Hi guys!!!
I'm sorry I have no pics (yet) of my encounter with the guys, due to my having an old-fashioned camera, but I dropped them off to be developed and will have them up by next weekend. I'm a bit broke after the trip (heck, I was broke before) but that doesn't matter now, I'm over the moon.
Just got back a couple hours ago from NYC and I'm exhausted, exhilerated, and the trip was worth every penny everyone who helped me with it, from the guy who got me the tickets to the gal who sent me the train fare..but they're on Wire, have to get over there later.
I'll have a concert review up tomorrow. The libraries close at 5 today and my time is limited..just when I want to talk!!
The part of my story that's relevant is this. Now, I'm 36, but I never take these things for granted. I've been a fan for so long, but never got to meet the guys until Elevation, b/c I never wanted to until then, becuase I had a book about KIng David that I desperately wanted Bono to have. He got it...but that's another story.
Yesterday, after breakfast, I had a few hours to kill before I joined the bunch I was supposed to meet up with at the Garden for dinner before we went in. I knew the tourist areas of Manhattan pretty well (my uncle lives here, after all), so I couldn't be bothered with doing the touristy things, and I had no money for shopping. I got the idea to take a walk down to Bono's apt in Central Park but decided that would be tasteless (IMO anyway), and it was still9 AM and I wouldn't want people hanging around MY house on a weekend at that ungodly hour. So I got as far as the Empire State Buildng, decided to turn around and got lost (OF COURSE!) and spent the next half hour detouring back to the Garden via Chinatown. All through that area I kept thinking, "FIVE POINTS..FIVE POINTS..." which it was, for you history buffs. When I got back to the Garden I went through the lobby and already, at 10 AM there was a pretty good line of people, maybe 70-80. I asked someone if this was the GA line. No, two guys told me, this is line for the rumored ticket drop that was supposed to happen around noon or 1. (It happened at 6, I think, and there wasn't very much given away. Alllousy seats,and there must have been 200+ people by then. I felt so sorry for them.)
They told me where the GA line was (corner of Eighth and 33rd, in the back of the building) and I decided to kill time by doing what I'd done in Boston...hang with the GA line and hope that someone I "knew" from the Wire list had shown up. I was shocked. at 11:30 there were only 15 or so people there. In this group were a couple people from Zootopia, a charming young couple who had come from Mexico City--she had a Mexican flag that she used as a bathing towel at times--it was warm and sunny yesterday down there but got increasingly colder as the day went on, but thank God for that, later on! At the show last night, from up in the rafters high above Adam, I saw the flag bobbing around in the first row. Sadly Bono didn't take it, though I think he reached out and tocuhed it a few times. There was also a woman there from Brazil. I was happy they got where they wanted to be anyway.
I spent from 11:30-1 hobnobbing with the shickingly small GA line (I don't think it has more than 35 people, before 4 PM< anyway, the last time I checked it out. Around 1 PM I wandered off and saw a small bunch of people about 50 feet ahead, by the Garden's back entrance. I had forgotten about the whole ritual of meeting the band, though I had gotten so good at it on Elevation. I kid you not, meeting the band was NOT on my agenda this time around. ( I can hear you all groan and gasp, HERESY!) It just never occurred to me. I had certainly brought nothing for anyone to sign, but my old pic of myself and Edge from 2001 Boston for my bunch to look at. I'm more of the pics and less of the autogaph type anyway.
Rumors had been flying around that they might not come out at all, due to the huge mob of people at the gates by 1PM..already 50 or so. The 3-piece "band" that got up onstage with the band at the Jersey shows was there (who played--if I"m not mistaken,,that weired PUNK version of ISHFWILF???) breathlessly telling of their feat. The security were a bunch of jerks at first ("What part of 'leave now' don't you understand?" said one guy who loooked like an evil version of Paul McG with 30 extra pounds. Some people thought it WAS him at first!)
)
Of course we didn't. Every so often a pair of cops would walk up and down the cordoned off area looking bad-ass, and we automatically squeezed into a tight line to free up access to the street. Several people passing by stopped to inquire what the crowd was about, but most were nonplussed when we tol,d them. No fans! Get alife, people!! Around 3 the security doubled and walkie-talkies were brought forth. Trucks passing in and out. Barricades removed and replaced, to our chagrin. The buzz intesifies, and by now there are a good 60-80 people, on both sides of the entrance. I'm squeezed in the second row out on the edge by the street. Of course I am tooshort to see over people's shoulders and OF COURSE people don't allow me to come the front. But later on that night I got the better of them, ha ha.
