U2 in Edmonton!!!

Wednesday afternoon Finley, Penelope, Greg, Brad, Jack + myself headed off to Edmonton for U2 at Commonwealth Stadium.  The concert was supposed to be last June but it was postponed almost a year because Bono had to have emergency back surgery and was out for awhile.  We bought these tickets on November 3rd, 2009 so we've been waiting a long time.

The stage.  It was nothing short of incredible and when it lit up once it got dark it was just ridiculous.

Not sure if you can see all those red and white trucks in the parking lot.  There were 150  of them.  Those are all for transporting the stage and equipment from show to show.  They were in Winnipeg previously and are in Vancouver after us.

The Fray kicked it off.  They were really good.  They have about 4 or 5 songs that were quite popular in Canada and one is probably one of my favorites.  If you watch Greys Anatomy you will be familiar with their music.  In the Greys Musical episode they sang How To Save A Life which is sung by them.

They were really good.  I enjoyed them.

In the hour between The Fray + U2, they had all kinds of statistics and facts on their super duper large 3D tv.  For example:

Unemployment in Alberta is 5.9%
Edmonton Elevation is just over 2100 square feet
17 Babies were born to U2 Crew Members during this tour
They have played 51 different songs on this current tour
Over 16 million abortions have been completed so far this year
122,000 suicides so far this year
138,000 deaths that day
38,000 of those deaths were related to hunger
Over 157 Billion dollars of illegal drugs were sold that day around the world.
Over 9 billion cigarettes smoked that day
Something like $130 million spent on weight loss products in one day in the US

Those are all the ones that I can remember.  It was pretty interesting.

U2 getting ready to come on stage.

Their first song was Even Better Than The Real Thing which was totally appropriate!

Over 65,000 people were in attendance.  And they easily could've put another 3000 on the floor.

Nice shout out to Canada.  This is where he told his hitchhiking story with Gilbert Brule which has made headlines around the world.  Not sure why this is so interesting.  Is it because Bono was hitchhiking or because it was an Edmonton Oiler who picked him up in BC?

I am convinced that one of their 150 trucks is just for Edge's toques and Bono's sunglasses.  No joke.

Look at those black skies.  The forecast called for rain but it sprinkled for a few minutes.  The best part was Bono started singing "Singing In The Rain" when it was raining.  Pure awesomeness.  You barely even noticed the rain.

The stage was seriously unreal when it lit up.  We all thought it might take off or start walking like a giant crab.

I was so excited to see Vertigo performed live.  It is my all time favorite song by U2.  It is a constant on my ipod and it is a song that always makes me happy when I hear it.  But the key to this song is that it HAS to be LOUD!

Just before they sang One, Bono spoke about Aung San Suu Kyi who was on house arrest for 15 years even though her party won the election.  You can about it here.  She spoke to the crowd and then they started singing One.  It was awesome.

For the encore Bono had some crazy ass microphone that was attached to a string and looked very much like the steering wheel for the wii.  The first song of the encore was very strange and theatrical. Still not sure if I even enjoyed that or not.  The last song he sang called Surrender he dedicated to Slave Lake and to anybody we hold close in our hearts.  It was a great end to a great concert!

Literally as soon as the band walked off the stage, the crew started taking down the stage.  It was crazy.

U2 was on my concert bucket list so I am very happy to cross them off.  It was well worth the nearly 2 year wait to see them!

A special thanks to my Aunty Debbie + Uncle Brian for babysitting Finley + Penelope and for letting us stay there.  We headed back to Calgary bright and early Thursday morning.  Penelope was up at 5am so I was really tired.

If you ever get the chance to see U2 in concert, I definitely recommend it!