U2 - 360 Degrees Tour "Cheap Seats"

[auctioneer69]

Auctioneer, I hope you read this. I'm not sure if it was like this at every stadium. But if it is like this in Seattle then go for it. It puts you at eye level with the band and the screen.

 

Edit: Oh yeah, after typing all of this about U2 I did something that has never happened to me before. I freakin' bit my tongue while eating. It freaked me out. For a second I really thought that Bono had special powers.

 

Knowing Quest Field that won't work but good suggestion. I am going to try craigslist day of.

[u2roolz]

Another great place to get tickets for cheap is the U2 Interference Message Boards. There was a lot of supply this past fall and not enough demand. Lots of good tickets went cheap.

 

I can't give you the link just yet, since it's down due to hackers.

 

Just search for U2 Interference > Message Board > What Do You Want? What Do You Have?

[phish907]

I was curious to see what the much-hyped $30 ticket would buy me at Seattle's Qwest Stadium next June? I expected a seat in the nosebleeds. What was offered was far worse - a seat in the nosebleeds behind the band. $30 for a view of the 'thingy' and a video-screen. Even more galling was the next price point - $57.50 was basically the same area. The 360 Degree Stage which is only really a 360 degree video screen is just a rouse to rake in the dough. Friends of mine who paid $100 for a ticket have the luxury of a nose-bleed with a view. For a band who have "marketed" themselves as being all about integrity - they are really taking the piss. To put this in some sort of context, I went to see the Police outdoors at the Gorge, Washington two years ago. $75 got us the opportunity to sit anywhere on a sloping lawn outside of modestly sized front section where tickets were going for $225. Even better the support band was Elvis Costello and the Attractions. Maybe it might be worth paying that much to see U2 if they were still somewhat close to making great music. That's hardly the case and poor Bono can no longer properly sing songs like "With or Without You" or "Bad" any longer.

 

 

Just what I expected from U2, they have not been revelant musically for quite some time. U2, The Eagles and a few other bands are the poster childs for overpaid, rip you off and get very rich non revelant bands. I feel sorry for anyone who shells out a dollar to see them.

[Sir Stewart]

I may be misreading your post, but the show hasn't happened yet, so how would auctioneer know if they did or didn't connect to the audience in the stadium?

 

Whoops on me.

I saw them in September - first stadium show I ever saw. And probably the last. Stadiums are for sports.

[OOO]

Whoops on me.

I saw them in September - first stadium show I ever saw. And probably the last. Stadiums are for sports.

 

You had a good facebook post about all the years you happened to miss U2.

[Sir Stewart]

You had a good facebook post about all the years you happened to miss U2.

 

Thanks mate.

[Moss]

Well I got tickets for U2 in June at Invesco Field in Denver. I went with the $58 nosebleed seats. Can't say I'm hugely excited as they will just be little tiny dots on the horizon but I figure the music will be good. I'm kind of ashamed I have never seen U2 before so that is one of the big drivers.

 

I agree though, I have never been to a stadium concert that I would put in my top 100 favorite shows. And that includes all those "Day on the Green" and "Monsters of Rock" type festivals.

[Elixir Sue]

I'm kind of ashamed I have never seen U2 before so that is one of the big drivers.

Similar situation for me...I saw them for the first time in October (in Tampa). I had a GA ticket and fortunately got there early enough to be in the "inner circle" area under the claw, which was pretty awesome. I absolutely loved the show - not sure if it helped that I was close to the stage or that I had never seen them before. Anyway, I heard good things about the video screens from people who had seats farther back. Before that show, I thought that I only needed to see them once in my life, but now I'm thinking I need to see them again. Have fun!

[mfwahl]

Similar situation for me...I saw them for the first time in October (in Tampa). I had a GA ticket and fortunately got there early enough to be in the "inner circle" area under the claw, which was pretty awesome. I absolutely loved the show - not sure if it helped that I was close to the stage or that I had never seen them before. Anyway, I heard good things about the video screens from people who had seats farther back. Before that show, I thought that I only needed to see them once in my life, but now I'm thinking I need to see them again. Have fun!

 

I was at that same show. I was on the 300s but didn't mind because the screens were really great. I was quite surprised. Never been that big of a U2 fan or a fan of seeing shows in stadiums but this was one of the best shows I ever saw. The band's sound is made for large venues and the large crowd singing along was euphoric.

[u2roolz]

Having had GA tickets in the past, I can safely say that that can be a great pain in the neck.

You can encounter waiting in the rain until the show begins or burn in the sweltering heat.

Plus, not to mention dealing with all U2 yahoos eyeing everyone making sure no one steals their spot if they go to the rest room (read: porta potty).

Granted, some people are cool in the line. But keep in mind it can be quite a taxing effort on your part to wait in a GA line all day and then have energy to stand up during a show.

 

If you pack a cooler, you need to go run and bring it out to the car before show time. Although, I heard in some European cities it was ok to bring in a small cooler.

If you pack light, you're kind of screwed when that 3rd bottle of water is done by 3p.m.

 

Sure, it is all worth it to see them once in this GA scenario. But there's a lot of folks who can do this on the whole freaking tour. Not me. I'm hypoglycemic.

 

Good Luck.

[Knepps]

I attempted to get cheap-o tickets for the MN show but Ticketmaster had other plans for me.

[Moss]

So 2 years after I bought the tickets I finally saw my first U2 show last night. First of all, The Fray (opening band) were as bad as I could have imagined. Every song was just this sad, AOR, dirge of a failed Coldplay song. Just horrible. They are home town boys but I just really did not enjoy them. The U2 stage was certainly amazing and the sound was good but the show just felt so safe. No real going deep in the mix or anything. I liked them doing "end of the world" and Bono saying before the song "To be taken up to the air, sounds like fun to me — just as long as Larry Mullen is with me,"he also stood on one of the bridge during the song and flopped around like he was being taken. I had one of the Claw arms blocking about 20% of the stage. I was looking around wondering where the hell the drums were and realized they were hidden behind that claw. It was certainly worth the money and all that but I'm going back to watching shows in the small clubs, the stadium thing is just not for me.

