The energy in the air was electric. Their 360 degree stage looks like a giant spaceship that was about to take off - with fog machines, laser lights, a jumbo tron screen that separates into tiny pieces and expands to look like a honeycomb and moving bridges so the band members can walk out into the crowd. They played all the classics and some newer ones as well. It made it fun to sing along.
There were plenty of political messages as well, but that's just Bono. Greg finds it annoying, but I admire someone who uses their popularity as a platform for something good. Not all celebrities can say that. He had volunteers from Amnesty International holding lanterns onstage for one of the songs and even showed videos promoting equality around the world and talked briefly about his ONE charity.
The people watching didn't disappoint either. There was a huge range of ages in the crowd and plenty of highly intoxicated people dancing to their own beat. The smell of pot in the air was insane, seriously something that would rival a Grateful Dead concert. We were getting strong whiffs of it the entire night. We joked that we were going to get the munchies and have to get a large pizza on the way home.
It did sprinkle a tiny bit toward the end, but we threw on some ponchos and kept on rockin'. Bono broke into a little rendition of "Singin' in the Rain". Luckily, it passed quickly. The "spaceship", as Bono referred to it, was even more magical at night - with crazy lights, changing colors and laser beams. I'm so glad they were still onstage when the sun went down at 10pm.
Bono dedicated his final song to the people of Slave Lake, a town about 3 hours north of here that was ravaged by wildfires last week. They turned off all the lights and asked people to hold up their cell phones. The effect was very cool, like a huge constellation of lights.
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