Yesterday at work, my buddy Chip asked if I had plans for the evening. Other than dropping the wife off at the airport, I didn’t. He then offered up a ticket to see U2 at the MGM Grand. After checking on babysitting arrangements, I gladly accepted. I had never seen U2 before and was excited for the opportunity.
Our tickets, on paper, appeared to be pretty good. They were behind the stage, but in the 2nd row of the middle section of seats. Upon arriving, we were treated to a few extra elements that made the seats a bit less appealing. First, we were at about a 3/4 angle to the stage. So, we weren’t directly behind the stage, but off to the side. This meant that all the wires hanging down from the lighting scaffold were directly in front of us. If Bono was standing at his mic at center stage, we were not able to see him.
The second thing we realized was that these were not permanent seats for the MGM. Instead, these were basically “roll in” bleachers that were specifically designed to comfortably seat a person who weighs about 95 pounds. So basically, Chip was sitting in my lap. Thankfully, we didn’t sit much during the show.
The third thing to happen was these strands of lights that looked like those beads that act as a semi-door in every hippies house back in the ’70s. I’ll admit that the lights were VERY cool in that they produced complex patters, images and such during the show, but they were also keeping us from having a clear shot of the stage. Luckily they didn’t stay down the entire time. They brought them up and down and probably only interferred with about 25% of the show.
Regardless, U2 was awesome. Musically, I’d say they were one of the best sounding bands I’ve ever seen live. Thanks again, Chip. I really enjoyed the show!
Also at work on Friday, Todd asked if I knew when the Henry Rollins spoken word show is. Since we bought tickets so long ago, we had both forgotten when the show was. I’ve yet to look it up. I hope we haven’t missed it. Anyway, this brough up conversation about planning ahead. I typically don’t have things planned much past 1 week and at the most 2. But, I recently bought tickets to see Bon Jovi. Even though I bought the tickets 2 weeks ago, the show isn’t until MARCH 2006. Seriously, that’s just WAY too far away to plan anything… Oh, but that’s not true. I realized that this is not the first thing I have planned for March. I actually have an appointment with my dermatologist. This is an honest-to-goodness appointment. I have the little reminder card and everything. At 9:30 am on 3/15/06, I’ll be sitting in a waiting room. This is assuming that I don’t lose the little reminder card…
