i know this DESCRIBE will do me no good. . .

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VP - Well I wish I could've been to all four :( As I said, the 16th was my first.. and to be my last of the tour.. but I heard Arcade Fire was opening in Montreal, so I HAD to go. I went to the 2nd night there. That was to be the last too........... but by then the obsession had taken over completely and I ended up going to Buffalo. I wanted to go to Ottawa, Detroit, and Cleveland too, but you know.... $$$ :lol:
 
Just one more Adam scruff.. :shifty: Have to spare Irishteen any more trauma :lol:

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^^ we were at the same show :)

< Went to Cleveland...should here my cleveland story some time...it's so sad :(
 
Oooh, you went to Montreal? :hyper: Sounded like those were amazing shows!

I see you didn't start coming here till October. Did you get to meet up with any Interferencers? There were a ton of them there, and in my immediate group, there must have been about 10 of us, and then many of us left Toronto and went right on to chicago. That was the best 12 days EVER. :drool: So much fun!
 
bono_212 said:
^^ we were at the same show :)

< Went to Cleveland...should here my cleveland story some time...it's so sad :(
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Aww, I hope nothing bad happened! :(

Weldy was at 9/20, too. :) I saw her from afar, but I was the only one of my group who didn't get to meet her. :sigh:
 
VP - Montreal was outstanding :drool: Arcade Fire was insane and that was the night they joined U2 on stage :hyper:

And the Montreal crowds.. I honestly went deaf from the crowds - not the music. My ears were ringing for days after from the screaming.

I didn't meet up with any Interferencers, I'm just a noob :( I discovered the joys of U2 live and the Blue Crack a bit too late I'm afraid. I did have my U2-obsessed brothers to go with, but I still wish I'd discovered all this sooner and been to more shows.
 
U2MaNaIcWeIdO said:


I'm in no way shape or form saving Describe into becoming another Pleba.....since I'm a Pleban myself...you are on your own there :lol:
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Am I the only non PLEBAn here? Well I think I am the only guy so I guess I am the only non-PLEBAn
 
kafrun said:
VP - Montreal was outstanding :drool: Arcade Fire was insane and that was the night they joined U2 on stage :hyper:

And the Montreal crowds.. I honestly went deaf from the crowds - not the music. My ears were ringing for days after from the screaming.

I didn't meet up with any Interferencers, I'm just a noob :( I discovered the joys of U2 live and the Blue Crack a bit too late I'm afraid. I did have my U2-obsessed brothers to go with, but I still wish I'd discovered all this sooner and been to more shows.
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I chat in the PGP thread (a chat thread in the Plebans section), and I swear, those girls are just a bunch of enablers. Every time I'd buy tickets to another show, I'd swear to myself "no more," and then they'd talk me into more. :lol: If you'd been around then, the same thing would have happened to you!
 
VP - :lol: Sounds like it.. I tried to post in a PGP once and no one responded :reject: I don't know many of the girls there.
 
Irishteen said:


Am I the only non PLEBAn here? Well I think I am the only guy so I guess I am the only non-PLEBAn
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Define Pleban. :wink: I post all over Interference, and the chat thread I hang out in is in the Plebans area, but I hardly ever go into the picture threads. Does that still make me a Pleban?
 
*warning very long post ahead*

I have always enjoyed books, and I have most especially enjoyed authors who love to use irony. Until very recently I was able to laugh when I would listen to the song Ironic by Alanis Morissette, a song filled with horribly ironic events, such as being afraid to fly, and crashing on your very first flight. However, due to recent events, I can no longer laugh at irony, as it’s just brings back too many memories.

Everything really began when I was 13 years old. Sitting in my living room, watching MTV one afternoon, I fell in love with a rock band by the name of U2. From that day on, my dream in life was to see them in concert. Fast forward five years to September 20th, 2005. It was my 18th birthday, and my dad was finally going to give me what I wanted, I was going to see U2.

