It’s a well-known feature of human psychology that we want what we don’t have, and don’t fully appreciate what we do. Moncton was the 88th U2 360[FONT="]°[/FONT] show I attended. And the last. Knowing you’re going to do something again may detract from your enjoyment. Knowing you're not, adds to it. How much more would you enjoy a sherry, a shrimp or a sh ... whatever, if you knew it was the last one you would ever have? I’d sometimes found it easy to opt out of fully relishing a 360 show cos I knew I’d be seeing a few more later. Moncton wasn’t a place for such (or any) luxuries. Every song had to be picked up, sniffed slowly, and then delicately nibbled on and savoured as a delectable, final treat. It could be the last time that I would see some of these songs performed. It could be the last time some of the songs will be performed. And it was the last time U2, crew, and fans would see the Claw (in its U2 360[FONT="]°[/FONT] outfit at least).
Whereas farewells can often be difficult, and weepy, it was a muddy goodbye to U2 360 in Moncton on Saturday. It had rained all day from early morning. When the gates opened, the ground got churned over by thousands of fans hithering and thithering.
Sean, Nikki and I sat in a cafe in downtown Moncton until 3:00 pm, watching the torrential rain outside. I wondered how the hardy fans in the GA line were faring, as they had to sit or stand for around ten hours in the rain.
I got into the arena around 5:00 pm, just as the rain was easing off. I had a ticket for the cheap seats behind the stage. Strangely, there weren’t any separate ticket checks or wristbands for fans with GA tickets, so anybody could walk from the seats onto the field. I walked into the pit on Adam’s side, then wiggled through the surprisingly thin crowd, and left the pit on Edge’s side, collecting the blue paper wristband which replaced the usual stamp for pit access.
I met three refined Brits (Brendan, Kevin and Martin) in the bar field at the top of the hill. We had a few beers during Carney, then moved down into the pit for the tour’s second best support act, Arcade Fire.
Dutch Paul was bouncing around at the back of the pit on Edge’s side.
“Look, Bono’s in the tunnel behind you,” he told me.
I turned around and there he was. Bono, standing on his own, in full stage clobber, was watching Arcade Fire from the front of the tunnel that passed underneath the stand behind the stage. Around ten fans had noticed him, and were dancing or standing around, casting occasionally glances back to see if he was still there. I sneaked a peak back during ‘Rebellion’ and Bono was having a little bop to what he later called Arcade Fire’s “miraculous event, chaos” warming up his audience. Larry was also watching, leaning back against a stack of tour storage boxes.
After Arcade Fire, Brendan, Kevin and I filtered through the crowd towards the centre back of the pit. We found space about three rows in from the back rail around the 7 o’clock position, which is my favourite spot to see the show from, as I can see the whole band and screen, there’s some Edge and Bono action on the bridge overhead, and there's plenty of action on the nearby outer stage too.
My criteria for enjoying a show are to see it with friends, to have a few beers first, to have a great spot in the pit, and to see Bono dancing during the support band. All criteria were fully met. I even ticked off a spontaneous new criteria: to have two fighter jets roar past a few times. It looked like it was going to a tippety top show. And it was.
Even Better, The Fly, Until The End Of The World, Zooropa, Vertigo, Out Of Control were all propane-fuelled blasters. Stay was quite gorgeous, with Bono freestyling an extra verse at the end about the end of the tour. I even loved Sunday Bloody Sunday, when U2 played it like it was one of the the first times in 1983, and not the thousandth time in 2011.
Some favourite moments of the show were when Larry played an extended drum outro to Elevation, with Bono egging him on; when Bono sang a lovely surprise snippet of Springhill Mining Disaster after Still Haven’t Found (Maria, Joanne, Suzie and I stopped off briefly at the Springhill Music Festival, just fifty miles from Moncton, on Sunday evening after a fun day-trip and scrumptious lobster dinner in Nova Scotia); when Larry burst out laughing when he noticed the new U2 crew version of the ‘nodding heads’ video during Crazy Tonight and pointed it out to Adam.
The show and the tour closed with an emotive, introspection-inducing version of 40. As Edge’s bass warbled and Adam’s guitar wahed, I closed my eyes let my thoughts drift back to 30th June 2009, opening night in the Nou Camp in Barcelona. Larry had opened the 360 tour, as he had been the first member of U2 onstage in Barcelona, before hammering the intro to Breathe. So it was fitting that Larry closed the 360 tour with his short drum solo at the end of 40, and then said thanks and farewell on behalf of the band, before U2 left the stage together. U2 360 was over.