I haven't been to a U2 concert since the 1987 Joshua Tree tour, where I saw them in a muddy football field in Rochester, NY. It was not a good show--Bono had just broken his arm and can probably be forgiven for not really being into it. The highlight of the day was when I successfully swerved to avoid the vomit spewing from the mouth of a drunk girl near us, who had spent much of the concert sitting on her boyfriend's shoulders, directly in front of me. So it's understandable that I never made much effort to see them again, but our dear, dear friends called us back in March to arrange that we all attend the U2 concert here in Charlottesville, and I decided I could give them a second chance.
I'm glad I did because the show was fabulous. Muse opened, and they were awesome too. Isn't it a beautiful symmetry that the best and worst concerts I've seen were by the same band?
Charlottesville is a tough crowd. I know that well, from my twelve years of social interactions here, and now U2 knows it too because the concert crowd was pretty lame. Yes, they cheered, but it all seemed lukewarm. Early in the show, Bono asked if Mr. Jefferson was in the house, and this was the only time that the crowd really went wild. Charlottesville is a college town and the show was held at the University's football stadium, but when Bono talked about the "campus" the crowd gave a collective gasp. I could almost hear the mutterings:
What does he think this is, the University of Oklahoma? 'Campus' indeed.
At the University of Virginia, we do not say "campus," we say "grounds" and we don't say "quad," we say "lawn." I'm not even a UVA person, (and frankly, some of them can be insufferable) having gone to college in New York, but I've lived here long enough that I couldn't help wincing every time Bono said "campus." Still, how was he supposed to know? Maybe I'm misreading things, but it seemed to me that the rest of the crowd just wasn't as willing to forgive him for "campus" as I was.
Comments (4)
You are the 3rd xangan I "know" who went to that concert! I'm so glad it was a good show, to complete the circle of life. That's funny, the snobbery of UVA! Poor Bono. Even famous people aren't exempt from academic snobbery (perhaps they are especially not exempt!).
hahahahahahaha! Quad. Ah, people. I've never seen U2 and I'm about to not see them again. Bummer. But you're the 3rd Xangan I know too, who saw them, so it's kinda like I almost saw them this time.
Hey there - I'm one of the other Xangans these two ladies are talking about! I was there -- drove in from Richmond. I thought it was fantastic. I wrote a post on it, too -- you can check it out here if you're interested! I see your comments around my Xanga circle, so when you mentioned living in VA, too, I stopped by to say hi. I wonder who the "3rd Xangan" was at U2??? Hmmmmmm.
He's a bizarre character. Over here in the UK, he can often be seen advising the politicians of the day on various matters of importace about which he knows little, such as overseas development, trade defecit, and so on. It's a raybansocracy.