May 10, United Center in Chicago

[Jamescorymiko]

Re: To clear up

There was a box of sorts by the rail. He jumped onto this with a leg, so that he was half into the crowd. This was right over the people that I stood in line for GA with. He said "Hello, hello pansy." This was the sign that she had made after meeting him during the pre-show greeting. In fact, I have seen video taken by Imran that shows Bono walking away (towards the Edge's side, then you see him walking back towards them, then the screen goes black, then all of a sudden, you see Bono right above him LITERALLY. It is awesome. He captured the video on his digital camera. I watched it after the show, I could not hear the audio though as we were still in the venue.

SO, just to clear up. He stepped off the Ellipse with what looks like one leg into the crowd. I beleive he was either on a box of sorts or the edge of the rail.

Not completely in, but in enough to have it be pretty awesome. Didn't mean to slight it, just typed my review when I was still on a U2 high, so everything was jumbled a bit.

 

[Lila64]

I thought I saw a video (that I downloaded) from another post that showed a small clip from'Beautiful Day' where he steps off the stage into the crowd, then gets back on the stage... Very nice clip as well

 

[greety]

Original of the Species - Brilliant, Bono says "its the best song off of the record" He might be right. Edge on Piano, it is dedicated to Bono's daughter JoJo, who was obviously in attendance as he pointed to her in the VIP area in front of the sound desk.

that's so sweet of him.

One might forget it was her birthday too and he wants her to have a great one too by giving her some attention from stage

 

[OldTimerU2Fan]

It was the best of the 3 shows, I think. I was in the very front of the bomb shelter (only one girl in front of me -- the one that got pulled up on stage), which is bound to make any show 10x better The band (especially Bono) showed much more energy and emotion then I had seen on the prior Chicago shows. OOTS was a very nice addition, hearing a full band (+1) Party Girl was awesome (a nice part 2 to the performance from the prior night), and the second Vertigo ended the show perfectly. Say what you will about them playing the same song twice, but I wouldn't trade that second performance of Vertigo for anything (okay, maybe Acrobat).

As for the crowd, it was mixed. We had this drunk girl that kept bothering us, and even dropped her full cup of beer on the floor (getting several people wet). She kept trying to push her way forward, and was basically falling into people. Eventually my friend literally picked her up and moved her back. Next up, there were a few people right around me (near the very front of the bomb shelter) that stood there motionless and expressionless the whole show. I kept trying to get them to do something (gotta make the bomb shelter look good on the dvd!), but nothing worked. If you're just going to stand there and do nothing, you might as well just get a reserved ticket.

With that said, the majority of the people I was near were very into the show and jumping around the whole time. A lot of them were seeing U2 for the first time, and they were just stunned the whole show. There was this guy that was probably 15 or 16, who seemed to know just about everything you could about U2, and the whole show he was literally freaking out. It was quite cool

I really can't imagine any show will ever top my experience from last night. We took some great pictures from last night, and I should have them posted shortly.

I was only a few people to the left of you... just to the left of the neo-hippie-kids (the 15 or 16 year old very cool folks, btw) and was jumping and getting down the whole evening too. I also started out just behind the girl who got pulled up for Mysterious Ways, but ended up a few people to the left with all the shifting and bouncing. That drunk girl (in the shiny silver top?) kept trying to get in front of us, using the old "my friends are right there" act. So, I asked her what number(s) they were and asked to see her number on her wrist (she didn't have one).. so we told her to piss off and she eventually gave up (at least in our area). Then, she got up on somebody's shoulders a few people back, but security made her get down again. And of course there were the catatonic people to my left who looked clueless for all the old stuff, but by and large I ignored them. There sure seemed to be a lot of drunk trader-type assholes in the Bomb Shelter that night. While I am SOOOO thankful I got beeped in, I do think the lottery kills the positive vibe inside the ellipse (or at least that sense of "community" continued from spending the the day outside), since you have a bunch of idiots who don't get into the whole experience the way a true-blood fan might (I don't want to start that debate again, though.. so I'll move on).

Absolutely one of the top 10 experiences of my life, thanks U2.

 

[danhazard]

Ill post my whole story later. Just noticed how many people i must have been close to that have posted here already. My friend was in the tie-dye Sloppy Joes shirt on the rail in front of Edge. Just a couple of spots left of our new friend Joy, who was directly next to the girl that got pulled up.

Show was rocking, cant wait to here the tapes. Have listened to quite a few shows and Edge sounded far better in these two shows (maybe my imagination).

