It was a Beautiful Day for U2

Wednesday, I saw U2 for my third time at the Rogers Centre in Toronto. I saw them at Exhibition Stadium in the early 1990's and in 2005 at the Air Canada Centre. The photo below was a similar view from where I was in 2005. It's not my photo because although I brought my camera, I forgot to put film in it!



I didn't get tickets initially this year for U2 because either I couldn't get General Admission tickets or I couldn't get any. I wasn't interested in being far again. Floors was all I was interested in...so when a friend of ours emailed to say he had a couple of General Admission tickets...we didn't hesitate (and that was before we knew they were compliments of R.I.M. - does that mean I should finally upgrade my basic cell phone to a Blackberry? at least hubby is on his second so I don't feel too guilty).

Speaking of R.I.M. it looks like they were the solo advertiser last night with much of the Rogers advertising taken down and "Blackberry.lovesU2" signs everywhere.

Snow Patrol took to the stage first. I thought they were amazing. I had seen them a year or two ago at Kool Haus. It was great to see them in a bigger venue with the big screen and extra lighting. Unfortunately with a U2 crowd, not everyone knows them so some people around us were talking...but I still think most people really ended up appreciating their music and their banter, well at least the people on the floor as you can see from this photo.



So now, it's been 3 huge concerts this year that I have seen from up close. The Killers at the Air Canada Centre in January, Coldplay at the Rogers Centre in July and U2 at the Rogers Centre this week. Who would have thought I would have these experiences at the beginning of the year (or even last week for that matter).

This one definitely had the spectacle of the "Biggest Band in the World". In the past I have felt that Coldplay's concerts were more about the music rather than the entertainment. I didn't think anything could top this summer's Coldplay concert. I found Wednesday (and perhaps it was because I was closer than in the past) that U2 was about the entertainment...but also about the music. The musicians were all showcased quite well with spotlights often on them.

I was initially disappointed that the bridges to the circular runway were closer to the back. This is the view from the back of the stage that my husband took (and interestingly I got annoyed at him for because I wanted to get down to the field). I even said "it's not like we would use this photo for anything anyway"...crunch, crunch...that's me eating my words...



The two bridges are covered here, but you can see that they go towards the back of the stage. I had seen a video online of Bono standing on one of the bridges singing, so I thought I wouldn't be able to see him from the front. What a pleasant surprise when I realized that the bridges moved. A few times one of them moved right in front of us so that The Edge or Bono were walking right toward us.



The runway definitely makes the venue seem smaller. They used it a lot more than I thought they would. They would take turns going on the bridges or on the runway so we did feel like we were closer than we really were (to the stage). Even Larry came out on it once playing a bongo.



One of my pet peeves with concerts sometimes is that the lighting is so low and there is smoke from the smoke machines so it's difficult to focus the camera to take a good shot. Last night, we got great shots early, so we didn't feel like we had to keep taking photos.



We could just enjoy the show. I would still get caught up in the moment when they came closer so I did video most of the times they came close, but when they were on stage, I could relax and enjoy the show.

The first time that Bono was on the bridge, I was recording the song...but sometimes, there was this black vertical line in the way. I was a bit annoyed at my "obstructed" view...


I didn't realize what the obstruction was until after I stopped recording as he walked off the bridge onto the runway. He walked towards us to a microphone that had appeared just to the right of us where he finished the song.



I was like a kid in a candy store. Having arrived at the concert at 6:30, I never imagined having such a view, especially since people had started lining up the night before.

This was the second time that the Rogers Centre had the roof open for a concert (the first time for Bruce Sprinsteen). It was so beautiful to see the CN Tower lit up. I panned to it at the end of this video:



Before the concert, I wanted two songs by Snow Patrol recorded on video. Since they were staying on the stage and the crowd were not going nuts, those videos were easy to capture. U2 was not so simple however. For some of my favourite songs, they were behind the stage, or to the side or the crowd was jumping up and down that visibility was minimal. I recorded the songs when they were on the runway or a few quieter ones. For one song (Beautiful Day), I actually recorded the big screen, just to have it because I couldn't see the band at the time.

That is one disadvantage to having floor tickets. Sometimes, you can't see....but you can't beat the atmosphere!

It was truly a Beautiful Day!