(Not a review, just a bloomin amazing concert experience!)
I didn't have tickets to last night's show so hovered around outside the stadium from 6:30pm with my host here in Horsens. Access to the roads directly around the stadium were all closed off except for people with tickets, so ticket touts and ticket searchers were forced to mingle at a mini roundabout a few hundred metres away.
The ticket touts wanted the usual exorbitant prices for tickets, which isn't surprising. What was surprising was that the regular Danish punters, including guys wearing U2 T-shirts wanted twice face value for their extra tix. It seems the accepted custom here is that it's fine for everyone to profiteer from scalping tickets, even U2 fans. Some of them couldn't understand my surprise at their prices and their desire to make a few krona.
We were still outside when the concert started at 9:30pm. The last two ticket touts sold their final three GAs with a face value of 595 kr for 750 kr (which was down from prices of 5000kr, then 3000kr, 2000kr, 1500kr, 1200kr, 1000 kr as the day progressed).
Because the stadium is so small, it was possible to hear the concert clearly from the streets outside. Some places allowed views onto the Claw, and some places outside the stadium allowed clear views onto the stage, but these points were behind the security fences on the roads and inaccessible.
We listened to Beautiful Day from the mini-roundabout. I suggested taking the bikes we'd used to get to the stadium to cycle around to explore different spots. We heard New Year's Day walking back to the where we'd parked the bikes. My host's back tyre had a puncture so we walked back to a spot with clear sound but no line of sight of the screen near the mini-roundabout. A few hundred people were sitting on the large lawn around this spot.
We heard Boots and Magnificent from here. We walked further up the road which was on an upwards slope. There were good views of the Claw from a vantage point there, so we watched Mysterious Ways from there. Behind us was another grassy knoll with many people standing or sitting on camping chairs. We climbed up this small hill during Elevation, and stayed there for ISHFWILF. (No themed band intros last night, Bono talked about supermodels and fashion week in Copenhagen.)
The barriers at the top of the road leading to the stadium, just below the little hill, were opened at 10pm so we left the hill and walked down this road. There were still barriers at the other end of the road, so we joined some people who were standing in the driveway and garden of someone's house. Trespassing during IALW, Miss Sarajevo, UTEOTW, tsk tsk.
I tried to lift the barrier out of the concrete block it was held up by to sneak through, but an old man behind me, firmly tapped my arm and said something aggressively in Danish. I assumed he was the property owner so put the fence back into the block.
After the next song, people began walking away, including the old man. Hmmm ... it's not his house then.
The people controlling access through the barriers were all wearing red t-shirts. When the guy on the other side of the fence by us went for a piss in the bushes across the road, a Danish guy near me said something in Danish but clearly indicating "Let's do it now". I nodded and went with him back to the fence. He lifted it, pushed it open, I grabbed my host and we all walked through.
I headed straight for a small crowd of people standing in the dark by
this electricity box, from where there was a great view onto about three quarters of the stage about 500 metres away. Other people came through the new gap in the fence too until the next red T-shirt ran up the road and closed the fence.
We watched the show up until Streets from there. People applauded SBS, One and Streets. The stage and light show looked rather incredible from this distance.
After Streets I suggested we walk down to the stadium, I wasnt really sure why, because we wouldn't get a better view than where we currently were. We walked down during the space cartoon encore break and HMTMKMKM.
Loadsa people were leaving the stadium. And this is the point of this long, rambling (literally!) story: we managed to blag into the stadium, and into amazing seats right next to Edge's side of the stage for WOWY and MOS!
Using an old Jedi mind-reading trick we blagged our way past two security checks. The stadium is really small compared to other mega-venues so this was actually the closest I've been to the stage for a very long while!
The Horsens crowd were probably as loud, if not louder, than the crowds in Germany last week. The whole stadium kept on singing "Ooooooh oh oh oh" so loudly after WOWY, Bono lapped it up. And when he did his wee "One last time" hand-clappy thing during MOS the entire field and the stands did it. It looked incredible, although a little bit Radio Ga-Ga-ish.
One slightly comical part of MOS was that Sam had to sit immediately behind Larry and hold his radio mic to his mouth. When the last verse had finished, Sam let go of the mic and moved away, only for Larry to start singing "Oh oh oh ..." so Sam had to relift the mic to Larry's mouth. But Larry didn't miss a beat, despite having an older gentleman's hand around his neck.
It had been an utterly amazing adventure. We must have walked a couple of miles during the show, from starting a long way away during Stingray, sneaking past some security checks, and ending up next to the stage for WOWY and MOS.
My new favourite U2 concert experience!
( I'm allergic 
