Yes, I know.  It’s been almost two weeks since the concert.  I got back with such bad feelings about Dublin and anger about my concert experience being ruined by smokers that I thought I’d let myself cool down a little before writing about it.  I’m also now reading U2 by U2, which is reminding me why I love the band.

First of all, going to Dublin to see U2 with my friend Sarah has been a dream for many years.  Last time we saw them in New Jersey, which was great.  But there’s something about seeing a band in their home city.

As I blogged about before, I didn’t enjoy my Dublin experience.  I wished I had read U2 by U2 first, because then I would have been prepared for the scrappy, dirty city that I found.  Instead, my head was filled with American movies about how magical Dublin is.  Oops.

Since I’ve already blogged about Dublin I’ll fast forward to the evening of the concert.  We had planned to take public transportation, but the information person at Connolly Station told us not to bother, as there was a 45 minutes wait.  Instead we left the station on foot, following the streams of people wearing U2 t-shirts.  As we got closer to Croke Park the presence of people by the side of the road selling tacky hats, wigs, etc multiplied.  No, I don’t need a pink cowboy hat with feathers and rhinestones.  But thanks.

When we got into the Park we headed straight to the concession stand.  It was already mobbed and it took a good deal of time (and lots of elbows) to finally get to the front.  Good thing Sarah’s lived in New York and I’ve lived in Boston.  You don’t try to outshove us!  We’ve got sharp elbows.  When we got to the front there was so little time and so much noise, getting what you wanted was virtually impossible.  We both emerged from the experience with a different shirt than we wanted (and mine was too small).  Instant decisions in mobbing, loud crowds aren’t my forte.  I should have ordered online!

Then we made our way into the stadium.  I bought a hot dog and water, thinking it was going to be a long night.  7 euros.  Oh how I love stadium food.  Aweful hot dog.  Luckily, bottled water is pretty hard to get wrong.  And I needed it for the very long night ahead!

As we went to our seats we met a wonderful usher who was very friendly.  I mention this because I was so surprised to have someone friendly to me!  He gushed over our tickets, saying we would be so close to the stage we could be pulled on stage.  Clearly this man needs glasses.

Then, we went in.

The first thing you see, of course, is THE CLAW.  It’s so huge we could see it from the plane flying in to Dublin.  I had seen Croke Park before on televised rugby matches, so I was expecting the size and design.  It is quite nice, for a stadium.

We had eighth row seats, which should have been really good.  However, what had been marked as the edge of the stage on the ticket buying seating diagram was actually just one corner of the claw.  We were far far away from the stage.  Disappointing.  Especially for tickets as expensive as ours.  They would have been fantastic for a rugby match!

The stadium was seriously empty at this point and soon the opening act came on.  These guys were one of the worst bands I’ve ever heard.  I was so glad I had ear plugs.  The rest of the ticket holders must have waited to come knowing what the opening band was like.  I had read on the site that Kaiser Chiefs were opening.  Not as exciting as Snow Patrol, or, say MUSE, but not a bad band.  I couldn’t figure out how they could be so bad live.  The band would finish a song and there would be silence.  Barely any applause.  I only applauded in thanks for the silence between songs.

They finally finished and packed up.  They started unwrapping a different drum kit and doing a new sound check.  Finally, a second band came on and introduced themselves as the Kaiser Chiefs.  Cool.  Evidently they didn’t want anyone mistaking the previous band for them!  The previous band, I learned later, was the Republic of Loose.  Avoid them whenever possible.

The Kaiser Chiefs were quite good.  They did everything a good opening band should do.  They played well, got the audience involved and warmed up and gave us the chance to hear a band many of us hadn’t heard before.  Thanks guys – good job.

There was another long break for more instruments to be unveiled, sound checked, etc.  In that time the stadium was filling up quickly.  Somewhere in here someone got the bright idea that smoking was a great way to fill the time.  I coughed, hacked, wheezed and hoped it would stop when U2 came on.  No such luck.

The stadium was full of signs indicating smoking wasn’t allowed anywhere in the stadium and a 3000 euro fine was the punishment.  This was thoroughly ignored by everyone involved – smokers and enforcers alike.  When Sarah asked one woman to stop smoking (who was right behind us) she refused saying it was open air.  Ummm…  the law still stands.  Evidently, laws are unimportant.  You don’t ever tell someone from Dublin what to do.  Noted.

FINALLY, U2 came out at around 9:15 (the concert started at 6:30).  As you can see from my wide angled shots, our view was at the “there’s a guy on that stage that could pass for Bono” level.  I could tell the guys apart.  But they really could have put anyone on the stage.  Or, at least until The Edge broke into a guitar solo.

The Claw was really the star of the show.  It had lots of party tricks, but it seemed (over all) to take away from the band.  U2 were playing a great concert, but they seemed like 4 tiny guys next to the monster of The Claw.

Because I was so sick and had to use my inhaler so often, I don’t have a lot of clear memories of the concert, which is a shame.  I do remember The Edge breaking into Where The Streets Have No Name, which was a highlight.  And I remember Miracle Drug (a favourite of mine from the Vertigo tour).

I had been waiting with a verdict on the new album until I saw them live.  When Vertigo came out I wasn’t a huge fan of most of it, but then loved it when I saw them live.  I didn’t feel the same with the No Line on the Horizon material.  I still liked Magnificent, but most of the material isn’t as suited for huge stadium concerts.  Seems more “listen to at home on your iPod”.  So, I enjoyed their classic songs a bit more.

I found Bono surprisingly restrained in this concert.  Less preaching than the last and I kind of missed it.  Desmond Tutu had a taped piece which covered much of the same ground, but I missed Bono going all preacher on us.

Thank goodness for camera zoom!  I did manage to get some okay pictures of the concert.  While I knew they wouldn’t be amazing, concentrating on the camera helped me stop the  panic of the ongoing asthma attack.  Very important!!

Overall, it was a good concert, but not a great one.  Any worries that U2 are getting too old for this stuff were dispelled.  They were fantastic!  However, I guess I’m just not into stadium concerts.  The staging outshone the band and, other than the inner ring of standing people, there weren’t really good seats anywhere in the house.

I wish I had been able to soak up the atmosphere a little more.  Sarah said it was incredible.

I did feel a little vindicated when Bono talked about how rude Dubliners are.  There should be a warning on Dublin tickets for non-Dubliners!

I think I preferred the Vertigo tour.  The staging was fabulous.  The seats were better (even though we had 14th row tickets for Vertigo and 8th row tickets for 360).  And there wasn’t smoking.

Overall, it was a good concert, but I would rank it below other concerts.  Guess I need to wait for the next album and tour!!  Still love U2.  Next time I’ll see them in the UK or Canada.

And next time we buy tickets on The Edge’s side of the stage!!  Why don’t I learn??