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:

thoughts on songs of innocence

A little over a week ago, Apple held one of their big press conferences and announced they have new products you need to pay hundreds of dollars for that I will never buy because #iluvmydroid. Snooze. Yawn.

But then they introduced my favorite band (now that Bon Jovi is minus a Sambora) and announced that every iTunes user in the world was getting a gift in their account -- a free copy of the long-awaited new U2 album "Songs of Innocence."

That woke me up. I knew the album was almost ready. They'd been working on it for years. It was supposed to come out last year. Then it didn't. Then it was going to come out before the end of this year. But no date was announced. I kept waiting. Then I got distracted and all excited about the new Foos album coming out in November.

Never did I guess U2 would go from zero to a thousand and give it away to everyone (whether they wanted it or not) at the exact moment it was announced. I was so excited!

Then I got home to check my iTunes (since #ihaveadroid) and became perturbed. It wasn't easy to find. (Thanks to the peeps on the Apple message boards who also felt my pain and shared the secret of going to iTunes Preferences -> Store and checking the friggin' "Show iTunes in the Cloud purchases" box.)

I finally got it downloaded and started listening. My immediate favorite song was "Song for Someone"... a sweet, lyrical Bono love song with Edge singing harmony that builds up like a classic U2 hit a'la "With or Without You" or "Walk On."

Then the next day, Bono posted this.

Then I really started listening... trying to figure the "very, very personal" songs out, because one of the things I love and miss most about buying albums is reading the liner notes and analyzing the little poems put to music known as song lyrics.

I started loving "Every Breaking Wave." Then "Iris" .... classic Edge strum, strum, strum... Larry bang, bang, banging beat, building up, with the music traveling in circles as Bono tells a story over it.. this time about his mom, Iris, who died when he was 14. It reminds me of pre-Unforgettable Fire U2. And I can already see that song in concert with bright flashing lights traveling the stage as Bono runs around and Edge stands there strum, strum, strumming in one spot. It's very different from the song Bono wrote when his dad died, ("Sometimes You Can't Make It On Your Own" from one of my favorite albums, "How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb.") but he had a lot more history with his dad...

Then two days ago I read this on RollingStone.com. Thank you for not making me figure it all out anymore. For those that don't want to click, based on an interview with Bono, the songs chronicle their young, innocent, pre-super band days.

Today I was connecting with the haunting "The Troubles" and "Volcano" -- they fit my mood this week at work. Volcano is also very '80s to me, which is a good thing ;)

Overall, I think I will like and listen to this album a lot. It's definitely more on the Achtung Baby/All That You Can't Leave Behind side of the collection (where I love listening to the whole album, no skipping) than the Zooropa/Pop side (where I listen to "If God Will Send His Angels" and "Staring at the Sun" and ... that's about it).

It was definitely worth way more than I paid for it (ha) and I will probably be one of the suckers that actually buys the album when it's physically released on October 15 so I can get the book that comes with it (see liner notes comment above ;) and the acoustic versions of four songs... because I'm also a sucker for anything played unplugged.

What do you think of your free gift? (That Apple actually paid $100 million for... nice promotional budget!) And who wants to go to a U2 concert with me next year to hear it live? :)