RadRacer
The Fly
ARE YOU KIDDING ME??!!! ... ... You know what, I tried to get tickets to David Bowie when he was in the area, who is supposed to be dead and gone for years. (Seriously, who cares about David Bowie, nowadays?) Ticketmaster.com, I was there a couple of minutes before they went on sale until an hour after. The first second, it was all sold out, without hope. I tried the phone because I thought I got an error or something, but they confirmed that fear. Linkin Park? Forget that! You can't get a ticket on the floor, or a decent seat. I had been just as committed, there the first second the website let the general public in on that sale. C'mon, they just dropped their SECOND album, and you've got to be in a fan club to see them properly?? Who knows if I had been in the fanclub whether I would have gotten a better offer?! But Linkin Park are not as big as U2, as you know, if you know them at all, so you get an idea of the dark cloud of desperation that loomed above my head for the oncoming general public sale on the 12th of March. I knew if I wanted to be in there, I had to act early.
I tried to sign up for U2.com, but, I guess fortunately for my ass, they had already posted the warning up in the center somewhere: "Due to unexpected demand, we will not be giving out any more pre-sale codes with new memberships for the 2005 Vertigo Tour." Next, I turned to U2tours.com (where tickets are sold at face value, only - scalpers are dead people to me) to post early for Tampa and even Miami, that I'm waiting for tickets with open arms. Then some fool came and criticized me for rushing things in regard to a show that hasn't even gone on sale yet. I told him just what I'm telling you know: "ARE YOU KIDDING ME??!!!"
8-ticket-men. Are you kidding me? Having that many tickets, that's just a slap in the face of the fan who doesn't have any ticket! That's just flaunting your sh*t! Yeah, I've got a grudge against scalpers and ticket brokers, too, but I also have a grudge with so-called fans who get their dirty hands on 8 tickets and only want to trade them. Do you people with tickets just want to be an elite club and have the same people at all the shows, all the time? Don't you realize you're shutting us out? And, of course, once you get there, you're just *sob*bing little flowers! I wonder how great a time you would have at the show if nobody bought them, if you were sitting on all of these eight tickets! And then there are those people that are planning on fighting for the front on some shows, and on other shows they just want to take it easy, sit back with some beer and pretzels. If you are a real U2 fan, doesn't it make you feel bad if you're sittin' there watchin' several shows and there are people out there who fought hard but couldn't get into ONE show??!!
I tried to get 2 GA tickets, but all I was offered was the ass of the arena. Even if I had been offered decent seats, I wouldn't have been able to afford them. I'm one of those poor hardcore fans you may have heard about. But let me tell it to you straight from the heart. I've just come from two small venue / club shows, this weekend, and the energy in there was just amazing. I mean, you had people piling themselves on people, reaching for the microphone and getting it handed to you while the strangers that have just become your fellows are holding you up with their shoulders, where the people jump and bounce the way they're supposed to when you speak of a "rocking show" (I know that has become a very cheap word), the motion of bodies, the energy that's being sent back to the performer, the jumping up and down, raised arms, the crazy dancing. Nobody got hurt, but you won't listen. You know, everybody who is afraid to rub up against a mosh pit shouldn't even go to live shows. You are a disgrace! You don't know what it's like, you're just full of myths and superstitions and bullsh*t. Whoever thinks moshing is inappropriate behavior at a rock concert is an cowardly fool who has no true life in him. Have you ever been thrown backwards through three rows of people before being caught by the fourth, without touching the floor? There's no pain involved - it's like swimming in a sea of pillows. It's great! C'mon, we're humans. You gotta embrace this fact. It has its disadvantages to be so soft and clawless in nature, but it's great for concerts. Imagine if we were alligators with that hard skin and those clawed feet.
Now, we're not talking about bringing the club experience to a U2 show. We're just talking about bringing some fire to those very alive U2 tunes, and perhaps even show U2 an experience they've been missing ever since they became a world-stage player. Heck, they may even want to do another date in Tampa, just for us. And don't forget the most important things. I'm sorry, U2 fans, but I've seen some sorry *sob*s standing there like flowers in the meadow, bopping their heads to the music. When I see people who are so close to the band and don't even use the opportunity to go off like a rocket; they scream in the wrong places and are strangely sedate when they could send a strong signal; they exert their energies when there is going to be the obligatory encore, anyway, but as soon as the band says "goodbye" they drop out - I don't believe U2 would turn their backs on a wild crowd. I think you guys need to be shaken up from your routine, and you would benefit from feeling the exhaustion when the fire touches you.
Call me a resident of the fantasy world, but I'm running the concert in image form in my head, what a good concert should FEEL like. I mean, people, you pay upwards of $50 for standing on your feet for a looooong time, waiting for entertainment to happen. It comes, lasts about two hours, and leaves you. Paying that much should get you close to the fantasy realm. Or, at least a good memory that will last a lifetime. Speaking completely honestly, I see the heart of Elevation and all of us drenched in red light with Bono singing not one of their more "hard" tunes, but one that has lots of fire, inside, and I just see an ocean of hands and heads moving unpredictably, like waves in a wild ocean, and we're not all standing upward, either, but flowing sideways, sometimes, to the vibes. Let me tell you, I've never been so on fire for a concert as with this one. But I gotta be on the floor for that, because when you're stuck with those apathetic fools, no matter how shining you are, you're gonna be blotted out. You have to situate yourself in a position of leadership in the pit. I've been on the balcony, and let me tell you, it's not worth it. You take one step to the left and you are reprimanded by security. I envied the people in the heart, who had the freedom to move. So, the next concerts, I made a serious effort to get GA tickets. But, alas, I was greatly disappointed by the sheer lack of enthusiasm of those stiffs - they would have made a good seated audience. My friend and I said: "That's enough! This is not acceptable! We gotta show these people how to have a good time!" So, we made it happen. Let's just say everybody there heard those artists say they'll DEFINITELY come back, every time. These were small concerts, where it is easier to influence everybody in there, but if you don't bond together and do something, big concerts are not going to be considered LIVE - you might as well watch TV!
I tried to sign up for U2.com, but, I guess fortunately for my ass, they had already posted the warning up in the center somewhere: "Due to unexpected demand, we will not be giving out any more pre-sale codes with new memberships for the 2005 Vertigo Tour." Next, I turned to U2tours.com (where tickets are sold at face value, only - scalpers are dead people to me) to post early for Tampa and even Miami, that I'm waiting for tickets with open arms. Then some fool came and criticized me for rushing things in regard to a show that hasn't even gone on sale yet. I told him just what I'm telling you know: "ARE YOU KIDDING ME??!!!"
8-ticket-men. Are you kidding me? Having that many tickets, that's just a slap in the face of the fan who doesn't have any ticket! That's just flaunting your sh*t! Yeah, I've got a grudge against scalpers and ticket brokers, too, but I also have a grudge with so-called fans who get their dirty hands on 8 tickets and only want to trade them. Do you people with tickets just want to be an elite club and have the same people at all the shows, all the time? Don't you realize you're shutting us out? And, of course, once you get there, you're just *sob*bing little flowers! I wonder how great a time you would have at the show if nobody bought them, if you were sitting on all of these eight tickets! And then there are those people that are planning on fighting for the front on some shows, and on other shows they just want to take it easy, sit back with some beer and pretzels. If you are a real U2 fan, doesn't it make you feel bad if you're sittin' there watchin' several shows and there are people out there who fought hard but couldn't get into ONE show??!!
