It was one of those early December nights in DC ... not yet cold enough to snow, but the rain was pouring down. The concert, one of the last small venues that the band was playing (before moving on up to hockey arena in the spring), had sold out in 15 minutes (which was unusual back then). I figured that no one would be out in the rain trying to buy tickets from scalpers and I would easily find one ... yeah, right -- dozens of people were prowling around. After standing in the rain for about 90 minutes, I finally found a guy who was trying to sell 2, but talked him into 1 for 40 bucks (just before a dozen other would-be-buyrs surrounded us). I slipped inside and found my seat (having missed the opening act -- the Waterboys) and the band hit the stage less than 5 minutes later.

It was everything that I had heard a U2 show was ... energetic, emotional and extremely entertaining. It's been over 20 years, but a few of the highlights included:

... after a solid version of "11 O'Clock Tick Tock," the Edge ripped into the opening chrods of "I Will Follow," sending the crowd into an absolute frenzy ...

... Larry and Adam creating a sonic boom with the opening notes to "Seconds" which made one's chest wall shake ...

... Bono pulling a young woman out of the front row during the guitar solo to "Sunday, Bloody Sunday" and slow dancing with her (which probably sounds odd, but made perfect sense at the time) ...

... towards the end, with the crowd quiet, the Edge tinkered witha keyboard for a few seconds and then played the intro to "New Year's Day," which sent the crowd into yet another frenzy. When he played the keyboard and guitar solos in the middle, Bono lept into the center row of the crowd and sprinted all the way to the back of Constitution Hall before running back to the stage and exclaiming "Washington, My People!!!" ...

... they played a joyful version of "Pride" with the crowd singing along in a full-throated roar ...

... a first encore of "Gloria," again with the crowd screaming at the tops of their collective lungs, followed by a fun-filled version of "Party Girl" ...

... a second encore that began with "Two Hearts Beat As One" and featured Bono running all over the stage, with a roadie trailing behind him, trying to keep the mic chrod from being tangled up. When Bono returned to center stage, the roadie (clearly exhausted by the manic sprint) collapsed at his feet and, after a second, started to return to the wings and gear up for his next "chase." Instead, Bono reached down and placed his arm around the guy's shoulder and sang the next verse standing absolutely still, pretty much letting that guy be at the center of attention for a moment. ...

I remember thinking, after such an energetic show, what do they have left? Well, finally, the band launched into "40," and the audience sing-a-long. Back then, I had not heard how they ended things back then (and I understand they still do, when they play "40" on the Vertigo Tour), but found the audience becoming increasing louder as the band slipped off stage, all of us still singing long after the house lights came up.

As the crowd drifted outside (back into the rain), I noticed that everyone was smiling ... not just little grins, but huge, beatific smiles. I've never seen a happy group of people at the end of a concert in my life.

I did not get to see the band for another 21 years (I saw them recently on the Vertigo Tour) and while the show remains spectacular, I consider myself really really blessed to have seen them in such a small setting.

tourdb © 1997 - 2008 tourdb (at) popsmart (dot) org