U2 PERTH DECEMBER 2010

or...the tale of the giant bald head

I am in some serious pain, mostly in the lower half of my body. The result of a day of lawn bowls (staff Christmas party) and then 5 hours of standing in a tightly packed Subiaco (no I wont call it Pattersons) oval for the U2 gig. Pretty sure that's the 4th time I've seen U2 and each time out does the last. Love em or hate em you have to admire the whole package. 60,000 peeps last night and probably the same tonight would seem to agree. One gripe though and I was thinking about this as we walked away from the gig... when did the U2 crowd become so bogan? I'm guessing it's post Rattle and Hum (correct me if you think I'm wrong). They used to attract a kind of punk/rock crowd. At least they did when I was first introduced to them in 1980 by a mates mate who DJ'd on a local university radio, they were then considered "underground rock" and we loved em. Somehow though I've stuck with them till today, they just made such an early impact on me that I can't let go. So suck it up haters.

So back to the bogans, both Aussie and Irish and there were equal parts of all last night. I witnessed and was even part of 1 of at least 4 aggro moments (luckily I was in a good mood and managed to calm the guys down who started up with me) but as for the other 3 .... why? Mostly alcohol and testosterone. Nuff said.

So lets now turn our attention to this....

This is the big fat bald head that stood in front of me all night and blocked my view of the entire show, thank god for the big screens, but big screens just make you feel like you're watching a huge live video clip, it's not the same. Don't get me wrong, I'm not a baldy hater, I have bald friends, I just don't want one huge fat shiny one with extended ears in front of me when I'm at a gig. This guys noggin is in almost every picture I took, I've had to crop him out of most of them so that this is not the focus of the pic. So annoying.

Right, that's that vented then and now to the show. We rolled in around 5.30pm and saw this....

click here for the full sized pic of the above, it's pretty cool

First up was Jay Z, who I'm not really a huge fan of and normally I would have missed this bit but as we had standing tickets we had to get in there pretty much straight away to get some sort of view (big fat bald heads were not in the calculation at this stage). I was wrong about Jay Z, he had some good tracks and put on a great show, always tough being the support. I dubbed him the black Eminem ;).

Spotted these guys and gals with all the rigging gear slung over their shoulders and wondered what they'd be doing, soon found out though as they were hoisted up into the claw to control the spotlights and grab the best seats in the house.

Then it was time for the main event, mind blowing, mostly a greatest hits show but with I think 4 or 5 new songs, Bono his usual self, picking a cute girl out of the audience and laying his head on her thigh while he sang. She looked suitably stunned, I think her name is Emily. She probably wont wash her upper thigh for a few days. One lucky punter has a cool vid on their iPhone as Bono grabbed it and sang into it.

There was the usual political messaging, this time round it was mostly Aung San Suu Kyi and I doubt anyone could argue that cause. The main focus was of course the giant claw stage, massive screen and sound system with an incredible light show. The screen projected images in 360 degrees and could be raised and lowered as needed.

All up another fantastic show by U2, even if it was dotted with bogans who smoke inside the event and pour smuggled in tequila over the floor near you so your feet stick to the surface and then try to fight anyone who bumps into them or looks at them in a way they deem "unusual". Next time though it's the seated area for me, I may have finally reached that age where I'm too old and grumpy to put up with that sort of shit any more.