the u2 experience 2015

I don't know how many times I've seen U2 in concert over the years, but I do know that they just get better and better every time I do experience them live. Saturday night at the LA Forum (which I hate) was no exception (despite its location). 

I knew going in I was about to see a visually stunning, technologically amazing show. And I'd heard that what I'd hear was also going to be amazing thanks to a new sound system the band has installed around the arena, instead of just blaring from the stage. (That was well documented in the reviews of earlier stops on the still-young tour.) But as amazing as all that was, the "innocence+experience tour" is still -- at its core -- about four guys from the North side of Dublin who write beautiful music and make every one of the 20,000 people crammed into the arena feel like every note is meant just for them. 

Their latest album "Songs of Innocence" is now one of my all-time favorites, and it features one of my new all-time favorite songs, "Song for Someone." That was the first song on the album that struck a chord with me. And that was one song I truly wanted to hear live... just for me, and, well... 

love.

I was happy...and I didn't even have to wait that long :)

Here are the 22 other songs Bono, Edge, Adam and Larry also played during the two(ish) hour set....

They started out rocking on the main stage, near my awesome seats. (Paying $40 a year to be a member of U2.com has its privileges!) Then Bono, followed by The Edge and eventually Adam and Larry made their way down the ramp to the small stage at the other end of the arena. There truly wasn't a bad seat in the house.

They also made their way into the massive projection screen that is the centerpiece of the "visually stunning, technologically amazing" part of the show. Here are some of the coolest and/or funniest shots I took (imho): 

Edge inside the screen, and Bono being filmed on the small stage.
(After squirting him down, Bono held Edge in the palm of his hand ;) 

The whole band inside the screen

I loved the whole show. And I am so happy it actually happened. I bought the tickets back in December and it's taken forever to arrive. And just as it did, bad things started happening.  I kind of fear this tour is cursed. First, the whole start of the tour was postponed by Bono's catastrophic bicycle accident in Central Park back in November. Then a few nights before the first show in Vancouver, Larry's father passed away. Then on opening night in Vancouver, Edge walked right off the edge of the stage and luckily wasn't hurt. Then this past Wednesday, the band's tour manager Dennis Sheehan was found dead in his hotel room. 

That loss is still very raw. Bono spoke of him while discussing friendship, and the sanctity of it. And how friends can fight and speak their minds and still be okay.... and how that's so important to do. He said he regrets not saying things to Dennis. And he also regrets not saying things to Michael Hutchence, which lead into the song he wrote after Hutchence died... and it too was beautiful, with Edge on piano and backing vocals. 

I've leave you stuck in that moment, sung with words of experience after the innocence has gone... enjoy: