the tourist
Blue Crack Addict
- Joined
- Dec 25, 2003
- Messages
- 27,919
It's Sunday. And I've never seen U2 before....
I get to the Key Arena. It's 1:30 and there is a line of 245 people, all with their own number (their spot in line), on written on their hand. I didn't ask, but was told the man writing the numbers is from atu2.com. I get number 246 for the GA line. Only 245 people (presale and general sale being different lines, but the numbers were applied to both groups) in front of me. My friends I was going with got there at 9 pm the night before and had numbers 1-10. I wish I would have gone with them.
So I am to be in line under the hot sun for five hours with no one near me that I know. The people in line are very friendly. Three others, who I'd never met, and I sit down in the line and begin to play card games with vulgar titles (such as "bull-shit" and "shit-head"). One of the three has a british accent. His name was Chris and he got his ticket for free. The two others and I ask him how he managed this. Chris explains he works for MTV. Everyone is so friendly, it boggles my mind. It feels more like I am at church than in downtown Seattle.
At 6:35 or so, the doors open and quickly we make our way, double-file, into the arena where there are two long tables set up. At the beginning of the table they put a wristband on. At the end of the table they scan the barcode on your ticket and a computer will either say "Please proceed to General Admission" or "VERTIGO!" If it says "VERTIGO!", you get into the ellipse. Chris got into the ellipse. Lucky bastard. I did not. So once the ticket it scanned, I run as fast as I can into the tunnel and down the steps. I make it into the third row of surging people in front of the ellipse on the left side of the stage (stage right -- in front of The Edge).
Older music is playing over the loudspeakers. A Pink Floyd song I recognize. A Smiths song. Then more moden. A Green Day song off their new album.
Kings Of Leon get onstage at 7:30. Crowd around me talks about how this band sucks. I'd only heard their two singles before. The singer broke a couple guitar strings and was upset about something and yelling a lot to someone off stage left. After the third song or so, the singer's voice annoys me and if I would have been able to leave the arena and come back to my spot, I would have. But I couldn't. So I endured until they finished (around 8:20 or so).
Now, all throughout the day, I'd been preparing for the pit and not being able to leave for anything. Including using the rest-room. So therefore, to prepare myself, I didn't drink anything after noon. By the time Kings Of Leon end, I'm pretty thirsty. Someone near me orders a soda from a vendor. It's warm Coca Cola. After taking one drink the guy near me gives it to the security people at the ellipse to throw it away. I am very jealous. But also very broke. So I can't afford. At some point Bill Gates arrives in the lower seats. Everyone is waving to him and he gives a little bow and waves back. People shake his hand. I am amazing I'm so close to the richest man in the world.
The Killers come on the loudspeakers. People around me say they wish The Killers had opened instead, since they, also, were playing in Seattle that night. A few more songs pass. I am very thirsty now. To the point where I'm almost a little dizzy. And my stomach is sore. We're really packed in. I can't bend my knees, so my legs are stiffened and locked. And they feel like cold water. More songs pass. U2 techs onstage. Dallas walks around the ellipse playing The Edge's white Les Paul, making sure the monitor works in his earpiece. People cheer for Dallas. He tosses his pick into the GA crowd outsdie the ellipse.
More songs pass. The techs are done. Arcade Fire's "Wake Up" comes on the PA. I cheer like a madman at this fact. People around me look at me funny and I realize these people probably have not heard the bootlegs and thusly don't realize what this means. I quickly explain myself. They look at me skeptically, as if to say, "Who do you think you are?" By the end of the second verse, I worry maybe they changed the songs for the one night and I will look like an idiot. But no. "EVERYONE!" The crowd goes bananas. The red overhead lamps come on over the stage. The lights go down. The intro bassy grind of "Love And Peace Or Else" comes over the speakers.
The band appear, high-powered flashlights shining into the crowd, walking around the ellipse. Cheering ensues. Those of us close enough reaching our hands toward, hoping one of them will reach down to us. Larry stops at the middle of the ellipse, where a small drum kit is set up. A tom, a cymbal. Adam and Edge hurry back to the stage.
