No Sitting Down or Urinating on the Horizon

U2 concert yesterday/last night. I got down to FedEx field at around noon and got in the general admission line. I was person number 296 in the line. So I'm a geek, but there are at least 295 people in the Pennsylvania/Maryland/DC/Virginia area geekier than me. Although some of the people in line were foreign, for whatever that's worth.

Anyway, got in line and talked a little bit with the folks in line behind me. Right behind me was a guy named Matt and his wife/girlfriend Kelly. Both very nice, moderate U2 fans. Then behind them was a group of 4 women from the DC area who are teachers. They were also very nice and they brought cards, so they invited me to play cards. So we played a couple hands of Bullshit (both of which I won), and a couple hands of rummy. Helped to pass the time tremendously. Also, before they knew my name, they called me "Baltimore," which I thought was pretty cool, especially when we were playing cards. So anyway, we spent the next five hours waiting in line. Luckily, once you get to know the people around you in line, that means you can get up and go use the porta-potties if you need to. So that part of the waiting wasn't too bad. Plus, I had water and Clif bars so I was set.

Once the doors opened at 5pm, then we all raced inside and got a good spot right down in front, right on the walkway that goes out into the audience around the stage. Unfortunately, after that point it was too crowded to sit down, and it was too difficult to leave the area without losing your spot, so you basically just had to stand for the rest of the night. So there was a good 6 hours of standing and not peeing, which was not pleasant. And I was cold because I decided when I got there to leave my jacket in the car.

The show was decent. Unfortunately not life-changing (I guess my days of seeing life-changing concerts are probably over) [except for the up-coming Quants reunion, of course] but not bad. It was pretty cool being up close, although the band did not use the walkways as much as I would've hoped. The sound wasn't that great, either. Nonetheless, they played a few songs that I've always wanted to hear live but never have, so that's pretty cool.

The highlight of the day was definitely meeting and hanging out with the other people in line, which was kind of surprising, but nice.

Oh, plus, I got a guitar pick when Edge's guitar technician was walking around the walkways testing the wireless system. That was pretty cool. I think my guitar playing is sounding better already.

Here are some pics from the show: