U2 Live- Those Who Have Been There Know...

U2 played a free concert at Fordham University in the Bronx today, which was broadcast live on Good Morning America. I woke up earlier than I wish I did and happended to click on the TV just in time to catch the live set. They played 3 songs from their brand new CD along with the more familiar "Beautiful Day". Having seen them live a couple times myself, I know there's a certain feeling in the air at their shows. Call it spirituality, call it euphoric comeraderie, call it people coming together... those who have been there know.

My first U2 show experience was an accident. It was the Popmart tour in June of '97 at Giants Stadium, NJ. My favorite band Rage Against the Machine was touring with U2 (they're both politically outspoken) and they are the reason I bought the ticket. Unbeknownst to me, Rage's leg of the tour was done- grrr!! They would not be playing and I was hugely disappointed. Well I stayed through the warmup band which was the Fun Lovin' Criminals who I did happen to be a fan of, and figured I would stay for U2 since we drove so far. Besides, I did like a couple of their songs at the time (they were too soft for me, because, after all, I was a headbanging thrasher. Respect.) Let me just say that from the time U2 hit the stage until the very last note they played, there was an electricity in the air that I had never felt before. Sign me up. I was hooked. They got me. To say that I was like the Winter Warlock from "Santa Clause Is Coming To Town" and my cold heart had just been melted by a toy train gift from Kris Kringle is a bit of a stretch, I think. But a seed was planted.

My second experience at a U2 show was in Hartford in December of '05. I went to this concert with intentionally lowered expectations because, after all, how could this concert be anywhere close in electricity and energy as the last? Well guess what... Let's just say U2 demonstrated that it was not a one time fluke eight years earlier.

I've been to probably over 100 concerts in my 39 years, from many genres of music. Nowhere else have I experienced this spiritual high. Somehow this band has managed to write songs about love, God, and spirituality, mixed with social and political awareness, and still remain one of the coolest and most popular bands on the planet. To witness and partake in this phenomenon live in concert is like taking a reprieve from the evils of the world, the bleak news of the day, the dark cloud that tends to lurk over us on a daily basis. Both times I saw them live, I left the show wishing that the good-will, feel-good attitude that I had, that the thousands of us fans had, could be the norm felt by all every day (starting with the governments of the world! Yes, U2 tends to make you think along these overzealous lines). It brings a combination of hope and despair- hope that people's eyes will open up, and despair that that probably won't happen (Note to self: it's just a rock concert for Christ's sake!).

Here I catch myself writing about the equivalent of world peace (yeah right), but this is what happens at these shows- I kid you not. I suppose there are those who have had a different experience than I, but I know many others who agree. The way I see it, anyone with a heart and a soul will come away from a U2 show feeling better than when they arrived. Check 'em out- it's one of the few shows worth today's hefty ticket prices.