I get to the Key Arena. It's 1:30 and there is a line of 245 people, all with their own number (their spot in line), on written on their hand. I didn't ask, but was told the man writing the numbers is from atu2.com. I get number 246 for the GA line. Only 245 people (presale and general sale being different lines, but the numbers were applied to both groups) in front of me. My friends I was going with got there at 9 pm the night before and had numbers 1-10. I wish I would have gone with them.
So I am to be in line under the hot sun for five hours with no one near me that I know. The people in line are very friendly. Three others, who I'd never met, and I sit down in the line and begin to play card games with vulgar titles (such as "bull-shit" and "shit-head"). One of the three has a british accent. His name was Chris and he got his ticket for free. The two others and I ask him how he managed this. Chris explains he works for MTV. Everyone is so friendly, it boggles my mind. It feels more like I am at church than in downtown Seattle.
At 6:35 or so, the doors open and quickly we make our way, double-file, into the arena where there are two long tables set up. At the beginning of the table they put a wristband on. At the end of the table they scan the barcode on your ticket and a computer will either say "Please proceed to General Admission" or "VERTIGO!" If it says "VERTIGO!", you get into the ellipse. Chris got into the ellipse. Lucky bastard. I did not. So once the ticket it scanned, I run as fast as I can into the tunnel and down the steps. I make it into the third row of surging people in front of the ellipse on the left side of the stage (stage right -- in front of The Edge).
Older music is playing over the loudspeakers. A Pink Floyd song I recognize. A Smiths song. Then more moden. A Green Day song off their new album.
Kings Of Leon get onstage at 7:30. Crowd around me talks about how this band sucks. I'd only heard their two singles before. The singer broke a couple guitar strings and was upset about something and yelling a lot to someone off stage left. After the third song or so, the singer's voice annoys me and if I would have been able to leave the arena and come back to my spot, I would have. But I couldn't. So I endured until they finished (around 8:20 or so).
Now, all throughout the day, I'd been preparing for the pit and not being able to leave for anything. Including using the rest-room. So therefore, to prepare myself, I didn't drink anything after noon. By the time Kings Of Leon end, I'm pretty thirsty. Someone near me orders a soda from a vendor. It's warm Coca Cola. After taking one drink the guy near me gives it to the security people at the ellipse to throw it away. I am very jealous. But also very broke. So I can't afford. At some point Bill Gates arrives in the lower seats. Everyone is waving to him and he gives a little bow and waves back. People shake his hand. I am amazing I'm so close to the richest man in the world.
The Killers come on the loudspeakers. People around me say they wish The Killers had opened instead, since they, also, were playing in Seattle that night. A few more songs pass. I am very thirsty now. To the point where I'm almost a little dizzy. And my stomach is sore. We're really packed in. I can't bend my knees, so my legs are stiffened and locked. And they feel like cold water. More songs pass. U2 techs onstage. Dallas walks around the ellipse playing The Edge's white Les Paul, making sure the monitor works in his earpiece. People cheer for Dallas. He tosses his pick into the GA crowd outsdie the ellipse.
More songs pass. The techs are done. Arcade Fire's "Wake Up" comes on the PA. I cheer like a madman at this fact. People around me look at me funny and I realize these people probably have not heard the bootlegs and thusly don't realize what this means. I quickly explain myself. They look at me skeptically, as if to say, "Who do you think you are?" By the end of the second verse, I worry maybe they changed the songs for the one night and I will look like an idiot. But no. "EVERYONE!" The crowd goes bananas. The red overhead lamps come on over the stage. The lights go down. The intro bassy grind of "Love And Peace Or Else" comes over the speakers.
The band appear, high-powered flashlights shining into the crowd, walking around the ellipse. Cheering ensues. Those of us close enough reaching our hands toward, hoping one of them will reach down to us. Larry stops at the middle of the ellipse, where a small drum kit is set up. A tom, a cymbal. Adam and Edge hurry back to the stage.