Around 3:30 the word is passed on: they're coming! They're going to late to sound check at 4. OF COURSE they're going to be late! This is the Garden after all! At 4:30 we begin peeling the paint off of every black car that passes. I'ts strange for me, how low-key I am being about it all. Not like 2001. The atmosphere of course is electric. At 4:14 or so the first black car approaches. HE'S HERE! IS HE GETTING OUT??? Apparently not, becasue a group of about 15 people, inclsuing last night's guest stage band, had positioned themselves outsode the barriers on the street and mobbed the car as it pulled in. Bono had the window rolled down and was going to lean out, but like heat-seeking missles, and that quick, they were at the car, blocking it from pulling in. Thw window rolled up. Bono waved, but the car did not stop. IDIOTS!!! IDIOTS!!! If I had been Bono that would have been enough to scare me too, and I don't blame him. 1o minutes later Adam, pulled in, and after that, Larry. Of course they did not get out. The word had been passed along. IDIOTS!!!!! ("of course it's Larry. I see his big-ass nose," said guy in the crowd. In front of me, a father and his 2 daughters. They were adorable. The dad has a HTDAAB on his CD player and was singing long, joined in by the pretten daughters, who were well versed in the band. They rescued the afternoon for me. Edge pulled in the same way 20 minutes later. He was very late.
The show was FANTASTIC, though I had nosebleed seta (Box 419), and it all seemed to be a mixture of casula beer-drinkers or hard-core dancinga d singing fans, no in between. We went NUTS, screaming at the top of our lungs, and teh guys in the box on my right were particularily noisy. Bono several times looked up and clapped out way. I hope it occurred to him that these were real fans who git shut out, not just a great show thus was b/c even the upper rafters were going nuts! Oh well!
After the show, I went back to the same area. I had told people that the band sometimes liked to come out very late at night like in Boston. It was getting VERY cold and windy, several people hasd scarves and fal jackets. There were the same huge bunch from thus afternoon. was one Interferencer inb there I think. I was on the right hand time this time. It was midnight. We waited the next hour and half, while it started to drizzle and the wind blew. We began to shiver. Were we going away? NO!! Nobody thought they'd come out, since the trucks were all pulling away..Philly the next day. There were 4 black SUV's parked we all stared at. Finally, at 2 AM (yes, you heard me, 2 in the morning), familair faces from 50 feet! We start screaming! This timre I was in fronmt with an unobstructed view! "There he is! That's him"--"BOONNNOOO!!!!!" And HE Spread his arms wide and BAGAN WALKING OVER!!! Pandemonium. He was as short and sweet and BEUTIFUL as I remembered..but it was EDGE i was waiting for. He had on the adorable green Irish cap, the shades, and the purple shirt from pics (MY does he look good in purple!!)
I have to cntunie this later..the computer will shut down now
I'm sorry I have no pics (yet) of my encounter with the guys, due to my having an old-fashioned camera, but I dropped them off to be developed and will have them up by next weekend. I'm a bit broke after the trip (heck, I was broke before) but that doesn't matter now, I'm over the moon.
Just got back a couple hours ago from NYC and I'm exhausted, exhilerated, and the trip was worth every penny everyone who helped me with it, from the guy who got me the tickets to the gal who sent me the train fare..but they're on Wire, have to get over there later.
I'll have a concert review up tomorrow. The libraries close at 5 today and my time is limited..just when I want to talk!!
The part of my story that's relevant is this. Now, I'm 36, but I never take these things for granted. I've been a fan for so long, but never got to meet the guys until Elevation, b/c I never wanted to until then, becuase I had a book about KIng David that I desperately wanted Bono to have. He got it...but that's another story.
Yesterday, after breakfast, I had a few hours to kill before I joined the bunch I was supposed to meet up with at the Garden for dinner before we went in. I knew the tourist areas of Manhattan pretty well (my uncle lives here, after all), so I couldn't be bothered with doing the touristy things, and I had no money for shopping. I got the idea to take a walk down to Bono's apt in Central Park but decided that would be tasteless (IMO anyway), and it was still9 AM and I wouldn't want people hanging around MY house on a weekend at that ungodly hour. So I got as far as the Empire State Buildng, decided to turn around and got lost (OF COURSE!) and spent the next half hour detouring back to the Garden via Chinatown. All through that area I kept thinking, "FIVE POINTS..FIVE POINTS..." which it was, for you history buffs. When I got back to the Garden I went through the lobby and already, at 10 AM there was a pretty good line of people, maybe 70-80. I asked someone if this was the GA line. No, two guys told me, this is line for the rumored ticket drop that was supposed to happen around noon or 1. (It happened at 6, I think, and there wasn't very much given away. Alllousy seats,and there must have been 200+ people by then. I felt so sorry for them.)
They told me where the GA line was (corner of Eighth and 33rd, in the back of the building) and I decided to kill time by doing what I'd done in Boston...hang with the GA line and hope that someone I "knew" from the Wire list had shown up. I was shocked. at 11:30 there were only 15 or so people there. In this group were a couple people from Zootopia, a charming young couple who had come from Mexico City--she had a Mexican flag that she used as a bathing towel at times--it was warm and sunny yesterday down there but got increasingly colder as the day went on, but thank God for that, later on! At the show last night, from up in the rafters high above Adam, I saw the flag bobbing around in the first row. Sadly Bono didn't take it, though I think he reached out and tocuhed it a few times. There was also a woman there from Brazil. I was happy they got where they wanted to be anyway.
