felt involved in the show. U2 360 was a bit different, as for the most part I was so close I could not see the elaborate stage/screens. There was a section where the stage came down that was cool and I am sure from further back it would have been even more impressive.
One thing a bit odd was that they played David Bowie's "Space Oddity" before the show and immediately after was "Rocket Man." Not sure what the tie in was to other than maybe the fact that the stage looks like the LAX spaceship or Gabrielle Giffords' Husband who made an appearance.
Mark Kelly's appearance was something I heard about before, so I am gathering it is something they have worked in to every segment of the tour. Essentially they had him holding up the words to "Beautiful Day" in space. I kinda felt a bit pandered too, but its all part of the U2 pageantry so it was still cool. When I'm a big rock star I'd like to have a guy from space showing off the words too my songs too.
The band was amazingly tight and on cue. Almost too much so. The one major glitch was that the guitar level on "I'll Go Crazy..." was low at the start. As soon as the Edge walked away from the pedals, everything was back to normal. I hate to be the suspicious guy wondering how much was pre-recorded, but I can say that I heard enough wireless dropouts/pops in the vox etc that I feel better about how much was live. "Go Crazy" I think had a lot of pre-recorded music though as it allowed Larry Mullen, Jr. to get out into the crowd playing djimbe.
It's notable that "I'll go crazy..." is one of the only songs off the most recent album they played, and thank god for that. Every so often U2 puts out a crap album. Given that they've put out so many good albums (Joshua Tree, Achtung Baby, All that you cant leave behind, How to Dismantle an atomic bomb) I forgive them.
In one of the visual highlights of the night, Bono wore some crazy laser jacket and was swinging from a suspended microphone during the batman soundtrack song "Hold me, thrill me, kiss me, kill me." Not such a huge fan of the song, but all the lights were pretty cool. I shot a video, but sadly I was trying to shoot with my other camera at the same time, so its a bit off.
For me the best part of the show was the encore during which they played "One" and "Where the streets have no name" two of my favorite songs. It was the perfect culmination to an excellent evening. With that, I will leave you with a few more photos.
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This is a complete side note, but Bono has definitely put on a few Katie Courics. Feel free to watch that later if you haven't. Don't know if its from the backiotomy Bono had a while back or the fact that U2 has been in existence longer than I have.
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