 

 

[u2roolz]

but the show just felt so safe. No real going deep in the mix or anything.

 

Hmm. I'm not sure if you are referring to the songs that were played or not. If you are referring to the setlist then I would have to disagree with you. Over the course of 2 years this tour has been changed and rearranged. Some new, unreleased songs were played. Some rarely played songs were dusted off. A lot of the songs off the new album went into the retirement home early. BUT U2 does a very nice job on this specific leg thus far to keep everything well balanced. I think every album was represented (there was a Discotheque snippet in I'll Go Crazy Tonight). And it just wasn't the hits. You got to see them perform Zooropa which was done only 5 times on the Zooropa tour in 1993 and resurrected for whatever reason a month ago in South America. All I Want Is You is also for some reason a rarity to hear in concert. I've seen them about 18 times and have only heard it in full once (Bono used to do the 1st verse on the PopMart tour and a few other subsequent tours). They also did Scarlet which is a huge rarity off of October (U2's least represented album in a live setting, since the 90s.) Edit part two: They also didn't do Pride at their U.S. tour in 09, but now they brought it back and kicked I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For to the curb. These shows are definitely a lot less static than the Zoo TV and PopMart tours.

 

Edit: (because I thought of more and decided to personalize it a bit.)

I can't comment though on Bono's stage antics, since I wasn't there. Some songs he lets loose, but it's usually the same songs each night LOL. I know that he likes to hang from that neon microphone and swing around the stage a lot.

 

I'm going to see them in Montreal in July. I'm very excited now, more than before, because the shows have changed quite a bit since I saw them in Boston 09. I will admit though that towards the end portion (from Miss Sarajevo to Where The Streets) of the concert they haven't changed much, except rotate Ultraviolet and Hold Me, Thrill Me, Kiss Me, Kill Me to kick off the encore. Also, it's the last city on the tour to have 2 shows, so I expect something somewhat special on night 2. What I'm not excited about is that the show is taking place on an old racetrack. I was looking at videos of the construction and can't fathom how it's going to be pulled off. I hope that they have some bannisters or something to make the place somewhat enclosed. Thankfully there's a Metro stop a few feet away. I have GA for both nights and I plan on getting there after Interpol leaves the stage and finding a standing spot way, way, way towards the back and leaning on something and taking the show in.

 

I actually saw U2 in Montreal in 2001 and the crowd was the loudest on that tour (also was at Boston and Providence). The Montreal crowd literally tore off Bono's shirt during The Fly when he went into the crowd. {off topic but the Beastie Boys show in 98 in Montreal was also incredible. Those folks love their live music. They should. They have like 2 months of summer. }

[Moss]

I was definitely referring to the songs when I said it seemed safe so your reply is very interesting. I suppose a huge chunk of the crowd would have been unhappy if they didn't get to hear "sunday bloody sunday", "pride", "Where the streets have no name", "Vertigo", etc... In fact there were quite a few people around me that only perked up when they played those songs. Like everyone else, I have my favorites and they were not well represented. I'm not a big fan of the more electronic disco stuff (Zooropa for example), or at least I have not given it enough of a chance (but I don't have a problem with them representing that era). I have a bias toward the more guitar based stuff. I would have liked to hear something like "In God's country" or "Red hill" instead of "streets". Or "The unforgettable Fire" instead of "Pride". It just seems like they are going through the motions on Sunday bloody sunday these days. They played "I will follow" which seemed like an obvious choice from the early days.

 

To me it felt like they played "the hits". I realize when you play for 80,000 people you can't play a bunch of obscure stuff but that's why it felt safe. But then again they have so many damn "hits" that maybe it just felt that way to me.

 

As far as newer stuff, I really liked "Moment of surrender", I thought that came across as very powerful live and it sounded amazing.

[Three dollars and 63 cents]

I don't think you can convince Moss he didn't feel like the show was safe. He knows how he felt in that moment. Facts about song variety or a song that's only been played a handful of times can't change that (though I'll say that I'm insanely jealous you got to hear Zooropa; that's long been on my list of songs I know I'll never get to hear U2 play). A production this gigantic has to be so carefully planned and orchestrated that it's inevitable that it's going to feel safe.

 

The last time I saw U2 was the Vertigo show in Buffalo in December of 2005. I was in the first row outside of the inner circle, after waiting in line all day. That was still pretty far away, but Bono came around a few times. I'd seen the tour three times before that, so I knew where to stand to have a chance to at least get a pretty good glimpse of him. I was disappointed to get the encore with With or Without You, since I'd been hoping for Bad, which I still haven't--and, sadly, most likely won't ever hear--them play live. Bono did his whole pull a girl from the crowd thing, but instead of taking her back to the stage, he brought her out across the catwalk that separated the inner circle from the rest of the floor. He stopped right in front of me and stayed there for the whole song. I'm pretty convinced that might be my one transcendent U2 moment, which is funny considering it was during a song I'm not really that into.

 

U2 can make an arena feel small. They can't do that in a stadium, and that's why I won't see them again until they're back inside. I go to maybe one or two arena shows every few years--I saw LCD Soundsystem at Madison Square Garden last month; before that, those Wilco shows at UIC Pavilion were my last arena shows--but I haven't been to a stadium show in at least 10 years. They're too big and too impersonal. Unfortunately, I want to see them one last time, but I don't want it to be in a stadium.