My husband now understands the appeal of the rail spot. He is not ready to do multiple shows but I think he might be game for a once per leg deal. His first show was the NA opener in Chicago in 2009 at the back of the pit. Neither of us enjoyed the show due to the environment. His second show was in East Lansing in seats and he truly enjoyed it. I promised him that being at the front rail made for a very different experience, and he agrees. I told him there is no going back to seats. He hasn't fully agreed, but as I said before, come next tour, I think he is good for at least one GA per leg.
But let's digress - I was very undecided as to what I wanted to do line wise. I knew I would only line up if I had a chance of getting a rail spot AND the weather wasn't ridiculously hot. Otherwise, we wouldn't line up at all and show up after Interpol.
We got there Saturday in the early evening but as we had ridden our bike for about 8 hours, we just wanted to rest, have some tasty food and some beverages. Thus, while our hotel was only a couple of blocks away, I did not check out the line situation until Sunday morning. Besides, I was not prepared to do multiple check-ins, much less begin to actually line up. I went to inspect the situation by myself and found out that there were about 50 people signed up. No check ins were required but in order to maintain the number you would have to be back by 4 am. I walked back to our hotel not knowing what to do. If my husband didn't want to line up at 4 am, which would be a most reasonable reaction, would I want to still do the line without him? However, I did not have much chance to agonize over it. When I told him what the deal was, he immediately said "well, let's go get us some numbers". And that is how we became 59 and 60 in line.
I figured that we would just get the numbers and forfeit them if we decided to not line up. I was still worried about the weather. I also half assumed that our numbers would not hold out (and I would not have argued for my spot with anyone who had actually been physically in line before me). By early evening it was decided that we would show up, and gauge it step by step. If the fan line looked ok, then we'd wait until security took over. If that was still ok, we'd see what the spot we would line up looked like. And finally, we had a 10 am cut off to wuss out from the heat. Our initial numbers held up. When security took over we were taken in an orderly way into comfortably spaced holding pens that were to be in the shade at least until 1 or 2. We were renumbered and went to numbers 43 and 44. After 12 we were given bracelets for field access. The front of the line (all the people in pens) cleared out like I have never seen before. We all felt comfortable enough to leave for am hour or so to go get lunch, freshen up, etc. Most of the early afternoon was cloudy and breezy, so it was really painless.
I made sure to thank those in charge who I did see, but didn't get a chance to thank Michelle or Sam. So if you are around here - thank you! You all did an amazing job.
As for the show, it was a thing of beauty. It was only my second show this leg, and only the third in the tour. Besides, I have never been much to complain about the setlist, so the fact that there were no surprises didn't bother me. Sure, when I saw 20 vertigo shows I wanted to kill myself when Pride came on, but I always reminded myself that the shows are aimed at the 98% of the audience that were there for their only U2 show of the tour and that no one forced me to go to that many shows.
As always, nice seeing familiar faces, meeting the people behind the posts and talking to new people.
See you all next tour!
You shoulda posted the other, more balanced depiction Mark. 
)
To me, Bono wasn't active as he was in Montreal, but that heat was intense, so I wasn't surprised. I loved being by back rail, and Kristen and I really enjoyed when Larry stopped right in front of us and played during Crazy Tonight. We were all so happy when the roof opened. Seeing the CN Tower during the show was really sweet!