The concert was amazing. I could not have been more than ten feet from the stage. Sure, I had to stand for 6 hours, and I had to go to the bathroom, but this was all secondary to the events of the night. There was only one problem with the whole situation. When we arrived at the United Center, for this concert was in Chicago, Illinois, my dad and I noticed a rather large crowd on the OTHER side of the building. Now, neither of us had been to a U2 concert, and I had NEVER been to a concert, so we were just trying to find out where to stand before we went exploring. Exploration was not necessary, however, since, not five minutes later the huge crowd from the other side of the building started walking back over to the General Admission (GA) line that we were currently standing in. As they neared, I began to be able to make out what they were saying. “I can’t believe Bono signed my book!” “Yeah, well the Edge signed my hat.” “Bono wrote Happy Birthday in MY book!” These people, Bono and the Edge, are two members of the group U2. This was when I realized the horrible truth. If I had walked over to the other side of the building, I would have met my own personal hero, Bono.

At certain times, I can be selfish. In general, I do not believe this is not a personality trait of mine, but at this moment in my life, I wanted nothing else but to see U2 in concert just one more time. Luckily for me, one day in gym class, about a month later, I happened to have been wearing my shirt from the concert. My friend was reading the back and she pointed out something that was not obvious to me: December 10th U2 would be playing in Cleveland, Ohio. I live in northern Indiana, Ohio is NOT that far away.

I rushed home from school and onto my computer. Ebay was my first stop on my quest to meet Bono. This was when I hit my first major bump in the road. It had been simple to get Chicago tickets. I don’t even think we paid more than 25 dollars above face value for them, thus bringing their total for two tickets to about $200. This was not true for the Cleveland tickets. With my mouth drooping to the keyboard, I stared at the price of two tickets…$500.

The next task was to convince my mom that she wanted to drive me to Ohio. This was easy enough, she has loved U2 much longer than me, and I was getting the ticket for her Christmas present anyway. Things only got better in this department when I realized that The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame is also in Cleveland. This was going to be my last Christmas living at home, as the next year I would be in college. Mom found this would be a special memory for the two of us, and so the Cleveland plans were set. The only problem now was obtaining $500 for the tickets.

The above events occurred at the end of October. I spent the entire moth of November trying to find either cheaper tickets, or $500. It was not until the 3rd of December that I finally gave up and asked my dad if, instead of any Christmas gifts, he could just give me the money. My dad agreed and so, my Christmas present, was the gift I was giving to my mother for Christmas.

Things moved rather quickly over the next week. I finally had tickets in my hand, a hotel room was reserved for the night of the concert, I had printed the driving directions, and I had a checklist of all the items we needed. Everything was neat and organized. Nothing was going to stop me from enjoying myself, and nothing was going to go wrong. And then everything did.

A fact: Winter in northern Ohio is cold. The forecasted high for Cleveland, Ohio on December 10 was 34 degrees. An explanation: If you hold a GA ticket, you have to stand in the GA line. The GA line is first come first serve. The earlier you are the better chance you have of getting to the front, and right next to the band. The plan was to arrive at 4 AM, with sleeping bags and a tent. The problem was that mom, not really knowing any better, decided we did not need the tent. We were going to wait in the GA line, with no tent from 4 AM until 6 PM, that is 14 hours. Well, at least we would have chairs, and blankets. I was not giving up hope, we could still do this.

Let me backtrack a little. I had really had two goals on this trip. The first was to meet Bono, but the second was to replace a necklace my dad bought me. As I said, it was my 18th birthday, and as a gift my dad bought me this beautiful U2 necklace that was $50. Then, in late November, tragedy struck. One night, I fell asleep on the couch, and before I did, I took the necklace off and sat it on the coffee table. While I slept, my sister’s dog jumped up on the table, and ATE the necklace. She eventually threw it back up, but not before crushing every charm on the necklace. Luckily, well at least in this instance, for me, my parents are divorced. So, hopefully, I could hold out until the concert without my dad noticing I stopped wearing the necklace.

I should have known right away that things were not going to go well on the trip when we ended up leaving for Cleveland too early. We arrived at midnight, and there was no way we could drive around the city until 4 Am, when people were allowed to get into the GA line. Therefore, we had no choice, but to go to a hotel for the night. Before we ever even got the concert, $100 of our $400 spending money was gone, not to mention gas and food on the way there, so really $150.