I tried to get 2 GA tickets, but all I was offered was the ass of the arena. Even if I had been offered decent seats, I wouldn't have been able to afford them. I'm one of those poor hardcore fans you may have heard about. But let me tell it to you straight from the heart. I've just come from two small venue / club shows, this weekend, and the energy in there was just amazing. I mean, you had people piling themselves on people, reaching for the microphone and getting it handed to you while the strangers that have just become your fellows are holding you up with their shoulders, where the people jump and bounce the way they're supposed to when you speak of a "rocking show" (I know that has become a very cheap word), the motion of bodies, the energy that's being sent back to the performer, the jumping up and down, raised arms, the crazy dancing. Nobody got hurt, but you won't listen. You know, everybody who is afraid to rub up against a mosh pit shouldn't even go to live shows. You are a disgrace! You don't know what it's like, you're just full of myths and superstitions and bullsh*t. Whoever thinks moshing is inappropriate behavior at a rock concert is an cowardly fool who has no true life in him. Have you ever been thrown backwards through three rows of people before being caught by the fourth, without touching the floor? There's no pain involved - it's like swimming in a sea of pillows. It's great! C'mon, we're humans. You gotta embrace this fact. It has its disadvantages to be so soft and clawless in nature, but it's great for concerts. Imagine if we were alligators with that hard skin and those clawed feet.
Now, we're not talking about bringing the club experience to a U2 show. We're just talking about bringing some fire to those very alive U2 tunes, and perhaps even show U2 an experience they've been missing ever since they became a world-stage player. Heck, they may even want to do another date in Tampa, just for us. And don't forget the most important things. I'm sorry, U2 fans, but I've seen some sorry *sob*s standing there like flowers in the meadow, bopping their heads to the music. When I see people who are so close to the band and don't even use the opportunity to go off like a rocket; they scream in the wrong places and are strangely sedate when they could send a strong signal; they exert their energies when there is going to be the obligatory encore, anyway, but as soon as the band says "goodbye" they drop out - I don't believe U2 would turn their backs on a wild crowd. I think you guys need to be shaken up from your routine, and you would benefit from feeling the exhaustion when the fire touches you.
Call me a resident of the fantasy world, but I'm running the concert in image form in my head, what a good concert should FEEL like. I mean, people, you pay upwards of $50 for standing on your feet for a looooong time, waiting for entertainment to happen. It comes, lasts about two hours, and leaves you. Paying that much should get you close to the fantasy realm. Or, at least a good memory that will last a lifetime. Speaking completely honestly, I see the heart of Elevation and all of us drenched in red light with Bono singing not one of their more "hard" tunes, but one that has lots of fire, inside, and I just see an ocean of hands and heads moving unpredictably, like waves in a wild ocean, and we're not all standing upward, either, but flowing sideways, sometimes, to the vibes. Let me tell you, I've never been so on fire for a concert as with this one. But I gotta be on the floor for that, because when you're stuck with those apathetic fools, no matter how shining you are, you're gonna be blotted out. You have to situate yourself in a position of leadership in the pit. I've been on the balcony, and let me tell you, it's not worth it. You take one step to the left and you are reprimanded by security. I envied the people in the heart, who had the freedom to move. So, the next concerts, I made a serious effort to get GA tickets. But, alas, I was greatly disappointed by the sheer lack of enthusiasm of those stiffs - they would have made a good seated audience. My friend and I said: "That's enough! This is not acceptable! We gotta show these people how to have a good time!" So, we made it happen. Let's just say everybody there heard those artists say they'll DEFINITELY come back, every time. These were small concerts, where it is easier to influence everybody in there, but if you don't bond together and do something, big concerts are not going to be considered LIVE - you might as well watch TV!
(I'm kinda proud of that) I figure it this way, I somehow managed to get in to see the show and I'm treating it like a once in a lifetime shot; make the most of it. Too bad you aren't up North with me, After I bought two tickets I realized I didn't know who to take along... I mean I have a couple friends who are a lot of fun, but none that are even half as into U2 as I am. I think I'll have to set up some sort of quiz to see who qualifies for the seat next to mine. 
