#4951
Posted: 11/22/05 at 1:19pm
This is as far as I've gotten thus far...I've gotta run to class, but I'll post some more before my Film class tonight. Sorry it's so long and I only got to Patti Smith's set!
OK, here’s my rambling review of the goings-on yesterday for the show!
First, I was a bit sluggish because of my charming roommie, which left me with 3 or 4 hours of sleep. Oh, jumping ahead to when Claire and I got home around 1:30 (thanks to the lovely subway and a 20 minute or so wait at the Bleeker St. 6, after a D train arrived on the C track?!?!?). Since Crazy saw it fit to turn on all the lights Monday morning at 2:30 for half an hour, including the bathroom light w/ the fan, I didn’t think I would be at all out of line for doing the same! So, I turned on the bathroom light to see in our room to grab Claire’s pillow and a blanket (got the first mini-leg stab...should have taken that as a warning sign!). So, I come out here, and start to tell Claire about my bizarre leg issue (I get it every once in a while, sleeping…like once a year, where you’re woken up by a sharp pain, and you can’t stand up to stretch it out, because you’d just fall over)…well, this time I got the stab while I was already standing up, so over I go! And Claire and I are laughing hysterically! Then, there’s an abrupt slapping off of the bathroom light and slamming of the door. Give me a break!!! Wench! She did the exact same thing yesterday (ok, so maybe she was quieter than I was, but I couldn’t help it! I collapsed in the living room, dammit! It’s not like I’d planned on having excruciating leg pain/leg failure!)
Anyway…I guess I’ll break this up into some rough stages of the day. So, first would be the line. The forecast was for it to be partly cloudy and 57. They lied. It was totally overcast and raw, and I was cold all day in line. I got out of class at 10, waited until 11 when they opened for lunch at school to get a sandwich to bring with me, and ended up getting there around 11:45. I was #86 in line, and so it began. Stacey showed up around 12:30, and we chatted for a while. I met Pat and anjilly around 1 in line, and that was fab! Claire got in around 3:30, and at 4, there was a bunch of screaming down the block, signifying that Bono was out signing. We all ran down, and this royally screwed up the line. People in the 100s were ahead of us, and shortly after this, I went back to my place to drop my messenger bag off and change, hoping it’d be fixed by the time I got back.
I guess some of the people got re-ordered, but there was still this one chick w/ a pink coat on that refused to go back to her spot (she was #124). Apparently everyone yelled at her, and while it was really annoying, I found a lot of the line’s comments about her rather amusing (especially the group from Texas in front of us). Oh, and by this time, it has started raining, but they didn’t let us in at 6, as promised. I think it was closer to 40 past.
So, next: Getting in and getting scanned. They had people go inside in small groups, and Stacey and I were a cutoff for a new group. The guy behind us was bitching to MSG security about them not recognizing the numbers, and they were like “hmmm…too bad!” We get the ok to go in, open our bags, and go up stairs where they have two tables set up with the scanner laptops. We get our first floor wristband, and move on down to the laptop. Stacey went first and got: Proceed to Floor. So, I take a deep breath, and she swipes my ticket. The screen still says Proceed to Floor. I’m bummed…then I notice she’s still trying to scan it (the screen is still showing Stacey’s scan). She tries 3 or so times, but it just won’t take, so she says to the guy standing next to the table: “Hit it!” He presses something (I think it was mouse pad on the laptop…or maybe it was a key, I don’t remember) but then it goes: “VERTIGO! VERTIGO! VERTIGO!” And we scream and scamper over to get our tix stapled together and they’re punched with big umbrellas (appropriately enough!) So, basically, I guess I’m still lucky that I got a faulty ticket that wouldn’t scan, but I don’t think my ticket necessarily was a “winner.” Since it wouldn’t scan, they just let us in (as far as I could tell). Like the little kids getting automatic entry into the ellipse…I guess they’re all about, “when in doubt, put ‘em in the ellipse!”
So, we wait some more…someone screwed something up (I heard that some people got in before the doors were open) and there was a lot of yelling. Some guy kept screaming if we didn’t all turn around and move back, he’d send everyone that wasn’t cooperating to the back of the line. Well, I can’t move if the people behind me can’t move, because someone 20 people down is being stubborn and won’t move. Anyway (surprise, surprise!), nobody really moved. They didn’t send us to the back of the line, and we eventually got to move to the next little waiting spot. We ran up two escalators, ran around the a good chunk of the perimeter of the inside of the arena, and waited again. When they finally let us in, we went through two check points for them to flash our ellipse wristbands with a black light (it had little U2 symbols, like the Vertigo target, bomb, a heart, etc on it).