Anyone else have a severe sunburn? After saying on Monday partly cloudy with a chance of rain all of a sudden its 85 and blazing sun all day

We were 130-131 in line, Our friend Patty was 180ish. We are all from Kelleys Island, OH

Also got autographs outside when Bono was heading back to his car and then came up to the side fence. I just started shooting away (unfortunately they wouldnt let me bring this camera inside

My friend Patty got to talk to him, she owns a brew pub and brought some beer for his birthday. She was shaking so bad she dropped her sharpie and then the autographs

Anyway, great concert, great time. More later.

Ill be posting the photos.

Joy also let me shoot with her camera in the Ellipse when she was using the disposables they provided so there are six rolls coming from her!

Dan

 

[OldTimerU2Fan]

Ill post my whole story later. Just noticed how many people i must have been close to that have posted here already. My friend was in the tie-dye Sloppy Joes shirt on the rail in front of Edge. Just a couple of spots left of our new friend Joy, who was directly next to the girl that got pulled up.

Show was rocking, cant wait to here the tapes. Have listened to quite a few shows and Edge sounded far better in these two shows (maybe my imagination).

Anyone else have a severe sunburn? After saying on Monday partly cloudy with a chance of rain all of a sudden its 85 and blazing sun all day

We were 130-131 in line, Our friend Patty was 180ish. We are all from Kelleys Island, OH

Also got autographs outside when Bono was heading back to his car and then came up to the side fence. I just started shooting away (unfortunately they wouldnt let me bring this camera inside

My friend Patty got to talk to him, she owns a brew pub and brought some beer for his birthday. She was shaking so bad she dropped her sharpie and then the autographs

Anyway, great concert, great time. More later.

Ill be posting the photos.

Joy also let me shoot with her camera in the Ellipse when she was using the disposables they provided so there are six rolls coming from her!

Dan

Hey Dan! I'm the one who pulled Joy into the Ellipse!!

Doug here.

I would love love love... to see some of the photos. Do you think Joy will be able to send/post them? I'd happily pay processing and developing and postage if necessary that way.

Also, did anybody else get a camera handed to them by U2 staff to take pictures for U2.com? I seriously debated NOT giving them the camera back, but I did drop it into the bag at the end. Please say hello to Joy - my email: OldTimerU2Fan@U2.com.

Peace

 

[danhazard]

more like a day review, but here goes:

The wake up call the next day was 6:30 as we had floor tickets and wanted to get in line fairly early. On this tour getting into the middle is done randomly but even if u don’t get in the middle u want to be early so you can be on the rail on the outside of the heart (ellipse in this case). So we got in line at 8:30ish? And we were 130th in line. Our friend Patti got there 2 hours later and was only about 50 behind us. Of course we didn’t have to be in number order until much later so we all hung out.

Everyone just hung out and had fun in the sun. Of course they said it was going to be cooler with chance of rain so we had no sun gear. It was 85 and perfectly sunny all day. You didn’t have to stay in line if you had a number, the others would watch your spots for you. We had fold up chairs on the lawn so we just chilled. Went and got lunch, drinks, etc.

First cool thing happens. The film crew is walking around filming small interviews for possible use as filler on the coming dvd. Then since today (Tuesday) is Bono’s birthday (45) they gathered a group of about 50-75 of us to sing happy birthday to him – we definitely got on film then (they ended up filming a couple of other small groups doing happy birthday later). But then they had our whole group sing ‘Vertigo’ which no other group did, so he said about 99% sure we will be on!! We all had to sign individual film waivers for them to film us.

Then later Patty went to the car to get some beer from the brewery that she wanted to give to Bono. I though, fat chance but we could try. Around 2:15 we decided to walk over to the artists entrance to see if they would stop and sign autographs when they came in. Someone usually does. Larry’s car didn’t stop at all. Then Bono comes in, jumps out and starts signing. I took a few good pics. Out by the entrance, Jason stood there and got one person away from a signature. The girl we talked to the entire day (Joy) got a hug from Bono! So Jason got shut out and went back to our chairs.

PJ and I decided to hang for a few minutes. As Bono headed back to his car (His wife Ali was inside) he saw our group and headed over! Got some good head shots and then looked like he was going to leave again when he turned around and headed straight at Patty and I. I thought Patty was going to faint. I started firing away, kinda hard as it was thru a chain link fence but oh well! Patty told Bono about the beer and asked if she could give it to a security guard to bring to them and Bono says, “No bring it to me, I don’t trust them with beer” Then he grabs PJ’s 2 tickets and business card and signs them. Then Patty said “Thanks for being our hero” and he deadpans “Ill always disappoint you.” Cant make this stuff up ☺

I had to practically lead Patty away she was shaking so bad and had already dropped the tickets once! Then we went back and told Jason what he missed.

So about 6pm we finally get in numbered line and Patty has to be behind us. I pulled a Jason and guaranteed it (BTW the winners get to take a guest with them). So Jason walks thru and gets a blue screen(proceed to the right), then they scanned mine and it was blue and I willed it to change – then BAM red vertigo and we are IN!!! We walked in and leaned against the front rail right in front of the edge for the entire show! Unbelievable! We were definitely on film multiple times! The entire band was fired up because of Bonos birthday. They played Vertigo twice (because its my birthday as Bono said).

What a great night, drove straight back to Cleveland after the show - took a shower and went to work, never slept until 10:30 pm.

 

[danhazard]

Just posted ten pics from outside in the gallery here (they wont let me link to it because i dont have enough posts?)

Just click U2 tour photos above and this date (May 10)

 

[greety]

nice pics Dan

I see you have the party girl and her friends in pics 1 and 7.

Were you all standing behind that fence? Did you all have to pass things to sign through it?
Seems like the midwesters were standing behind a rail, no fence though

 

[u2forlife]

I think you were right in front of us! Did you pass by us to go get beer? It was my husband and I --- I have really dark brown hair that was pulled back and I have bangs and was wearing a white tank top and a coral/pink long skirt with a gold belt.

I might have passed by to use the bathroom or something, but not beer. I need clear head when bono sings to me . When I was trying to get back from the bathroom, I think I met up with those same assholes. One guy just said, push your way through, so that's the only way I started to make headway until my friends recognized me and I finally got back to my spot. That was my first GA experience so I had no idea what to expect.

The only other husband and wife team I met stayed with me the entire night and got to move closer too as I did.

I will never do GA again, but that's only because my back and knees are killing me from all that dancing and jumping.

 

[*Ally*]

It was the best of the 3 shows, I think. I was in the very front of the bomb shelter (only one girl in front of me -- the one that got pulled up on stage), which is bound to make any show 10x better The band (especially Bono) showed much more energy and emotion then I had seen on the prior Chicago shows. OOTS was a very nice addition, hearing a full band (+1) Party Girl was awesome (a nice part 2 to the performance from the prior night), and the second Vertigo ended the show perfectly. Say what you will about them playing the same song twice, but I wouldn't trade that second performance of Vertigo for anything (okay, maybe Acrobat).

As for the crowd, it was mixed. We had this drunk girl that kept bothering us, and even dropped her full cup of beer on the floor (getting several people wet). She kept trying to push her way forward, and was basically falling into people. Eventually my friend literally picked her up and moved her back. Next up, there were a few people right around me (near the very front of the bomb shelter) that stood there motionless and expressionless the whole show. I kept trying to get them to do something (gotta make the bomb shelter look good on the dvd!), but nothing worked. If you're just going to stand there and do nothing, you might as well just get a reserved ticket.

With that said, the majority of the people I was near were very into the show and jumping around the whole time. A lot of them were seeing U2 for the first time, and they were just stunned the whole show. There was this guy that was probably 15 or 16, who seemed to know just about everything you could about U2, and the whole show he was literally freaking out. It was quite cool

I really can't imagine any show will ever top my experience from last night. We took some great pictures from last night, and I should have them posted shortly.

gorman, i must have been right in front of you, too! i was to the right of the girl who got pulled up- i was wearing a light greenish-blue top w/ sparkles on it, and was pretty much freaking out the entire show (jumping, etc). i hear what you're saying about people just standing there- the woman next to me, on the FRONT RAIL, was dead the entire show. i just don't get it! and the drunk girls were so annoying. but the show ROCKED! bono had incredible energy... i loved every second.

i would LOVE to see your photos... please post them or email them to me once you get them up! (u2fannyc AT yahoo DOT com)

thank you so much!!!

 

[BonosBaby12]

On May 10th I finally got to see my baby Bono and U2 perform live. It's so hard to say what I was feeling when I entered the United Center. The longer I waited outside with my boyfriend the more excited I became. Will admit that Kings of Leon were hard to understand at times. Still it was an enjoyable time as I anxiously awaited U2 to enter the stage. Than finally they came and I was just blown away! We had seats in section 226 directly behind the stage in row 2. It was absolutely incredible with how close we really were. All night my section was on our feet singing and dancing along as the music poured like poetry. To make my night even more incredible Bono made his appearance 3 times behind the stage. I thought I would die of pure happiness each time he acknowledged us. The last time he was looking directly at my section and I got shivers to make eye contact. Awwww bestill my heart! . Even The Edge waved at us a couple of times. In conclusion I was not the least bit disappointed with U2's performance. The icing on the cake was them signing "Original of the Species" which I was praying that they would do! Thank you U2 and my sweet bf Mike for giving me such a wonderful anniversary present!