April 24, 2005
We arrived at the Key Arena around 4:00 a.m. to secure our spots in the general admission line. As usual, the line Nazis (fans who self-police the U2 concert queue) were already there, Sharpies in hand to number all of us.
At some point there were two lines and duplicate numbers and raised voices, but by sunrise we had it pretty much worked out.
The rest of the day was pure joy—it started with folks taking turns to walk to McDonald’s for breakfast and Starbucks for coffee. Our @U2 boss, Matt, had never before sipped a Starbucks drink, so Teresa and I bought him a grande organic (you had that milk choice back then) caramel macchiato to initiate him into the club. He had an almost euphoric reaction about how wonderful it was (and to this day we still make fun of him for it).
After that, we sat in lawn chairs and discussed all of the important things U2 fans discuss for 14 hours straight: lyrics; hypotheticals; the setlist; Bono’s height (or lack thereof); other concerts; charities; politics; opening acts, etc. At some point half of the group went to Tower Records (God rest its soul) and the other half went to (what was then) Larry’s Market for sandwiches while Michael and me were left alone for the first time in our friendship.
I let him read my Entertainment Weekly before I had the chance to (a privilege few ever get to have) and tried to force him to eat one of the Rice Krispie treats I made (not yet knowing of his disdain for marshmallows). I also got the tool stuck in my travel-size game of Operation, so he took a break from writing his Answer Guy column to help me untangle it. It was clear we’d become good friends.
We had a great time making fun of the local security girl, Ananda, who knew nothing of what she was doing, but had a very loud and commanding voice, which she used frequently. Though our friends offered to bring us real lunches from the market, I was too excited to eat and primarily sustained myself on Coca-Cola and Cheddar Bunnies.
Once everyone came back, there was buzz about something happening in Canada later that week.
Teresa and I had made friends with staff in the U2 camp when we were in Vancouver for their rehearsals the month prior, and decided to see if we could get additional intel. Sure enough, we did get a tip that the band would be filming a video the day before their next scheduled concert. That meant we needed to go up a day early.
We quickly called our hotel and arranged for an extra night (which wasn’t a problem because no one yet knew of the video shoot), then returned to our friends and pretended we knew nothing. We had to—we were sworn to secrecy.
We did, with their permission, tell Matt though, so we could ‘report’ from the road when the time was right.
After that, it seemed like just minutes later we were inside the Key Arena at our chosen place (at the tip of the ellipse). Michael and Scott took our photo; we took theirs. Kelley made it inside the ellipse and took Matt with her. We passed around earplugs as we suffered through the Kings of Leon opening act. We lived for this stuff!
Since the tour was still in the relatively early stages, the band was alternating their opening song. That night we got lucky when they decided to go with “Love and Peace or Else” and emerge in a pitch black arena with floodlight flashlights. The build up was amazing—the performance even better. To this day, I’m not sure that my heart has ever beaten faster.
I immediately began thrashing around, climbing up the side of the barricade and soon felt something wet on my face. At first, I assumed it water from a nearby fan, but instead it was my own blood—I’d ripped the earring (which matched drummer Larry’s) out of my ear flailing around and the cut was dripping. Numb from excitement, I was more concerned about finding the miniature silver skull that flew past the security guard. Amazingly, when the lights came up, he retrieved it.
The show was phenomenal—it was one of those nights where everything goes off the way it should and everyone agrees the energy is palpable.
Afterward, we headed to Seattle landmark Dick’s for burgers, but I couldn’t keep down more than a Sprite (TMI: I probably won’t be eating Cheddar Bunnies anytime soon).
I fell into the shower around 12:45 and didn’t lie down until after 3:00.
Nothing really compares to a U2 concert high.