I don't think there are too many people in the world who don't know who the band U2 is and not many people are known worldwide by a one word moniker such as Bono is. I've always been a fan of U2 and always knew that Bono is heavily involved in social/political affairs & that the band's music is much deeper than what you usually hear on the radio, but it wasn't until I worked production last June for their "360' Tour" that I experienced the magic myself. For me (cheesy as it sounds) it was almost a spiritual experience. I can say I definitely "get it" now in regard to the hype of the band and the man Mr. Bono himself. Few people in this world are truly granted the gift of impacting people and the world on such a large scale and Bono is one of the blessed few with this gift. His knack for staying humble and not giving in to the egoistic hype of the music business and ability to keep his relatability is something I really admire. Not only that, but he's been with his wife for the past 38 years, which in any profession is an accomplishment itself and is pretty unheard of for people in the music industry. I don't know him personally but I'd say from what I know, he's a pretty stand up guy.
When I got the call to work the tour for 2 days in Anaheim at Angel's Staduim I was pretty thrilled since one of the major perks of working for Live Nation is getting paid to see some of your favorite bands & artists close up and personal (inbetween delivering coffee and schlepping tour bus drivers)... I was working the late shift so when I arrived U2 had just started their set. The nice thing about working production is that usually once the show starts for the night everything has already been taken care of and everyone is where they need to be, so you have some down time and can watch the show. Since I was on the late shit all the pre-show production had been done and the show was starting so I pretty much arrived, had my laminate handed to me and then my boss said "go enjoy the show!" which was pretty awesome. I grew up in Orange County and had been to plenty of baseball games at Angel's Stadium but never had I seen a band there let alone had all access to the entire place. As I walked down the corridor to the field I heard the beginning chords to "With Or Without You" which as we all know is a pretty powerful song... I totally had one of those baseball movie moments, you know, the one where the camera follows the actor until it opens up into the field of the entire stadium which is huge, epic and a bit overwhelming. I totally had that moment but it wasn't for a baseball game, it was for one of the hugest bands in the world which for me (being a bigger music fan than sports fan) was of epic proportions . It opened up to the stage which was circular (hence the name "360 Tour") and was slowly rotating. There was a bridge that went out into the crowd which was cool & above the stage was a bunch of LED screens that formed a circle kind of like a tornado. It was a magnificent sight to see so close up. It was all so much to take in (especially the part when security smiled at me, moved out of my way and said "after you", that doesn't happen, usually its like "sorry you can't go in there go away".. That was a pretty swaggy moment.) With the lights, and Bono singing one of my favorite songs in the world like 50 feet away from me and the security smiling next to me.. I seriously started getting teary eyed lol.. I'm thinking "Oh gawd! You can't cry you're here WORKING!" It was emotional, what can I say? The band played about 20 songs and everytime I thought they were done they'd start playing another one and they were all pretty much hits which made me go "wow, they really are like the #1 band in the world".
You could really tell that they were having the best time playing and that each one of them was giving 150%. Bono sounded amazing, if not better than recorded. You could see the emotion in his face and as he walked across the stage you could tell that he really feels everything. He wasn't there to look cool, he was there to spread what he believes in. Inbetween songs there were all different kinds of presentations from his different charities and environmental and humanitarian organizations he works with. It was fucking amazing. I was SO inspired and still am and as a musician and artist myself only hope to segue my music and work in that direction one day and touch so many people's lives. It doesn't hurt too that that tour made $736 million dollars... Many of which Bono put to good use.
