Wednesday, September 23, 2009

Awe

That pretty much sums up how the boys were during the U2 concert on Monday night. In awe.

We got off to a bit of a nerve-wracking start after a colleague told me it took him 3 1/2 hours to get to the stadium for the previous night's show - causing him to miss the first 45 minutes of U2's performance. While the boys were very calm about that prospect, one did say "I'll be sad if we miss Beautiful Day."

I would have been as well.

We managed to get to the stadium (a mere 15 miles from our house) in under 2 hours. We got to hear most of the opening act, wander the stadium, sign up for the One campaign and get white rubber bracelets, bump into some friends, acquire some free bags with the Blackberry logo and buy the boys their concert t-shirts (using money they had been saving from birthday presents).

From our seats we could see the band enter the stadium. The boys just sat frozen while all these adults around them were screaming and cheering. They were not frightened. Just in awe.

I had warned them that I would be standing up to dance to various songs, explaining that this is what people do at concerts and they shouldn't give me any "sit down MOM!" lines. At one point after I got up for a song Bono yelled to the crowd to stand up and start clapping. One little man did as he was told like he was in school. I leaned over to tell him Bono wasn't talking directly to him and he didn't have to get up if he didn't want to.

He sat down with noticeable relief.

They did get to hear their jointly favorite song, Beautiful Day, but to my disappointment we didn't hear Pride. The boys understood that song after our visit to Memphis in 2008.



It was fun to sing With or Without You, loudly, while a son was hugging my waist. But both guys struggled with what Sunday Bloody Sunday meant. Or why there were images of people covered in blood from Iran shown on the large screens. The car ride home was a bit long for that reason. "What is going on in Iran?" "What happened on Sunday? Why was it bloody?"

In the end the investment, time and loss of school productivity (I can only imagine what these new teachers think of me as a parent) was worth it. Because they had that look in their eyes.

That look of seeing idols. Real idols.

3 comments:

BiblioDiva said...

If your sons' new teachers are anything close to human (which I suspect they are), they'll be intensely jealous that they weren't at the concert.

And the look on their faces...priceless.

Goofball said...

wow, got chills reading your post

U2 just announced that they are coming to Belgium next year...guess who'll be trying to get a ticket?


how did you like the stage by the way? it's Belgian design from a company closeby where I live(as always for U2). We've seen it on our highways going south just before the tour's kick-off in Barcelona last June.

Anonymous said...

What a great write up of a memorable night! I can totally hear the "conversation" in the car ride home. It's so great the way you offer real knowledge and understanding to your kids about the really big things that happen in this world. I don't think there is a thing wrong with that kind of approach to parenting. That includes taking 3rd graders to a late night U2 concert. You're a star!