Finally it was time to go line up. We arrived at 4:45, a little late, but no real harm done. We then found out that we really wasted the $100 as, people lined up at midnight anyway, regardless of what security had said. All in all, we had relatively good positions in line; we were numbers 48 and 49.

To make an already long story short, we waited in that line all day. We were tentless and cold, but there were plenty of places to walk to, and once you had a number, your place in line was relatively secure. In the line I even made a few friends, as, U2 fans are relatively friendly people. At 4:00 PM we took our chairs and blankets back to the car, and took off a few layers of clothes, so we would not be too hot once in the concert. I left an extra layer of clothes on, but mom took off all her extra clothing, except her coat. We headed back to the line and began the final countdown.

There were 90 minutes left until we were going to be let into the arena. The time flew. At 6:15 they were finally getting the lines organized. Everyone around me in line knew that we were far enough up in line to be right on the stage. Though Bono did not walk down the GA line and say hi to fans like he normally does, I was going to be right next to him, so I was willing to accept this. 6:25, only five more minutes, and five years of dreaming would become reality. Then it happened. Mom was talking to me, and then all of a sudden, she turned very pale. She told me she did not feel well, and the lady in front of us in line, who happened to be a doctor, took her over to the wall. She leaned up against it, and not two seconds later, she passed out. I panicked. People were yelling down the line for security or paramedics. I was just yelling. Then someone finally came. However, they would not take her into the building until a gurney came. Mom had come to, and insisted she would be able to stay in line. The security guard would have none of it, and she did not really have to force mom to agree, since mom had passed out once more.

The paramedics came and took mom into the First Aid area. As soon as she got back in the warmth, she was ok. However, the GA had been ruined. If we were going to the GA area, we would have been 25 feet back from the stage. That was when the head of the arena offered us two $160 tickets, in place of our GA. So, here I was with two choices. I could try and force my way through the sea of people to the front of the GA area, or I could sit in the best seats in the arena, aside from box seats. Well, the decision really was made for me, and so we chose the seats.

The concert was truly amazing. A friend of mine from the GA line was pulled up on stage and danced with Bono, they sang my favorite song, my mom was having the time of her life, and here I sat, still selfish and grumpy because I was not in the GA area. The problem was that every time I looked down, I could see the three people I had been standing with, all right on the rail, right in front of Bono the whole show, practically.

Really, I had nothing to complain about. It was a special time that my mother and I will never forget, and there are memories that we will share forever. The Rock Hall was the most amazing place I had ever been to, and really it made up for everything that had happened the day before. I apologized to my mom for being selfish, and she forgave me, and everything ended up well. The only problem was that with the money we spent, we could not afford to buy a replacement necklace. This problem has still not been resolved to this day. I try not to let it bother me too much, and I haunt Ebay for the necklace like Elvis does America.

However, I did say at the beginning that this was a story of irony. Like any good story, the best bit twists are usually at the end. Out of curiosity, and sadness that this would be the last time I would see U2 for, probably, four years, I looked to see where else they would be performing. There were only a few more US shows, including Portland, Oregon and St. Louis, Missouri. Wait, St. Louis Missouri? I then made three of the biggest mistakes of my life. I checked Mapquest to see how far St. Louis was. It was only one hour farther away than Cleveland. I then checked weather.com for the temperature in St. Louis. No where near 34 degrees, but in the good direction. And then I made the third and worst mistake. I checked Ebay for the price of two General Admission tickets to the St. Louis shows. The price tag? $175.


sorry...but that's my cleveland story all told...I wrote that for a college admission thing :reject:
 
Irishteen - be afraid.. be veeeeery afraid..

Bono necks, Larry Moobs, Frowny Smiles, oh my! :ohmy::lmao:
 
kafrun said:
VP - :lol: Sounds like it.. I tried to post in a PGP once and no one responded :reject: I don't know many of the girls there.
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Awww :( You should come back over, they're a really friendly bunch! Sometimes if it's busy, and there are a million different conversations going, newcomers are missed unintentionally, but certainly not on purpose. :) It was a little over a year ago that I started chatting in there (hides post count :reject: ), and now many of us are really close friends. :)
 
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