The point of this trip report is primarily for personal posterity, so it may delve into more details than the casual reader may like. However, if you’re bored at work this may be just the thing for you. Otherwise, you know where the Back button is.
I drove up to Amy’s place Wednesday night. She went off to work Thursday morning, and I went to go pick up her mom from Dulles, on her way back from Scotland. Mind you, I’ve never driven to Dulles before in my life. I can get there, but I’ve always just been there leaving before.
Fun part #1: I get there, the road forks, and I see a sign with two options: Terminal and Parking. Since this isn’t just a dropping off deal, so I veer on over to parking. Apparently by parking, they meant day- and week-long parking, while Terminal means check-in and short-term parking. So I meander my way through the turns, the multiple construction zones, and finally get to the short-term parking. Way to label, folks.
Fun part #2: I’ve never flown internationally, out of Dulles or anywhere else. So I have no clue whether to try and track down the gate her flight comes in at, or in the International Arrivals area (it’s door number two for those of you playing at home). I wait there, keeping an eye out for her for a good 15 minutes and she doesn’t show up.
I got there at 2:40 pm (when the plane was scheduled to arrive), and I still didn’t see her. Apparently or the first time ever in aviation history, her flight actually arrived early. By 2:30, she had landed, was in the front of the line in customs, and they pretty much waived her through. Meaning she was through customs, with her luggage and looking for me before I even got there.
Back in lovely Edinburgh it was in the upper 60s. When we get to the car and start it up, the exterior temperature display reads 98°. Welcome back to Virginia.
We then paid Amy a visit at work, she heads home, and Amy and I leave from there to the U2 show at the MCI Center in DC.
Parking anywhere remotely close to the Center is twenty fucking dollars—such is the price for personal space. Amy didn’t want to be herded onto and from the Metro like so much livestock. So we (meaning I) paid and parked.
We were up in the 400 section, dead center with the far end of the heart-shaped catwalk stage, one row back from the edge (as in precipice, not Dave Evans) of the section, and gave us a really nice view of the entire stage and crowd.
The show started at 7:30, and U2 came on at 8:45.
I could have lived without seeing P.J. Harvey. Loud was not the word to describe it. Amy and I decided to walk around the MCI Center while she was on, and it was still damn loud in the corridors. I’m sure she’s a decent artist, but she definitely wasn’t my thing. Kinda like Modest Mouse. I’ve tried to like them, but I just don’t. Though I did dig the song on her album that she did with Thom Yorke (of Radiohead).
That show was the best concert of the year. Period. The crowd, the band, the setlist, everything had it going on. Hell, the lighting alone blew me away. It really put that Dave Matthews guy to shame (sure, they’re in two different genres of rock, but still).
Here’s the setlist from the first D.C. show. (The songs following the virgule (forward slash) means they teased parts of that song, integrating it into the one listed before):
Just the fact that I was actually seeing them perform live was amazing to me. I had to keep reminding myself that yes, that actually was Bono down there running laps on the heart, that yes, that is actually the amazing sound of the Edge playing live however many hundred feet in front of me.
One of the last songs I expected to hear in the set was Gone. It was always one of my favorites from their ‘97 album Pop, but was never released as a single, so I wouldn’t have expected it to be played. So here it shows up, the only track from Pop played. Not Discotheque, not Staring at the Sun, but Gone. I was a happy camper.
One of my friends from school was right in the center of the heart, up close and personal. The sad thing is he isn’t a real big U2 fan. I doubt he’d heard The Ground Beneath Her Feet or I Will Follow before that night. He went just to say he went. Even though we had seats all the way up and back there, I’m sure we had a much better time than he did. That, and the way they do their shows, any seat is a great seat. Here’s hoping they do book a second North American leg this fall.
One of the local radio stations was replaying the setlist, so we got to listen to the songs (or at least the ones they had) on the way back.
