A little while ago, Punditman grabbed a book that had been sitting mostly unread on his shelf for 20 years, Unforgettable Fire: The Story of U2. Punditman has been pleasantly surprised at what an enjoyable and informative read it is.
Punditman always really liked U2, so there must be some cosmic reason why, through a stroke of karmic luck, Punditman was given two free tickets to last night's Toronto concert. The actual cost of the seats could provide five tons of food for hungry North Americans, or save the lives of five children from malnutrition in the Third World, or provide medical supplies and treatment to a village of 100 for one year. Punditman wondered what kind of rich nutter would pay the actual cost of these seats; the P-man loves U2 but not that much.
In order to cut down on our carbon footprint, we drove part way and then took the subway. It took 3.5 traffic-jammed, subway-scrunched hours to make what once was an hour-and-change trek to the Big Smoke, reminding Punditman of why he doesn't go into the City as often as he once did and why he would never move back to from whence Punditman once dwelled, albeit in the burbs. Punditman had never lined up at a subway stop for half an hour and he never plans to again. A free Leaf game and the TIFF didn't help with crowd numbers.
Admittedly, for a progressively minded bunch, U2's carbon footprint is a little higher than Punditman and Bunnie and Peacenik and Johnny Anon combined. But hey, bringing music to the people on a revolving stage with a wall of sound while shouting out the message of unity and making people aware of Burmese political prisoner Aung San Suu Kyi, all the while rocking out, is probably hard to do on the cheap—if you want to have a big impact.
The concert was presented under a four-legged, 164 foot-tall canopy that resembled a Klingon Vor'cha-class attack cruiser already filed somewhere in Punditman's subconscious, under Scary Sci-Fi. Well, sorta. But more playful and majestic:
The giant beehive inside of "The Claw" projected all sorts of protechnics and images, duly impressing Bunnie and Punditman.
Punditman was reminded of his age and that the 70's are truly gone forever, when, instead of everyone turning on their lighters near the end, Bono requested that each take out their phone and let their light shine in a spacey future kind of way. Everywhere you looked, where once upon a time in a universe far away, there were bics, there were now blackberrys dotting the night time air. Welcome to the machine, the RIM machine, the tour's corporate sponsor. Punditman thought it was a bit weird, in a geeky corporate governance, future shock kind of way. (Note: on the way to the show, a dude from the 20th century mocked all the concert goers in the subway car who were texting on their cellphones. Said he, "Whatever happened to writing a letter"? Cell phones are fucking gay.") Punditman thought that was a bit weird too, in red neck, Luddite kind of way.
Even with free tix, Punditman still dropped a ton of coin. Let's see: gas, subway, $10.50 per beer, concert t-shirt for Bunnie, cheap knock-off t-shirt from a vender 3 streets away for Punditman, money to the homeless, Apache burgers after the show.
Who the heck can afford tickets? Punditman and Bunnie went to U2 last night.
Here's the setlist:
Punditman always really liked U2, so there must be some cosmic reason why, through a stroke of karmic luck, Punditman was given two free tickets to last night's Toronto concert. The actual cost of the seats could provide five tons of food for hungry North Americans, or save the lives of five children from malnutrition in the Third World, or provide medical supplies and treatment to a village of 100 for one year. Punditman wondered what kind of rich nutter would pay the actual cost of these seats; the P-man loves U2 but not that much.
In order to cut down on our carbon footprint, we drove part way and then took the subway. It took 3.5 traffic-jammed, subway-scrunched hours to make what once was an hour-and-change trek to the Big Smoke, reminding Punditman of why he doesn't go into the City as often as he once did and why he would never move back to from whence Punditman once dwelled, albeit in the burbs. Punditman had never lined up at a subway stop for half an hour and he never plans to again. A free Leaf game and the TIFF didn't help with crowd numbers.
Admittedly, for a progressively minded bunch, U2's carbon footprint is a little higher than Punditman and Bunnie and Peacenik and Johnny Anon combined. But hey, bringing music to the people on a revolving stage with a wall of sound while shouting out the message of unity and making people aware of Burmese political prisoner Aung San Suu Kyi, all the while rocking out, is probably hard to do on the cheap—if you want to have a big impact.
The concert was presented under a four-legged, 164 foot-tall canopy that resembled a Klingon Vor'cha-class attack cruiser already filed somewhere in Punditman's subconscious, under Scary Sci-Fi. Well, sorta. But more playful and majestic:
The giant beehive inside of "The Claw" projected all sorts of protechnics and images, duly impressing Bunnie and Punditman.
Punditman was reminded of his age and that the 70's are truly gone forever, when, instead of everyone turning on their lighters near the end, Bono requested that each take out their phone and let their light shine in a spacey future kind of way. Everywhere you looked, where once upon a time in a universe far away, there were bics, there were now blackberrys dotting the night time air. Welcome to the machine, the RIM machine, the tour's corporate sponsor. Punditman thought it was a bit weird, in a geeky corporate governance, future shock kind of way. (Note: on the way to the show, a dude from the 20th century mocked all the concert goers in the subway car who were texting on their cellphones. Said he, "Whatever happened to writing a letter"? Cell phones are fucking gay.") Punditman thought that was a bit weird too, in red neck, Luddite kind of way.
Even with free tix, Punditman still dropped a ton of coin. Let's see: gas, subway, $10.50 per beer, concert t-shirt for Bunnie, cheap knock-off t-shirt from a vender 3 streets away for Punditman, money to the homeless, Apache burgers after the show.
Who the heck can afford tickets? Punditman and Bunnie went to U2 last night.
Here's the setlist:
- Breathe
- No Line On The Horizon
- Get On Your Boots
- Magnificent
- Beautiful Day / Alison (snippet)
- I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For
- Elevation
- Your Blue Room
- Unknown Caller
- Until The End Of The World
- Stay (Faraway, So Close!)
- The Unforgettable Fire
- City Of Blinding Lights
- Vertigo / Pump It Up (snippet)
- I'll Go Crazy If I Don't Go Crazy Tonight
- Sunday Bloody Sunday / Oliver's Army (snippet)
- MLK
- Walk On
- One / Amazing Grace (snippet)
- Where The Streets Have No Name
- Ultra Violet (Light My Way)
- With Or Without You
- Moment of Surrender
encore(s):