We get in, and the front rail is already full. The people that got scanned in in front of us got the last spot on Adam’s side (next to the chick that got pulled up for WOWY). So, we get a spot in the second row between Bono and Adam. I love Edge (and even though I’m on an Adam kick, given the choice, I would have picked Edge’s side) but it looked like his side was already 2-3 people deep. I was perfectly content being in front of Adam and being closer. I had a short girl in front of me too, so it was a perfect view! (At first, Stacey was like: Do you want to stay here or go to the back of the ellipse? While we did miss everything on the ellipse, it was TOTALLY worth losing the acoustic encore for all the other songs being that close!)
On the floor behind the rail, there’s a 2 foot (or so) metal lip that’s about an inch high. It was barely enough room to fit two people deep, but I managed to stay on it all night, only stumbling off a bit once, jumping around during UTEOTW. I should have known better anyway, as my legs were totally dead by then. The girl in front of Stacey was a bit of a wench. She was really pissy. You’ll just have to take my word for it. I don’t really have any specifics, but she was obnoxious. She took up more than her fair share of space too, and I felt bad for Stacey about that. I was initially behind her, and I saw that she was going to be annoying (sticking her ass out and standing farther back and leaning forward onto the rail, rather than standing up close to it) so I moved over a person before Patti Smith started.
Patti Smith…I suppose I’m glad I saw her, and she had the aura of being important and influential, but I wish I’d had someone that I was more familiar with for an opener being that close. I only knew the songs that were U2 related: Dancing Barefoot, RnRN (during which, she snippeted Vertigo, as they’d been snippeting her song during Vertigo lately), and PHTP (oh and she did Instant Karma too). She spat a lot too, which was kind of…odd (and more than a little disgusting) from that close perspective. And not like, she’s singing and some spit is coming out. No, like hocking ‘em onto the stage (at least one per song).
OK, here’s my rambling review of the goings-on yesterday for the show!
First, I was a bit sluggish because of my charming roommie, which left me with 3 or 4 hours of sleep. Oh, jumping ahead to when Claire and I got home around 1:30 (thanks to the lovely subway and a 20 minute or so wait at the Bleeker St. 6, after a D train arrived on the C track?!?!?). Since Crazy saw it fit to turn on all the lights Monday morning at 2:30 for half an hour, including the bathroom light w/ the fan, I didn’t think I would be at all out of line for doing the same! So, I turned on the bathroom light to see in our room to grab Claire’s pillow and a blanket (got the first mini-leg stab...should have taken that as a warning sign!). So, I come out here, and start to tell Claire about my bizarre leg issue (I get it every once in a while, sleeping…like once a year, where you’re woken up by a sharp pain, and you can’t stand up to stretch it out, because you’d just fall over)…well, this time I got the stab while I was already standing up, so over I go! And Claire and I are laughing hysterically! Then, there’s an abrupt slapping off of the bathroom light and slamming of the door. Give me a break!!! Wench! She did the exact same thing yesterday (ok, so maybe she was quieter than I was, but I couldn’t help it! I collapsed in the living room, dammit! It’s not like I’d planned on having excruciating leg pain/leg failure!)
Anyway…I guess I’ll break this up into some rough stages of the day. So, first would be the line. The forecast was for it to be partly cloudy and 57. They lied. It was totally overcast and raw, and I was cold all day in line. I got out of class at 10, waited until 11 when they opened for lunch at school to get a sandwich to bring with me, and ended up getting there around 11:45. I was #86 in line, and so it began. Stacey showed up around 12:30, and we chatted for a while. I met Pat and anjilly around 1 in line, and that was fab! Claire got in around 3:30, and at 4, there was a bunch of screaming down the block, signifying that Bono was out signing. We all ran down, and this royally screwed up the line. People in the 100s were ahead of us, and shortly after this, I went back to my place to drop my messenger bag off and change, hoping it’d be fixed by the time I got back.
I guess some of the people got re-ordered, but there was still this one chick w/ a pink coat on that refused to go back to her spot (she was #124). Apparently everyone yelled at her, and while it was really annoying, I found a lot of the line’s comments about her rather amusing (especially the group from Texas in front of us). Oh, and by this time, it has started raining, but they didn’t let us in at 6, as promised. I think it was closer to 40 past.
