Well, Bill's soccer team lost their second playoff game by a score of 1-0 on Wednesday. So they were eliminated, but by one of the best teams in the state. They can be very proud of their year! When he was a freshman they didn't win a single game -- now that he is a senior they were state ranked! Bill headed out to Melvindale tonight to watch the first round of the football playoffs, which our team lost. But it was the only time in the four years he's been in high school that the football team made the playoffs, so I am happy he went. The final score was close, and when he came home, he did not have a voice!

Today I planted more flowers, and was in a mood to cook. As usual on my day off, I also did some cleaning, though the house, as always, is still a complete and disgusting mess. Sometimes I honestly wonder why I even bother...it things always get trashed faster than I can clean things up.

Tomorrow I hope plant more of the flower bulbs, and Steven will have a soccer game way down in Bedford. I hate travel soccer because soem of the games are so far away, but hopefully this will be the last season of it -- in the spring he usually is still busy with wrestling, and starting next year he will have high school soccer. YAY! No more hour long drives!

I think I've finally calmed down enough to talk semi-coherently about the U2 concert.

It was the second Detroit concert -- the first one was on Monday, the second one (the one I went to ) was on Tuesday. The concerts were at the Palace of Auburn Hills, which is to the north of Detroit. It's about 1 1/2 - 2 hours from where I live depending on how crazy the freeway traffic is. Well, if there were no cars at all, maybe an hour, but that hardly ever happens.

Just driving up there was fun. The local radio station which was sposoring the concerts had the pre-concert-concert. They were playing only U2 music, and were interviewing all of these fans who had gone to the Monday concert on the air. They were all very enthused, and said that Bono was great at interacting with the fans. They were all talking about how he pulled a woman (they all said she had a very curvy butt ) up on stage with him for one of the slower songs, and slow danced with her for the whole song while he was singing.


Got to the Palace about half an hour early, and was glad that they checked purses and had everyone hold open their coats, but didn't actually pat everyone down like they did for the Green Day concert back in September. They also did the security checks inside, as opposed to at the door like with Green Day. That was most welcome, as it was a chilly night and looked like rain.

The opening act came on right at 7:30, like the tickets said. I was sitting behind the stage, and never did catch the name. They did some covers of some songs I did recognize, like Bush's Machinehead. Usually I enjoy the opening act, but that night I just seethed with impatience. I just wanted them off the stage so I could hear my favorite band of all
time!

They finally finished, and the roadies came out to set up for U2 (who eventually came out abour 8:50PM). It was a circular stage (which is why they were able to open up the whole stadium for seating). There was also an elevated circular track of sorts that came off of the stage and did a loop through the general admission crowd.

It turned out that the edges of the track and stage were equipped with different colors of lights. There were also strings of giant beads, like curtains, that they raised and lowered during different parts of the show for lighting special effects, which could also be used as screens. Very unique and very cool! There were also regular large screens, split into four, with a close up view of each band member throughout the show.

Bono and Edge in particular did come out on the track and interact with the fans. Bono also came to the back side of the stage for some songs, to sing to those of us seated behind the stage. He didn't do any slow dancing the second night, but he did go around the track and the edges of the stage and reached out and touched the hands of the fans. He had a very pleasing stage presence. He was quietly confident without being swaggering or arrogant. I guess you could say that he was quiet and commanding -he had the air of someone who has been doing something and doing it well for a long time, and still enjoys it.

the songs:
City of Blinding Lights
Vertigo
Elevation
I Will Follow
Gloria
The Ocean
I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For
In A Little While
Beautiful Day
a medley of Beatles songs
Miracle Drug
Sometimes You Can't Make It On Your Own
No Regrets
Love and Peace or Else
Sunday Bloody Sunday
Get Up Stand Up
Bullet the Blue Sky
Miss Saravejo
Pride (In the Name of Love)
Where the Streets Have No Name
One
MLK

for the first encore:
The First Time
Who's Gonna Ride Your Wild Horses
With or Without You

for the second encore:
Crumbs from your Table
Bad
People Have the Power

One very touching moment was when the band dedicated a song to the recently passed Rosa Parks.

On the way home the radio station had the post-concert-concert. So we got to listen to U2 songs and fellow concert goers all the way home. The band did play some different songs on the two different Detroit nights, according to fans lucky enough to attend both shows. On the first night, Bono reportedly tried to sing Ole Man River but couldn't get his voice low enough, and everyone (including Bono and the rest of the band) got a good chuckle from that.