If you read my last blog you know that I saw U2 in concert earlier this week. It was my fifth time seeing them and I knew they'd put on a good show. In fact, I'd seen this very tour - 360 - in Las Vegas about a year and a half ago. I knew it was going to be great. What I didn't know is how great everything else was NOT going to be. Where to begin...well, I guess at the beginning...
I bought the tickets for this concert (held June 7, 2011) in November of 2009. That's right. 2009. I bought them about a month after seeing the show in Vegas (since the first round of the tour came nowhere in California, much less somewhere near me...but I digress...sort of...). Anyway...the concert was originally scheduled for June 2010 but then Bono hurt his back and the whole tour was postponed. I should have known right then and there that it was tainted, that the whole night would somehow turn into a fiasco.
Because I'm a member of the fan club I actually bought extra tickets and had a total of 5...my thoughts being that I could easily sell the extras, maybe make a little cash, whatever. A friend had planned to go with me when it was still in 2010, but I didn't try selling the extra tickets right away thinking that the demand would go up as the concert date approached. And then, of course, there was no concert date, so I had all these tickets. Again, I should have known...
Sometime last fall I decided to donate one pair of tickets to an auction because the idea of selling them was just more than I cared to deal with and it seemed like a good thing to do. So I did. And I figured I'd sell the single ticket as it got much closer to the event date. But then the friend who was going to go with me had to back out (and I don't blame her...she'd agreed to go over a year earlier...life happens...). Anyway, I was back to three tickets. I asked some other friends if they wanted to go but came up empty and decided to just go by myself and sell the other pair...which I did, just about two weeks prior to the show.
I have to admit, I was not as excited about the show as I have been about past U2 shows...partially because of everything listed above and partially because I was just tired and kinda bummed that no one was going with me...not that I don't go to concerts by myself all the time, but for some reason it seemed strange. Anyway...when I woke up Tuesday morning I actually was excited and listened to U2 tunes all day.
I changed clothes at work and loved putting on my 'boys play rock and roll' t-shirt from the Vertigo tour a number of years ago. Yes. I'm a real fan. I own all the albums, some on vinyl; I own the t-shirts; I own the concert poster and have it professionally framed. At that point, I was ready.
I will admit that I wasn't terribly excited about getting to Oakland to see the show, but I told myself I'd take BART and it would be simple. I even checked the BART schedule to make sure the trains ran late enough - not being a seasoned BART rider. It all looked good. Of course, since I live in San Jose I had to first drive to Fremont to get to BART because apparently all those years ago when it was originally built no one had the foresight to bring the lines all the way down here. To be fair, this was pre-Silicon Valley explosion, but still. It's lame. Anyway...
I drove to Fremont and ate an early dinner before heading to BART. I knew I had zero interest in the food at the Oakland Coliseum - especially since they don't have Coke. I also knew I didn't care about the opening acts for the show and that I didn't have to rush to get there. I figured I'd get on a train around 6:30 and take my time to walk from BART to the stadium without being crushed by a sea of humanity.
I pulled into the Fremont BART station around 6 thinking I'd have plenty of time to park, get my ticket and wait for the train. HA HA HA HA HA HA!!! The lot was PACKED! I parked in the farthest spot in the farthest lot and even debated screwing the whole thing and driving but couldn't bear the thought of sitting in 880 traffic or paying $30-40 for parking.
I got into the station and stood in a line of about 20 people buying tickets, which is apparently really hard for a lot of people. Wow. Got my ticket, went through the gates and got to the platform just in time to squeeze into the train about to leave. And I mean squeeze. Because not only was there the U2 concert, but there was also a Giants game meaning the trains were just stupidly filled with people. And it seemed to me that BART probably knew these events were both going on, in addition to the normal daily commute, and should have increased the length of trains or added trains or both. But it didn't seem like they really cared enough to do anything. Whatever. I stood between people for the 25 or so minute ride and was never so happy to see the Coliseum station in my life.