So, next: Getting in and getting scanned. They had people go inside in small groups, and Stacey and I were a cutoff for a new group. The guy behind us was bitching to MSG security about them not recognizing the numbers, and they were like “hmmm…too bad!” We get the ok to go in, open our bags, and go up stairs where they have two tables set up with the scanner laptops. We get our first floor wristband, and move on down to the laptop. Stacey went first and got: Proceed to Floor. So, I take a deep breath, and she swipes my ticket. The screen still says Proceed to Floor. I’m bummed…then I notice she’s still trying to scan it (the screen is still showing Stacey’s scan). She tries 3 or so times, but it just won’t take, so she says to the guy standing next to the table: “Hit it!” He presses something (I think it was mouse pad on the laptop…or maybe it was a key, I don’t remember) but then it goes: “VERTIGO! VERTIGO! VERTIGO!” And we scream and scamper over to get our tix stapled together and they’re punched with big umbrellas (appropriately enough!) So, basically, I guess I’m still lucky that I got a faulty ticket that wouldn’t scan, but I don’t think my ticket necessarily was a “winner.” Since it wouldn’t scan, they just let us in (as far as I could tell). Like the little kids getting automatic entry into the ellipse…I guess they’re all about, “when in doubt, put ‘em in the ellipse!”
So, we wait some more…someone screwed something up (I heard that some people got in before the doors were open) and there was a lot of yelling. Some guy kept screaming if we didn’t all turn around and move back, he’d send everyone that wasn’t cooperating to the back of the line. Well, I can’t move if the people behind me can’t move, because someone 20 people down is being stubborn and won’t move. Anyway (surprise, surprise!), nobody really moved. They didn’t send us to the back of the line, and we eventually got to move to the next little waiting spot. We ran up two escalators, ran around the a good chunk of the perimeter of the inside of the arena, and waited again. When they finally let us in, we went through two check points for them to flash our ellipse wristbands with a black light (it had little U2 symbols, like the Vertigo target, bomb, a heart, etc on it).
We get in, and the front rail is already full. The people that got scanned in in front of us got the last spot on Adam’s side (next to the chick that got pulled up for WOWY). So, we get a spot in the second row between Bono and Adam. I love Edge (and even though I’m on an Adam kick, given the choice, I would have picked Edge’s side) but it looked like his side was already 2-3 people deep. I was perfectly content being in front of Adam and being closer. I had a short girl in front of me too, so it was a perfect view! (At first, Stacey was like: Do you want to stay here or go to the back of the ellipse? While we did miss everything on the ellipse, it was TOTALLY worth losing the acoustic encore for all the other songs being that close!)
On the floor behind the rail, there’s a 2 foot (or so) metal lip that’s about an inch high. It was barely enough room to fit two people deep, but I managed to stay on it all night, only stumbling off a bit once, jumping around during UTEOTW. I should have known better anyway, as my legs were totally dead by then. The girl in front of Stacey was a bit of a wench. She was really pissy. You’ll just have to take my word for it. I don’t really have any specifics, but she was obnoxious. She took up more than her fair share of space too, and I felt bad for Stacey about that. I was initially behind her, and I saw that she was going to be annoying (sticking her ass out and standing farther back and leaning forward onto the rail, rather than standing up close to it) so I moved over a person before Patti Smith started.
Patti Smith…I suppose I’m glad I saw her, and she had the aura of being important and influential, but I wish I’d had someone that I was more familiar with for an opener being that close. I only knew the songs that were U2 related: Dancing Barefoot, RnRN (during which, she snippeted Vertigo, as they’d been snippeting her song during Vertigo lately), and PHTP (oh and she did Instant Karma too). She spat a lot too, which was kind of…odd (and more than a little disgusting) from that close perspective. And not like, she’s singing and some spit is coming out. No, like hocking ‘em onto the stage (at least one per song).
But when did New Hampshire become--Such a backward wasteland of seatbelt hating crazies?...I mean, only 40 people actually live there. The others are just visitors who come for the tax-free liquor and three inches of novelty coastline. John Hodgeman on The Daily Show (1-30-07)
Updated On: 11/22/05 at 01:19 PM
Oh, speaking of Adam. His pants are so cool. They were the black ones with the red stitching, and he’s got some little Vertigo thing on his left ass cheek. That’s one potential shot that I was kind of pissed about the camera being dead for. Oh, and Adam’s bass playing on this song is so beyond sexy! He does this sexed up rocking with his bass, that should totally be illegal! Right up there with Chris Martin’s non-PG piano gyrating. 
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