That’s Me In The Corner

Okay, so I’m a total nerd. I admit it. Freely. Or at least I admit that I’m a nerd about some things. Things I’m…say, passionate about. Things I really really like. U2 would fall into that category. I’m a total U2 nut. And before you say anything, I’m aware that the title of this post is from an R.E.M. song, but Stipey and Bono are friends, so I figure that’s okay. Plus it fits my tale here.

October 2005 was my final month in NYC before I moved back out to PA and started working at my current job. As something of a “send-off” from NYC, I had tickets to four separate U2 Vertigo concerts. Two of them I went to with others, two were solo. One of the solo tickets I had was for a floor seat on 10/11. It was an amazing show. I got there early, stood in line, didn’t win the “lottery” for the inner circle crowd, but I was cool with that because I still managed to get a space at the outer edge of the circle right in the center. I was within spitting distance of Bono (not that I would have dared spit on him, but the point is that I could have). It was awesome.

The Arcade Fire song “Wake-Up” signaled the beginning of the concert. “City of Blinding Lights” began to play and Bono appeared on the stage right in front of me. With my camera poised, I was ready. Of course it was at this moment that the memory card decided to crap out completely. I started getting error messages. Things would blink that normally didn’t blink. I think my camera might even have given me the finger. It didn’t matter how sweetly I spoke to it, how much I begged or how many promises I made, it just stubbornly refused to work. I ended up eventually sending the stupid thing back to SanDisk who sent me a replacement, but that didn’t do me much good while Bono and The Edge were rockin’ out just a few feet away and me unable to capture it with anything but my memory! The good news is that I still had one more concert to attend with good seats so I was able to get some fabulous shots then (see the gallery at the end of this post), however I still didn’t have anything to take away from this crowning jewel moment in my concert-going history.

I was online tonight and for some reason suddenly thought, “Hey – the Internet is a pretty big place…I wonder if someone else who was at the concert that night happened to post photos of it..?” So I started to search. Lo and behold, I found photos taken from someone who was part of the inner circle which were great, but then I also stumbled across a bunch of YouTube videos taken that night and to my great surprise, you can see me in some of them! Well, you kinda have to know what you’re looking for, but still.

If you feel so inclined, you can watch the whole video (the camera angle catches me at various times throughout) but I also took a screenshot and highlighted myself in the lower right corner (just look for the blue circle).