It's snowing today in Foxboro, MA. Four weekends ago, I was watching U2 there, now it's snowing. Who needs Edge's snowglobe?
I've been packing a suitcase for a place none of us has been. Got my 360° Swiffer, got my 360° Colgate toothbrush, watched my AC360° on CNN, and convinced my husband we're not getting an Xbox 360 for Christmas. I'm feeling like the lady with the spinning head as I see just how much 360 has integrated into our daily lives. I wish that U2 did call this tour "Kiss the Future" because as much as they tout 360°, they've only been spending a combined total of 17 minutes (that's including all 4 members) on their b-stage. That's less than 15% of their stage time. Seems like a waste of a 360° b-stage if you ask me.
Kissing the future would also be a great way of looking at tour merchandise. I've noticed that Fanfire has current tour items available at approximately 25% below concert price. For example, the $90 football sweater found at most venues is only $65. (If you were in Chicago, this was the $200 sweater. According to a tour crew member, prices came down because no one bought at that price.) Concert T-shirts are $30 instead of $40, and the coffee mug is a mere $9 instead of $15. Not to mention, if you still have your U2.com 25% membership discount code, you can get it even cheaper. Granted it's not the full selection of merchandise, but knowing what I could buy in the very near future while at the shows in Foxboro made me change my shopping list at the tour merchandise booth. I was told that the discounts through Fanfire may be because venues do not get paid their commission, and it's a way to pass the savings on to the fan. I'm just glad that I waited a few extra weeks before shelling out the money on some of the nicer articles of tour merchandise.
You can also give the future a huge kiss if you can figure out a way to get to the concert venue using public transportation. This seems to be impossible at most stadiums. In Foxboro, for example, the MBTA discontinued its commuter trains to Gillette Stadium due to budget cuts. Mix that with 20% more tickets being available, and you'll get a concoction of bad traffic. I'll confess, my husband and I left those shows during "Moment of Surrender" (or "show-ender" if you asked him) and we beat a lot of that traffic. For those who didn't, it took upwards of three hours to leave the parking lot. In Raleigh, it was worse because the venue had run out of parking spaces. No public transport was available to the stadium, and people ended up just ditching their cars at the side of the road and walking to the venue. In case you missed it, even Neil McCormick walked to the venue after a U2 fan called him a "douche bag" while stuck in traffic.
For those of you going to the Los Angeles show, you'll be joining 96,000 others at the Rose Bowl. Based on what has happened elsewhere, parking will be a huge headache. Luckily, the Pasadena City College shuttle is available for you to buy a ticket. If you plan on going, seriously consider taking the shuttle. You'll be kissing me in the future if you're able to avoid all that traffic!
The 360° Tour has certainly seen its ups and downs with regard to show experiences among fans. Matt touched on it last week when he wrote "I think there are other reasons for the odd vibe I've felt -- and others have felt, too. Like I said, I may try to put this into words at some point down the road -- not as a complaint, but as an observation." After studying this band and following them for 21 years, I do have that same odd vibe. After the two Foxboro shows, I had this sense that something wasn't right in the U2 camp. I felt that this band is touring to promote a stage and not an album. All the talk was of the stage and not the songs. I even remarked to a few people at the U2 Conference that the stage, to me, was like Bono's Trojan Horse. All this time and effort went into producing this structure that the band seemed to have lost sight of what you need to do with it. Then, to read in
Rolling Stone that there is disagreement in the band about "Get On Your Boots" being the first single off the album only confirmed my suspicions. But in Raleigh, N.C., they go and throw a huge monkey wrench into my way of thinking because the show that night was one of the best ones I had seen, coming close to March 17, 1992, and December 4, 2005, in Boston. The audience there was relatively sober, enthusiastic because it was the first time U2 had ever played Raleigh, and the mix of songs kept the crowd into it. I needed a show like that to renew my inner U2 fan. Now, that said, I still have my suspicions that there's disagreement between the four band members about
No Line on the Horizon, but I'm sure none of that will come out for a few more years to come.
And finally ...
a different side of Spider-Man. See you next weekend!
© @U2/Lawrence, 2009.
