So the U2 concert wasn't as good as it could have been. I say that because I got kind of sour on the experience. I made quick friends with the guy standing next to me -- I even ate some of the peanuts he offered me -- but I was trying to save his spot on the rail for half an hour as he excused himself to go to the bathroom during intermission, and the fucker never came back. (Saw him on my way out. Asshole probably went to his seat, where he was supposed to sit, and not tell us.) Then there were some drunk assholes who kept bumping into me. Oh, and I thought I had a great vantage point of the show: Far away, but straight as the crow flies to the Joshua Tree stage with no one in front of me blocking my sightline. But then U2 came out and the row of chairs in front of me stood up. I did not realize that 1) people would stand for the show and 2) that row is on the same level as me standing. So the people in front of me stood up, the blocked my view ... just like watching any concert. Oh, and don't get me started on the sound. Ooooooosbahnk Stadium is a terrible venue for concerts.
Nevertheless I like U2. I had dreams that this band, who had made it a point to never look back in nostalgia, would play The Joshua Tree in its entirety, and they did Friday, although I could barely hear them at points and Bono looked really tired at the end of the concert. So, like a rube, I bought a concert tee for $40. And because I wanted to start a conversation, I decided to wear it the next day, to soccer-watching downtown in the morning followed by a food truck/community festival/fundraiser for Meals On Wheels at a brewery about 15 minutes away from where I live.
No one made a comment about my shirt at the bar. Maybe it's because U2's an Irish band and I was at a British pub. About a half-dozen people at this outdoor fest commented on it, however -- not that I noticed. The first guy who brought up my t-shirt was sitting down; he turned to me and said something like, "Bad, wasn't it?" and I turned towards him all, "What did you say?" He didn't gesture to my t-shirt. He didn't gesture at all; he just turned around and said something in my general direction. Only did he explain himself did I finally realize he was trying to start a conversation with the t-shirt with which I wanted to start a conversation. It would've helped if the dude said something like, "Excuse me" first.
With that in mind, my social skills swung totally in the opposite direction when I sat down at one of the communal benches to eat a Chilean burrito. A group of six (three men, three women) sat down in the same bench. The guy who sat next to me went, "Who did you go with?" And this time I was prepared; I think I said something like: "I went by myself, none of my friends are fans." To which he replied, "I meant what are you eating." Whoops! But like that first guy, he could have been more specific; why didn't he ask, "What are you eating?" the first time?
The public mix-ups got better during the rest of the fundraiser. The four-to-five other people who stopped me went (including one of the workers at the food truck) and they all wanted to know what I thought. I echoed the common sentiment that the sound sucked, and I told one person that I thought Bono noticeably ran out of gas starting from the end of The Joshua Tree. Those conversations started off right and they finished right -- just like I hoped!
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