Magnificent Gift

Earlier this summer I had a gathering to commemorate my 40th birthday. We rented a place in western Pa next to a river and invited everyone I knew. We played beanbags, drank Yuenglings and sat around a campfire. It was everything I needed for a good ol' fashioned birthday blowout. I wasn't thinking too much about presents. In fact, I requested that in lieu of gifts I would prefer if the dudes grew mustaches. I figured it would be more entertaining and most obliged and it was in fact very funny. The women would not be excluded and brought their own mustaches.
I put together a slide show if you haven't seen it.


So I guess what I'm getting at is that a gift or present wasn't on my radar that day. I was more caught up with getting my itunes arranged and where to buy a half keg of Yuengling deep in the hollers of Western PA...and would a half keg be enough...

I think that is why this gift from my family was all the more special. My immediate family chipped in and purchased a VIP package for Kristen and I to see U2 in Boston. Previous to this weekend I had been chirping off that U2 had for some reason bypassed Philadelphia on the first leg of their new tour. Kristen was on pins and needles for a couple weeks prior just hoping that I wouldn't get it in my head to road trip to see U2.

The gift was a tremendous surprise. Didn't see it coming. Not even close. The party and the actual Boston road trip were great bookends to the summer. I could get used to the VIP treatment at the big shows. Parking 50 yards from the entrance and not having to pay the $40 fee was our first indication that we were in for a very pleasant day. In addition to being only 18 rows back and having a birds-eye view of the new 360 degree stage, there was also a VIP party before the show. We had an all-you-can-eat buffet and an open bar and met some great people along the way. One of which somewhat knew my cousin from Penn State.

The coolest thing about these shows is that there is no imagined community here. People are there for the same exact thing and most have been doing this for 20 or 30 years. I get to reflect on how long I've been listening to this band and all the bookmarks jammed into the chapters of my life. It's no joke.

Like most folks I saw them first at Live Aid in 1985. I didn't know what I saw, but it resonated with me. It was my Beatles on The Ed Sullivan Show. I had 8 distorted hours of Live Aid on a VHS tape for years at my folks house. I watched the U2 performance about 100 times. I'd toss it in every once in while to revisit until one day I came home from college and when I went to watch it, I found it replaced by a Penn State/Michigan game. U2 at Live Aid was gone. There was no Youtube, Napster etc. There was no commercial release of the show until about 3 years ago. Now with Youtube it's at your fingertips all the time.

I'd say it was about 1986 I was working at Acme Market as a cashier. My first job and I had to wear a tie and some type of smock with a name tag on it. With their label maker I punched in The Edge on my name tag. I still have it somewhere. It made for some interesting dialogue. I'd ask the old ladies if they wanted paper or plastic and they'd reply, "we don't care for the plastic bags, they hurt our hands and fall over when you set them on the table, we'll have paper. Thank you, The Edge."

I went to college and put a couple u2 posters on my dorm wall along with them on the cover of Time magazine. I still have them somewhere too. A bunch of friends from my dorm went to the Joshua Tree Tour at Three Rivers Stadium in the Fall of 1987. I squinted from the 700 level in deep deep center field. Bono had his arm in a cast from falling the night before from some scaffolding. It was my first real concert. It was a cold night and I had bad skin and bad hair and my fathers army jacket on that would later be stolen at a frat party. I saw every u2 tour since then except one while we were in LA cause I was out of work and broke as a joke. We were in Philly when they returned the next time around. I took Kristen for the first time and we hit the pit lottery and saw them from the first row. The next time we saw them they brought out Bruce Springsteen and his wife to do a song. I yelped like a little school girl.

In my confirming belief that good people find good people, I tend to give u2 credit for meeting one of my best friends. I think it was the summer of '93 when I met my buddy Mika from Finland. We were at a mutual friends gathering and he was mulling about like a Fin out a water with a rather befuddled look on his face. He had a 'how'd I get here' look on his face which wasn't uncommon for International students who ended up in Indiana, Pennsylvania. I'd seen it a number of times and I may have chuckled and carried on, but this dude had a u2 t-shirt on. We talked about the tours and how his friends sent him off the night before with a party and the Zooropa CD. We were fast friends and dumped a lot of bills in the Coney Island jukebox playing Achtung Baby over the next couple years. Mika just called me this morning to tell me they're buying extra u2 tix for next summers Helsinki stop...whether we make it over there or not. This isn't the first time he's done that.

So yeah, that's all I got. Those are the highlights. The trip to Boston was another bookmark. As mentioned we met some more good people and I did the best I could with my point and shoot camera. I'd again like to thank those that gave us this thoughtful gift. My folks, Kristen's folks, Aunt Gummy and Uncle Weiner, Megan and Bill, AJ and Tiffany, Tibby and Mugger and Michelle. You guys rock.