U2

 photo on Dan and Kelly's front porch prior to the drive to Anaheim
I have been a HUGE U2 fan for several years, maybe half my life...tells you just how old I am. =) I have been wanting to see them in concert for just as long, and have missed out on a few opportunities to see them over the years. On June 18th I FINALLY got my turn. About 10 months ago Chris and I were planning our trip to California and we realized that U2 was going to be in Anaheim over the dates that were planned to be in California for my family's reunion. We decided to include Chris' brother Dan and his wife who also live in central California. We also planned to surprise her with the tickets since the day two concert date fell on her birthday. For the last several months I have beens staring at the four U2 tickets in my dresser drawer, counting down the days to the concert.

Saturday afternoon we picked Dan and Kelly up in Hanford and made our way south we were kind of in a time crunch and of course hit traffic. Dan was great withhis smart phone navigating us through the worst of it, and helped us find a crazy burger joint for dinner. We arrived right on time and found our seats. It was a fantastic show. Lenny Kravitz opened the concert and until this point I had always liked his music, but his music live is another story altogether. Intense, powerful, soulful, blazing with a smoking brass section and back-up vocals, he almost stole the show. *almost*

After Lenny did his set, there was about an hour in between U2's opener, and I found myself on the hunt fora particular tour t shirt...I finally found one and got to meet several die hard U2 fans in the lines, amazing how friendly everybody was, It was so fun listening to fans tell their stories of concerts they had attended over the years, one fan who has seen nine concerts this year alone, and who has met Bono in Dublin. As I was finally making my purchase I heard the opening strands of David Bowie's  'Ground Control to Major Tom' echoing through the stadium. ( Space travel was a theme for the tour.) 

I grabbed my bag and RAN back to my seat in the stands. 'Even Better than the Real Thing' was the opener, fabulous. They played 4 songs from the album 'Achtung Baby' in a row, which was great for me, it's my second favorite album behind Joshua Tree. The night was full of song surprises, with interesting choices by the band stretching their  30+ year career. I wished it would have lasted just a wee bit longer...but isn't that the way it always goes? You just want one more song? I do wish they had played 'Bad' one of my very favorites and a classic song from the band's 'Unforgettable Fire' album, but all in all, I am so happy. I got to hear 'With or Without You' and 'I Will Follow' live. If you want to check out the complete set list you can view it here. It was a great night, a night well worth the wait.

midway through the concert via Kelly's iphone