U2 Rocks!

U2 360 Tour at the Rose Bowl October 25, 2009!

It was my great privilege to attend U2’s 360-tour show at the Rose Bowl on October 25^th. I’ve loved U2 since I was a girl and I knew it was going to be a good experience but I was completely unprepared for the magnitude of this spectacle.

The first thing I noticed was that the crowd of nearly a 100,000 people was very polite and well behaved. It was a pleasure to be in their company. The group was wildly diverse I saw a sampling of everybody and a surprisingly high number of elderly people and children. I’m a people watcher so I was in heaven looking at the human buffet walking by and reminding myself everyone in this massive crowd had their own story, their own hardships and their own reasons for being here. Even though it was only a rock concert, just seeing that many souls together in one place with a common purpose was almost overwhelming.

The next special thing I realized was this concert was being filmed for DVD and streamed live to the world on Youtube. It was very sobering to receive emails that morning from friends all over the world saying they were setting their alarm clocks or switching schedules at work so they could watch the show in real time with us. Our friends from all over the country, South Africa and Ireland emailed to tell us they were with us in spirit and sharing the experience. The planet seemed to shrink a bit.

One of the show highlights was the fact that they projected a live feed from the international space station and astronauts on the space station spoke with earth during the show. Buzz Aldrin, the second man to walk on the moon was in the audience, so U2 projected a beautiful picture of the moon onto the stage's curved screens so he would feel at home.

The Black Eyed Peas opened the show along with a guest appearance by Gun’s and Roses guitar-hero Slash. They were great! The dancing started and never stopped. My husband and I paid for seats we never used. We were on our feet the entire night dancing and shaking our glow sticks. I went absolutely berserk when U2 took the stage. For the next two hours I was nineteen again. My husband just kept looking at me, smiling.

There was a moment in the show that felt like a prayer. The energy of the crowd rose and when it reached it’s zenith and I couldn’t take the tension a moment longer, a tall spire on the top of the stage lit up, pulsed and shot intense beams of light into space. It truly was an ascended moment and a bit like sending out the “Bat Signal” to God. We all knew we were a small part of a very special moment.

I bless U2 for staying loyal to each other, relevant, creative, aging gracefully and most of all showing us middle-agers we can still rock! Needless to say we will be attending the next U2 concert.

XXOO Katalina Leon