the tourist
Blue Crack Addict
- Joined
- Dec 25, 2003
- Messages
- 27,919
It's 6:30 pm. I'm at a little teryaki shop in Ballard with my girlfriend. Already, my experience is totally different than the night before. Because unlike night one, I didn't have GA's for the second night; therefore I didn't have to stand in line. So we roll up to the Key Arena at 7:15 and eat our teryaki outside next to a little "pond" that's near where the general admission line had been in the previous hours. I'm very shocked to see people still going through the line, wondering why they would have paid for such a good ticket and then not get there early enough to capitalize on it. I thought getting there at 1:30 on Sunday was later enough as it is! Kings Of Leon began at 7:30 or so and my girlfriend and I decided that they weren't good enough to warrant throwing away the rest of our teryaki to go inside. So we continued to eat for the next 20 minutes or so until we finished.
Finally we went inside and found our seats. Section 219. Row 9. Seats 1-3. These seats happened to be behind the stage. Not the best seats in the world by any means, but we could see the stage fine. Kings Of Leon played 5 songs after we entered. My friend Levi showed up just as they finished. They're last song actually was really good. The saving grace was the fact that Eddie Vedder came on and sang the last song with them and played tambourine. Either way, their set ended and the lights came up and that was when my friend Levi entered (if you remember from my last post, Levi was the first one in on night one and held Bono up on Zoo Station). Immediately he tells me he's been hanging around outside the Key Arena all day and talked to Bono earlier and shook hands with The Edge. Apparently The Edge has a very strong grip, but small fingers.
Music is playing over the loudspeaker. The Killers come on and I ask Levi whether or not he sees the resemblance between The Killers and U2 as a lot of U2 fans say there is. He says he really doesn't. I say I'd thought about it and didn't think there was any. But then I amended my statement and said that I think The Killers remind me of U2 during Achtung Baby and Pop. Then we start to talk about what bands would have been better openers, and Muse and Switchfoot come up. And then we talk about how we're glad The Scizzor Sisters weren't the openers as it was rumored early on they would be. I start to get thirsty, so, having the luxury of a set spot, I can go out to the concession stand and not worry about my place being gobbled up as I had the first night in the GA's. Having seats is much more laid back (which can be both a good thing and a bad thing).
There was a healthy line at the concessions stand. Everyone and their mother seemed to be buying beer. I got a sprite. However, the line was ten minutes long and there had already been quite a good deal of music played over the loudspeakers, and I began to worry I'd hear "Wake Up" by The Arcade Fire while still in line. But at the same time I was really thirsty. Thankfully, I got my sprite before The Arcade Fire's song started and had ten minutes to spare! The red lamps came on. Excitement was buzzing. Oddly, the stadium was only about 2/3rds full when The Arcade Fire's song came on. And even more oddly to me was that there wasn't a huge surge of people when that song came on. You'd think it would get around word of mouth from one night to the next that a song is played right before the beginning of U2. The crowd surged in during "EVERYONE!" And the lights went down. And my heart dropped into my stomach yet again.
Finally we went inside and found our seats. Section 219. Row 9. Seats 1-3. These seats happened to be behind the stage. Not the best seats in the world by any means, but we could see the stage fine. Kings Of Leon played 5 songs after we entered. My friend Levi showed up just as they finished. They're last song actually was really good. The saving grace was the fact that Eddie Vedder came on and sang the last song with them and played tambourine. Either way, their set ended and the lights came up and that was when my friend Levi entered (if you remember from my last post, Levi was the first one in on night one and held Bono up on Zoo Station). Immediately he tells me he's been hanging around outside the Key Arena all day and talked to Bono earlier and shook hands with The Edge. Apparently The Edge has a very strong grip, but small fingers.
Music is playing over the loudspeaker. The Killers come on and I ask Levi whether or not he sees the resemblance between The Killers and U2 as a lot of U2 fans say there is. He says he really doesn't. I say I'd thought about it and didn't think there was any. But then I amended my statement and said that I think The Killers remind me of U2 during Achtung Baby and Pop. Then we start to talk about what bands would have been better openers, and Muse and Switchfoot come up. And then we talk about how we're glad The Scizzor Sisters weren't the openers as it was rumored early on they would be. I start to get thirsty, so, having the luxury of a set spot, I can go out to the concession stand and not worry about my place being gobbled up as I had the first night in the GA's. Having seats is much more laid back (which can be both a good thing and a bad thing).
There was a healthy line at the concessions stand. Everyone and their mother seemed to be buying beer. I got a sprite. However, the line was ten minutes long and there had already been quite a good deal of music played over the loudspeakers, and I began to worry I'd hear "Wake Up" by The Arcade Fire while still in line. But at the same time I was really thirsty. Thankfully, I got my sprite before The Arcade Fire's song started and had ten minutes to spare! The red lamps came on. Excitement was buzzing. Oddly, the stadium was only about 2/3rds full when The Arcade Fire's song came on. And even more oddly to me was that there wasn't a huge surge of people when that song came on. You'd think it would get around word of mouth from one night to the next that a song is played right before the beginning of U2. The crowd surged in during "EVERYONE!" And the lights went down. And my heart dropped into my stomach yet again.
There was no Stories For Boys snippet at the end, which I thought was odd, because although I've only heard it on five bootlegs so far, (and now three times live) I thought it was used each time. Perhaps Monday night was a fluke?
) And everyone was cool when I was standing the entire time and dancing like a crazywoman.
Bono picked Adam to dance with him for that part 
