So I've been on a 3-month self-imposed Interference ban because I had to study for my Boards (soooo hard with the tour on!!). But now that my Boards are done, here's my kooky Charlottesville story....
My wife and I had seen the show at FedEx two nights before. We had fanclub seats that were in the 100 level, but probably about 5 o'clock to the stage (nice seats, but I still don't understand why they were offered as first dibs to us in the fanclub). Great show, wonderful time, but I prefer to be on the floor.
For Charlottesville, I WAS going to be on the floor, so I was psyched! The only problem---I was going with my brother-in-law and a friend, but my friend couldn't get off of work until 6PM, and he was working in the middle of DC! So, we sucked up the fact that we'd drive down, miss Muse, and probably get stuck way in the back of GA, but were hoping to either snake our way up toward the front or maybe come across a benevolent tour employee who'd take pity on us arriving late and usher us up into the inner section.
As we got on the road, however, we realized that we might make it on time! Figuring that U2 didn't take the stage until 9:15 or so at FedEx, we figured we'd probably get there right as they were starting. We did, in fact, pull into the very top roof level of a parking garage around 9:15. But when we got out of the car, we heard a familiar voice---Bono's!
"Shit! They've already started!" we all cried out, shocked and kicking ourselves.
They were playing Mysterious Ways, which meant that we'd already missed anywhere from 3 to 5 songs out of the setlist! Worse yet, since we had booked it non-stop from DC, all of us massively had to pee. We each ran to a semi-secluded spot on the parking garage roof and embarrassingly did our business as quickly as possible----but peeing straight through MW and right into Beautiful Day.
hno: We then booked it down the stairs of the parking garage and ran out into the street-----only to realize that
we had no idea where the stadium was!!!! We started running uphill, racing toward the sound of U2, blindly running through neighborhoods and winding streets. As we ran, my friend just ahead of me turned and said, "Fuck! They're playing No Line!" (which we had missed in DC---the only friggin' show at which they didn't play it). Damn! We kept running, barely stopping to catch our breath, and the stadium was nowhere in sight. As Magnificent started blaring through the atmosphere, we finally saw Scott Stadium up ahead. My brother-in-law waved our tickets at us from behind in a "Save yourselves!" gesture of true friendship. But we'd waited to leave until 6PM so that we'd all be together---there was no way we were splitting up now! We made our way through the entrance, and as the final notes of Magnificent rang through the sky, we dashed onto the floor, thrilled and relieved that we'd finally made it.
The rest is history. The show was great. As the concert rolled on, college kids in front of us kept dropping to the back (to get beer or go to the bathroom, I guess
), and we made our way from the very back up to be only about 100ft from the stage. Not too shabby.
Great show, great night, great memories.