actual video of a coliseum being blown up because U2 played there

link

I saw perform in New Haven in  a coliseum that  was soo good that the coliseum itself had to be blown up after the concert.

You can read my review of the show at bottom of the page here.
But here is the actual video (I WISH I had video of the gig; I mean video of the coliseum blowing up.
Enjoy!

No one can follow U2 on an "on" night.  Might as well blow up the stadium.

Ok, the concert was 1984, and the coliseum was imploded in 2008..
and the destruction had nothing to do with the U2 concert....well, who knows (:


But every several years it happens.

A U2 concert, which is always good...enters another realm.

It was a surreeal moment for me as I realized from a distance  that it happened again in Anaheim the other night. (I was  just following the setlist online, so I can only imagine what it was like for those there watching it unfold).

Well, as many folks in this part of the interwebs, U2 played what some long-term fans (who would know) are calling among their best shows ever.  I'm not jealous..wrong!  But I shouldn't be, as I am still living off the first U2 concert I saw (here).

But the question becomes: what was up the other night?

credit

>>It could have been "just" the usual  set list changes and experimental energy that can happen when the band plays a second (or third) night in the same venue.  Bono and others have offered that the second night San Jose 2011 could have been their best set ever. 

>>It could've been "just" that this was a runthrough of the setlist for Glastonbury.

But  often something else is (also) up.
It's kind of like what any pastor/preacher knows: Sometime you can tell when a "sermon" (concert) is carrying  a special "anointing" (see Bono's quote on that word) ; sometimes you can't.  Anaheim #2 was probably both.

They even had manager Paul McGuiness on stage for the first time ever in three decades:


Tim is onto something. I look forward to his fullblown blog posts and videos, but for niw he has already comemnted on Facebook:

...I wasn't even ready for this. You'll probably hear me say this in other posts: I realized that last nite I was sitting in Larry's kitchen for a good ol jam session. It was amazing. Just wish I could've been around a ...set of fans who realized what happened. The band was deeply moved by something(s) last nite. Bono said at the end of the show, "That was everything we could ask for and more. We needed that." Edge's house(s) and Clemon's death (and more) were really touching them. I think that's why it got personal. We didn't even hear from Tutu or Suu Kyi. Last night wasn't political. It was a big therapy session. I'll probably say more in a blog post eventually. I Shot some killer video that I'll post soon. 

             -link

See also this from the atu2 forum:

The BBC began its first television broadcast on 2nd November 1936. Britain got its second TV channel, BBC2, on 20th April 1964. That was almost thirty years of single setlist telly. I think I may have felt the same deep excitement of creative possibility at last night’s show in Anaheim that people may have felt when BBC2 launched. For an exhilaratingly delicious time during the first hour of the show, anything seemed possible. And despite being formed of mostly the same rerun songs just rearranged into a different order, the sheer elation and emotional effect was far in excess of the musical causes.

Bono said in Seattle two weeks ago that being able and allowed to begin again is an important element of the U2 philosophy. I wish they’d do it in their concerts far more often. The first hour of the show last night was almost as exciting as the first shows in Barcelona in 2009, and in Turin in 2010. But then, gigs can’t help but become exciting when the usual encore comes at the start.

There had been lots of speculation amongst fans during the last few days over what changes, if any, U2 would make to the setlist for Anaheim 2, after the stulpifying lack of variation at the preceding seven shows. I was being cynical, believing they’d swap in New Year’s Day for I Will Follow, and perhaps Angel of Harlem (the shows were in Angel Stadium) for Stay, and leave it at that.

Well, I got that one wrong.

Only one song actually received its 360 tour premiere last night (although three more had their first plays since Mexico). But it was a twangy, twisted, exhilarating belter, with Larry giving his poor drumkit its biggest battering yet. I was out in the spacious area behind Edge’s Red Zone with my lovely new Mexican-American buddy Jovita. She’s seen several shows so far this year, including in Mexico City. After Even Better Than The Real Thing, she turned to me and said “The moment of truth ...” We both waited. I expected to see Edge walk up to his piano for New Year’s Day. When he didn’t, I then expected to hear Adam and Larry start Out Of Control. When they didn’t, I had my first exciting “Wow! TWO TV channels!” moment. I recognised The Fly immediately from the first chord, as it had been rehearsed several times before both concerts. Jovita didn’t click it at first, then suddenly turned to me with a huge grin, “THE FLY!” I couldn’t help but give her a happy hug.

The band were all pumped up with adrenalin by something. Cod psychology theories abounded afterwards last night. I became Cathal Jung. I speculated that the band were full of nervous energy from playing a new setlist outside their familiar, safe, same-old 360 routine: “Where are we? What? WHAT?! Can’t be! That’s the encore! What the feck?! Larry, help!”

I theorised that perhaps U2 gigs these days really become dazzlingly alive when the band are full of that nervous energy. By making the setlist more familiar and comfortable for themselves, they could end up making the show a bit duller and less dramatic for their fans – certainly for the hardcore eejits who travel to multiple shows.

Every single one of the dozens of nutjob itinerant U2 fans I caught up with after the show were positively beaming, zipping about and raving about “best” this and “favourite” that. Several of the fans who had travelled to many shows during the entire tour had their (theoretical) last show last night. They all still have time to get tempted to return for more, and they probably will if U2 can keep playing shows like last night’s. The cynically easy point to make was that there should be more than a little of the collective euphoria everyone felt last night after every concert. After all, the BBC have dozens of channels these days.--.Cathalmc, continued