Claude, Vero, Mike and I hit the road around 2:30 to head to Montreal for the U2 concert. 80,000 people were expected to descend into the Hippodrome and anticipation was high. I spent a few hours mapping out what we should as I found out there was no parking on site. I must admit that the event was very well organized…the city of Montreal had road closure maps, the Metro had suggested routes along with a special U2 Pass to use for the day, cops were on every corner willing to assist strangers to their fair city.
It was a beautiful day when we pulled into the city. We made our way to the Metro station (where I nearly got us killed when I took a left turn on a yellow light and the bus in the opposite lane decided to keep traveling towards us. Quite scary!), where there was already a lineup forming to get some passes for the day. We waited in line for 30 minutes to find out that they were all out of the U2Montreal Metro passes but they gave us a few complementary tickets in order to get to the stop where they were selling the passes.
All aboard! The Metro was easy enough to take and we hopped off and walked the rest of the way to the venue. It was an amazing, amazing day out with not a cloud in the sky. Sunscreen was definitely needed. There were signs up all over the city indicating what way to walk to the Hippodrome. I cannot comment enough on how well organized this event was. I don’t even think Bluesfest is this well organized. Granted, with 80,000 people attending a concert, the city needs to be prepared or be ready to deal with the consequences.
We sauntered into the lineup which was moving along swiftly. We could see ‘The Claw’ in the distance and the excitement came over me. We were seeing U2 again! Sweet. At one point a guy told us to go one way for food, or the other way to the stage. What the heck? We couldn’t get food closer to the stage? Very strange. We dumped our water bottles (no outside beverages allowed) and wandered through the packed Fan Zone where there vendors of all sorts and quite a few beers being drank. I knew better than to sip on a few brewskis at this event as it would be impossible to move out of 80,000 people and get back to our spot. I was going into ‘maintain hydration’ mode. We managed to get a slice of pizza and then headed to the stage where we realized there were other concession stands with a lot less of a lineup! The guy directing the traffic must have been trying to get everyone to head to the Fan Zone!
We arrived at the stage and surveyed the land. Stages had been erected for this concert and there was a fair sized crowd already formed in front of the stage. This time around, I wanted to be a little further back so I could capture the magic of the entire Claw stage. In Toronto 2009, I was so close to the stage, that I couldn’t see what was going on with the rest of the stage…it’s so immense!
There was still a lot of space around the sound booth so we decided to go relax on the lawn for an hour and seeing that it was so bloody hot (at least 35 degrees!) I had a few beer with the boys considering the washrooms were right next to us. 15 minutes before the start of the opening act, we decided to head into the crowd. Vero found an excellent spot on the right side of the sound stage. We chatted for awhile and then Interpol finally hit the stage.
What can I say about Interpol? Never heard them before, and all in all, wasn’t too much into them. I didn’t feel they got the crowd moving at all. Not sure what they felt about the experience. I supposed opening up for U2 is the highlight of anyone’s career!
After Interpol, they manged to fix the screen which had a dead LED panel. Luckily it was fixed in time for the U2 show. During the intermission, it was a marvel to witness 80,000 people in the area. I couldn’t get over how many people there were…40,000 on the floor, 40,000 in the stands. I felt like everyone had run smoothly…walking through security was a breeze, scanning the tickets was simple…Bluesfest definitely has some hiccups and they generally bring in around 25-35,000 people a night.
I have described the U2 360 Stage in my previous post so I won’t get into much of that. I will talk of some differences in my experience this time around.
– During intermission they had some really cool stats appearing on the LED screen…world population, world deaths, concert attendance, how many days it takes to tear down the stage…interesting stuff. After fifteen minutes of stats, they switched to simply showing what time it was at various parts of the world.
– The show started off around 9:15 but the start was amazing! Even Better than the Real Thing (and a heavy dose of Achtung Baby tracks) dominated the first 20 minutes of the show. I was amazed at the lights, smoke, and all effects happening when they entered the stage. I can’t even remember if this is what I saw two years ago, but it did not matter…the roar of the crowd is what mattered!
– There was a new intro to Beautiful Day which was quite amazing. A major theme of the U2 360 Show is the song Space Oddity by David Bowie. It opens up the show and there are references to it throughout the show. One such reference is a member of the International Space Station (Mark Kelly) who is shown on the LED screen! He says hello from outer space and at the end he says “Tell my wife I love her. She knows.” which is from the song (I didn’t realize until later). It’s also a shout out to his wife Gabrielle Giffords who was injured in the 2011 Tucson shooting (thank you Wikipedia!). Bono then says “Do you have anything else to share with us?” and he has cut out letters saying “It’s a beautiful day” and lets them float around him. AMAZING introduction to the song. Fantastic! The crowd was roaring!
– It’s quite interesting to see how the world has changed since I first saw U2 in 2001. Back then, Aung San Suu Kyi was still imprisoned under house arrest. In 2009, she was still imprisoned and the 360 show had people wear paper masks with her face on it. In 2011, she had been released and there was a video message from her, showing her support for the band and their fans. It was a crazy moment to think that ten years after hearing about the struggles of this woman, that she was finally free.
– Very cool to hear a strong Achtung Baby set…Even Better than the Real Thing, The Fly, Mysterious Ways, Until the End of the World, Zooropa, One…awesome!
– Claude got to finally hear his U2360 incarnation of Pride. He was going nuts!
– As always, Streets is a highlight for me but I would have to say hearing Hold Me, Thrill Me, Kiss Me, Kill Me for the first time live was my personal highlight. The crowd seemed to eat it up.
– All in all, Claude and I were not impressed with our section of the crowd. So much, that I am contemplating going to their Moncton show in a few weeks. I believe it was a combination of people burnt out from the hot day, too much beer, smoking…that brought their mood down. There were many times were I thought Claude and I were the only ones singing around us! The crowd was not moving around us at all. I felt robbed of the ultimate U2 experience. Maybe that’s the sacrifice of being so far away from the stage? However, while listening to the bootleg of the concert, I realize that the crowd WAS really loud so maybe I was just affected by my own section.
The end of the concert was an unexpected visitor. Halfway through Moment of Surrender, torrential downpours started on the crowd! It was crazy. Wind was blowing hard, rain was hitting us from all sides. It was never expected as the forecast had said it would be a clear night! U2 even broke out into a snippet of Rain by the Beatles which was fun! But 80,000 people exiting the area is bad enough on a good night, it was horrible on this wet, wet night. The rain did not let up all night. We ended up walking to the nearest Metro station but that was jam packed to the gills so we decided to walk to the Metro station BEFORE ours so we can get the train before the jam packed station. Unfortunately for us, we had assumed the Metro station was along Decarie but it was up a few blocks so we had walked by 2-3 stations before asking a cop who let us know we were off by a few blocks. We were soaked to the bone. My wallet is still soaked, five days later! It was ridiculous. We were quite the sorry sight hopping onto the subway. It didn’t help that we had to get back out there and walk to the car and then drive home for 2 hours in soaking underwear. 🙁 However, in the end of it all, it was a great night.
I read an article that said something to the effect that you don’t have to be a fan to enjoy a U2 show because it’s not just a rock show, it’s an event. It’s a spectacle. That’s what it was…I highly encourage anyone reading this to catch the last remaining dates of the U2360 tour. It’s well worth your while!
Even Better Than The Real Thing
The Fly
Mysterious Ways
Until The End Of The World
I Will Follow
Get On Your Boots
I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For
Stay (Faraway, So Close!)
Beautiful Day
Elevation
Pride (In The Name Of Love)
Miss Sarajevo
Zooropa
City Of Blinding Lights
Vertigo
I’ll Go Crazy / Discotheque
Sunday Bloody Sunday
Scarlet
Walk On
Encore
One
Where The Streets Have No Name
Encore 2
Hold Me, Thrill Me, Kiss Me, Kill Me
With Or Without You
Moment Of Surrender
Rain (Beatles) – Snippet
Photos from Aerialcam.ca