I spent from 11:30-1 hobnobbing with the shickingly small GA line (I don't think it has more than 35 people, before 4 PM< anyway, the last time I checked it out. Around 1 PM I wandered off and saw a small bunch of people about 50 feet ahead, by the Garden's back entrance. I had forgotten about the whole ritual of meeting the band, though I had gotten so good at it on Elevation. I kid you not, meeting the band was NOT on my agenda this time around. ( I can hear you all groan and gasp, HERESY!) It just never occurred to me. I had certainly brought nothing for anyone to sign, but my old pic of myself and Edge from 2001 Boston for my bunch to look at. I'm more of the pics and less of the autogaph type anyway.
Rumors had been flying around that they might not come out at all, due to the huge mob of people at the gates by 1PM..already 50 or so. The 3-piece "band" that got up onstage with the band at the Jersey shows was there (who played--if I"m not mistaken,,that weired PUNK version of ISHFWILF???) breathlessly telling of their feat. The security were a bunch of jerks at first ("What part of 'leave now' don't you understand?" said one guy who loooked like an evil version of Paul McG with 30 extra pounds. Some people thought it WAS him at first!)
)Of course we didn't. Every so often a pair of cops would walk up and down the cordoned off area looking bad-ass, and we automatically squeezed into a tight line to free up access to the street. Several people passing by stopped to inquire what the crowd was about, but most were nonplussed when we tol,d them. No fans! Get alife, people!! Around 3 the security doubled and walkie-talkies were brought forth. Trucks passing in and out. Barricades removed and replaced, to our chagrin. The buzz intesifies, and by now there are a good 60-80 people, on both sides of the entrance. I'm squeezed in the second row out on the edge by the street. Of course I am tooshort to see over people's shoulders and OF COURSE people don't allow me to come the front. But later on that night I got the better of them, ha ha.
Around 3:30 the word is passed on: they're coming! They're going to late to sound check at 4. OF COURSE they're going to be late! This is the Garden after all! At 4:30 we begin peeling the paint off of every black car that passes. I'ts strange for me, how low-key I am being about it all. Not like 2001. The atmosphere of course is electric. At 4:14 or so the first black car approaches. HE'S HERE! IS HE GETTING OUT??? Apparently not, becasue a group of about 15 people, inclsuing last night's guest stage band, had positioned themselves outsode the barriers on the street and mobbed the car as it pulled in. Bono had the window rolled down and was going to lean out, but like heat-seeking missles, and that quick, they were at the car, blocking it from pulling in. Thw window rolled up. Bono waved, but the car did not stop. IDIOTS!!! IDIOTS!!! If I had been Bono that would have been enough to scare me too, and I don't blame him. 1o minutes later Adam, pulled in, and after that, Larry. Of course they did not get out. The word had been passed along. IDIOTS!!!!! ("of course it's Larry. I see his big-ass nose," said guy in the crowd. In front of me, a father and his 2 daughters. They were adorable. The dad has a HTDAAB on his CD player and was singing long, joined in by the pretten daughters, who were well versed in the band. They rescued the afternoon for me. Edge pulled in the same way 20 minutes later. He was very late.
The show was FANTASTIC, though I had nosebleed seta (Box 419), and it all seemed to be a mixture of casula beer-drinkers or hard-core dancinga d singing fans, no in between. We went NUTS, screaming at the top of our lungs, and teh guys in the box on my right were particularily noisy. Bono several times looked up and clapped out way. I hope it occurred to him that these were real fans who git shut out, not just a great show thus was b/c even the upper rafters were going nuts! Oh well!
After the show, I went back to the same area. I had told people that the band sometimes liked to come out very late at night like in Boston. It was getting VERY cold and windy, several people hasd scarves and fal jackets. There were the same huge bunch from thus afternoon. was one Interferencer inb there I think. I was on the right hand time this time. It was midnight. We waited the next hour and half, while it started to drizzle and the wind blew. We began to shiver. Were we going away? NO!!
Nobody thought they'd come out, since the trucks were all pulling away..Philly the next day. There were 4 black SUV's parked we all stared at. Finally, at 2 AM (yes, you heard me, 2 in the morning), familair faces from 50 feet! We start screaming! This timre I was in fronmt with an unobstructed view! "There he is! That's him"--"BOONNNOOO!!!!!" And HE Spread his arms wide and BAGAN WALKING OVER!!! Pandemonium. He was as short and sweet and BEUTIFUL as I remembered..but it was EDGE i was waiting for. He had on the adorable green Irish cap, the shades, and the purple shirt from pics (MY does he look good in purple!!)I have to cntunie this later..the computer will shut down now
but I had to get up and go see him at Barneys today!!! That made up for it and was well worth it!
I;m glad he WAS in a good mood!Lucky u!1 Thank u for sharing!!
