This. I know that the Toronto line was handled well earlier this month (or, at least, everyone SAYS it was), but I have to admit... I did feel more than a little bit bitter when I logged on here the night before the show, only to discover that a list had ALREADY been started much earlier in the day. I live two hours outside of TO by train and do not have a car, so it's not exactly easy for me to change travel/boarding arrangements on such short notice. I did what I'd already planned on doing: got the first train in the morning and made it to the venue before 8:30am. I ended up being #407 in line, which seemed a bit bizarre to me, considering that I was in the 100s when I showed up at 7:30am for the 2009 show.
The irritating thing here, too, was that I was part of the second line (the one that had no shelter, and that started around #350 or so). Before I was told to move to this line, I checked out the first one...and it suuuure didn't look like there were 350 people there. I was a little confused as to why security was splitting the line up (esp. when the first line looked a bit sparse in sections), but I kept my mouth shut and went back to the second line and sweltered in the sun. I briefly met Mark before I left, who was so nice.
I was a bit stressed out by the separate line thing, and he said some calming words. Mark, if you're reading, thanks for that.
In the end, even though I couldn't get a rail spot and was completely drained because of that, I had a great time at the show. It was my third U2 gig, and my favourite by far. And that's all that matters. The
initial few hours in the GA line were irritating, however. All I could think was, damn, if I'd known the list was going up a WHOLE DAY BEFORE, I could have made some travel rearrangements and gotten myself on that list, shown up at 4:30 or whenever "roll call" was, and been within the first 200 people there, like I was last time when the diehards were generally showing up at the stadium around 6/7am. And then I thought, THAT'S FUCKING RIDICULOUS. Why would I even consider that? Why should ANYONE have to change their concert travel plans over a list of names?
I think the list system is certainly useful on the day of the show, but I see no reason why people should start lists hours and hours and hours beforehand. I don't even buy the whole "but security won't let us camp out!" thing. It's just completely unnecessary. As much as I love being up close and on the rail, I think I'm going to show up later next time. Getting that rail spot is not worth the stress, especially when your chances of getting it are shot by the people who start the lists way too far in advance.