chez<\/span> a friend of her friend Win. She said that there would a mariachi band at the tailgate. I jokingly said to tell Win that I wasn\u2019t coming to any tailgate for anything less than U2. No, I did not know U2 was playing in Raleigh Saturday night. Saturday morning, Marian asked me if I wanted to see U2 that evening. What?! \u201cWin will get tickets.\u201d Win was my new best friend.<\/p>\nThe concert: Think of a giant space spider pouncing at about the 40-yard-line of a major college football stadium, then letting down a 360-degree video screen on the heads of four teeny musicians from Ireland and you\u2019ve got the picture. Bono asked, \u201cHow do you like our spaceship?\u201d and referred to the video screens (which showed live action) as an attempt to create \u201cintimacy on a grand scale.\u201d They did.<\/p>\n
Smartest thing the band did was building to a crescendo with some of their most recognizable tunes, especially \u201cSunday, Bloody Sunday,\u201d after a speech from Bono about rights abuses in Tehran, and \u201cOne,\u201d as a sort of world-unifying anthem. Gotta hand it to the quartet: They\u2019ve stuck together for thirty-plus years, and they\u2019ve stuck to message. The concert was generous (over two hours), including two long encores. Most moving was a walk by the lead man around the outer ring of the stage with a boy named Brian from the audience, whilst Brian wore Bono glasses and Bono sang \u201cCity of Blinding Lights.\u201d Halfway through the tune, the pair broke into a bounding, joyous run.<\/p>\n
Because of Bono and Me? <\/span>I am a Catholic, and that gives me joy. Last night, in the company of Katie, Marian, and Win, I experienced joy. Part of it was the concert. Part was the company. Part was the enormous harvest moon that hung overhead in the open-air stadium, directly in front of Bono, no less. Part was getting into bed in one piece, with the pillow on reverb. But joy it was. So there is an equivalence here, a Bono=joy=Catholic=me, and if I\u2019m not mistaken, he\u2019s a good Irish Catholic lad himself. I\u2019m Catholic, married to an Irish lass.<\/p>\n\u201cSunday, Bloody Sunday\u201d is still the greatest rock song ever written. And as we were reminded again last night, Sundays on this planet, God bless us, are never without their share of blood.<\/p>\n
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<\/a>I once could hear and then was deaf and now can hear again. I\u2019m not talking about conversion. I\u2019m talking about recovering from last night\u2019s U2 concert. The pope is not a fan of rock concerts, as in hypnotic screaming mayhem. But isn\u2019t BXVI giving Bono an audience? Well, I was in <\/span>Bono\u2019s audience last night.<\/p>\n