U2 NIGHTMARE

Tonight I went to the U2 concert.  I was excited to see U2 once again.  I have seen them many times.  U2 was the first stadium concert I attended back in 1984.  This was the 4th or 5th time I saw U2 in concert.  Joshua Tree 2017 was a revisit of the original Joshua Tree concert back in 1987.

The concert was starting at 6:30 with Mumford and Sons as the opening act.  I was super excited to see Mumford and Sons.  I left my house at 4pm thinking this would be enough time to get to the stadium to see the concert.  Boy was I wrong!

I am glad I brought snacks and drinks, I was in my car forever.  Just as a clue how long, my clutch was getting so hot, it was making a weird popping noise that was concerning.  I thought for sure it would burn out before I got there and I would be THAT person with their car broken down in the middle lane.

It took me 2.5 hours to get to the turn off to the stadium.  I pretty much thought it would take 2 hours to get to the exit.  So I was doing pretty well. The traffic was moving at 5 miles per hour tops the entire way.  There were all the cars going to the stadium plus all the cars commuting home.

The stadium holds 68,500 people and the concert was sold out.

I get to the exit and there is only one road to the stadium.  Who makes a stadium with only one road accessible to the stadium?  As I was sitting in completely stagnant traffic, I started thinking what happens if there is an earthquake or an emergency?  There is no where to go. No emergency lanes, no way to get through.  Who designed this nightmare?  Plus there are homes in the area.  All these people are trying to get home from work and are caught up in this traffic.  There are no police or event staff directing traffic.  It is just a free for all of people not moving.  Everyone is hot, frustrated, angry, late for the concert, and hungry.  Not a good mix.

After 1.5 hours I got to my parking spot.  The parking spot.  I have not been to the stadium before.  I swore I would never go to this stadium when it was built.  I heard nightmare stories about the stadium and people getting to it.  I decided to go to this concert.  When I bought the tickets I also bought the $50 parking.  I thought I should make sure I had somewhere to park.  As I inched along from the freeway to the parking lot, there were signs that said "quicker, easier parking".  Of course I had bought the $50 parking and I was not going to pay to park somewhere else.  When I finally go to my parking it was awesome!  I had a 5 minute walk to the stadium.

I got to the security once I finally parked at 7:45.  I had to go through the crazy security with my heart monitor.  I was a bit afraid that they would think I had a bomb.  The heart monitor looks like a large walkman that attaches to your belt with wires that attach to your chest.  Before I went through the metal detector I told the girl that I had a heart monitor on.  She just let me right in.

I got to my seats and waited to U2 to come on.  They came on at 9 pm.  It was surprising because there was a noise curfew at 10 pm. They played until 11:20 pm.  At 10:20 pm Bono said "We are just getting warmed up!"  Many of the people sitting in front of us left around 10:20.  I figured they paid babysitters and had to leave.

Bono was good.  He was losing his voice and I have seen him better and I have seen him worse.  The concert was a lot of fun.

The way home was easier.  I got home at 1am.  I was tired and hungry.  I heard the next day that the stadium ran out of food and beer.  People were very unhappy.

Until tomorrow...