I got off the train and, along with thousands of other U2 fans, made my way into the station slowly...inching along hoping I wouldn't get trampled, happy I had no interest in seeing the opening act. As I came through the gate I started seeing signs that didn't make sense, signs telling me the Coliseum station was closing at midnight and that the last train was at 12:20. What? That's not what the online BART schedule told me, but sure enough, that was the story. "It's okay," I said to myself. "U2 will probably start at 9, play until about 11:30, and there will be plenty of time to get back." HA HA HA HA HA HA!!!
More on this later.
I made my way, along with the rest of the Bay Area, to the stadium and after taking every single item out of my tiny purse for the security guy, I got inside and found my seat, and it was actually good.
The opening act (the first of two) was still playing and I had absolutely zero interest. Neither did anyone else from what I could see. They played too long and then we waited for almost 30 minutes before the actual opening act, Lenny Kravitz, came on. I'm not a Lenny Kravitz fan. At all. And he played way too long. He's a headliner, not an opener, so of course he has a lot of songs. He finished around 8:30 I think and I still had hope that U2 would be starting at 9. In fact, I think they were supposed to based on other things I read, but they didn't start until 9:30 and by that time, I knew I was going to be hosed with the whole BART station closing earlier thing. Still, as soon as The Edge hit that first chord, I was lost in the music.
Because the fact is, U2 puts on a show like no one else. They are fantastic musicians and they know how to entertain. And until 11:25, when I decided I'd better make my way to the station so I didn't miss the midnight closing, they rocked.
Here's what didn't rock: the numerous pot smokers all around me. It's not like I was surprised people were smoking pot. People always do it at an outdoor concert, but this was the absolute worst I'd ever seen. It's as if all of the Bay Area was just saying, "Screw you," to the law about legalizing it that was NOT passed. Criminals, all of them. And look, if you want to smoke that crap and mess up your head, knock yourself out, just don't involve me. But you don't care about me do you? It's all about you.
You.Are.Awesome.
I can honestly say that I had a scarf wrapped around my nose and mouth for most of the show to avoid the smoke and at one point thought about leaving altogether. That's how bad it was. It was the first time I ever wished it would rain at an outdoor show.
And really Coliseum security? You can't do anything about this? Really???
When the band was about to start their second encore, I knew I should just go because I was already getting stressed about missing the last BART train back to Fremont. For about five minutes I debated just paying a wad of cash to a cab driver to drive me back but realized that was beyond ridiculous. I even thought about who I might know in the vicinity that I could convince to come pick me up but knew that there was no one. So, I started walking out of the stadium as Bono swung on his glowing red microphone and started singing Kiss Me, Kill Me. If I'd never seen the band before, I would have been even more angry that I had to leave early. And as I wandered back to the station, along with thousands of others, it was clear that no one was happy about the situation. As I started up the ramp toward the bridge they started playing With or Without You. It's just wrong that I was outside when this was playing. I couldn't even recognize the next song as I was about halfway across the bridge when it started. Ridiculous. By the time I got inside the station and put my ticket in the gate, it was 11:55. Seriously. Thirty minutes.
I got to the platform and one train was just leaving. We waited several minutes for the next train and saw on the board that there were two coming so I decided to wait for the second one...maybe BART did add an extra train. When I looked across to the stadium where the concert had clearly ended I felt bad for all those people that were going to miss the midnight station closure. I wondered what in the world they were going to do. And then I wondered why people ever bother with public transportation when it turns into the nightmare that it was that night.
By the time I got home it was about 1:15, and I was exhausted - otherwise this blog would have been written then, in the heat of my anger. I was still too tired to think about it yesterday, but I told anyone that asked that I was not happy about what had happened. I read this morning that the traffic and parking situation was even worse...tons of people didn't even get in? Some sat in traffic for hours and then there was no parking? What the heck is up Oakland? It's not like you don't have big events all the time. What was wrong with this one? Where was the planning? I also read that BART extended it's service until 3:30 in the morning. Well that's nice. So I could have stayed for the whole show? Really? BITE ME.
This whole experience was a nightmare and I have zero interest in ever going to Oakland again. For anything. I don't even want to go see my Yankees the next time they come to town. A concert, especially one from one of your favorite bands, should make you excited and energized. Unfortunately, this left me quite the opposite. The music? Yes. That was great. But everything else has made that part fade quickly and now I have a bad U2 concert memory. And that is the worst part of all.
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