so we get to the general admission entry area around 6:15. doors were supposed to open at 6, but they clearly had not opened yet. we waited in line for a little bit, and the doors opened up around 6:30, so we weren't too freezing by the time we got into the td bank north garden center arena thing. it was pretty cool that the concert even had general admission - apparently this was only due to a special request by u2. so anyways, we made it through the first ticketing section, through security, and up 3 flights of stairs, all fairly slowly. up at the top of the 3rd set of stairs was the "ellipse" gate system, described thusly:

All GA ticket holders will then be directed to a table where line wristbands will be exchanged for a GA floor wristband. All GA ticket holders will pass through an “ELLIPSE” GATE SYSTEM that will scan their tickets and select at random ticket holders for “Access” to the “ELLIPSE” inner stage viewing area. Ticket holders randomly selected will be provided an “ELLIPSE” wristband.

so we finally got up there with our first set of bracelets. jen had her ticket scanned - no dice. when my ticket was scanned, a u2 vertigo logo flashed on the screen. a heavily tattooed man in a kilt (yes) told us excitedly that we were going to be inside the ellipse. sweet.

so we went into the actual arena and down towards the court area. of course, the basketball court (and ice hockey surface) were both removed for the concert. in case you were wondering. anyways, after going through more security and having our "inside the ellipse" bracelets scanned with infrared light, we made it to where we would watch the entire show - literally, 10 feet from the stage at most, on the left side of the stage (facing the stage, to the left. stage right, i suppose). we were planted right in front of where the edge would soon be playing guitar, just 2 people deep from the barrier between the crowd and the stage. so, we were close.

stupidly, i didn't bring my digital camera. i have 10 very crappy cameraphone pictures that i will post at some point. they freakin suck though, and i really really wish i had my camera. concerts give AMAZING opportunities for cool photos. i have no idea what i was thinking.

so the band institute was the opener for u2. i didn't think they sounded familiar, jen had no idea who they were. we waited and waited and around 7:30 or 7:45, the band took the stage. jen joked that the lead singer looked like gavin from bush, at which point i realized it was gavin from bush, and that institute was his new band. i had heard them on fnx and everything. just totally didn't think about him at all.

institute comes on and plays a couple of their new songs, garnering little to no reaction from the crowd that was clearly jacked up to see u2. at the first break between songs, he said something hilarious, along the lines of "thanks for all the support... you never know what it's gonna be like when you're the opener" - harkening back to his days headlining tours with bush. i would know, that bush-veruca salt concert was one of my first ones (and one of the first for many of you, i'm sure). anyways, institute then breaks into a decent rendition of "the chemicals between us" followed by "machinehead", which was excellent as always. i half expected the set to end with "comedown" but i guess that would be too on the nose. they played a few more stupid, repetitive, dull songs and faded into the night. poor gavin. jen kept calling him a peacock, which is fairly accurate. more like a mentally challenged peacock. eh, regardless.

so the lights came up and i thought about how no one shoved me in the back or tried to mosh or crowdsurf during the entire institute set. which was refreshing. pretty much every concert that i've gotten GA tickets to have involved moshing and crowdsurfing to some extent. this was all very tame.

we waited a good 45 minutes for u2 to come on, but when they finally did, it was pretty sweet. everyone in the place loved u2, obviously, and u2 was very willing to love them right back. here's a look at the setlist (via u2setlists.com):

12/05/2005 Fleet Center - Boston, Massachusetts
City Of Blinding Lights, Hello, Goodbye (snippet) / , Vertigo / Dirty Water (snippet) / Take Me To The River (snippet), Elevation, Gloria, I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For / The Promised Land (snippet), Beautiful Day / Christmas (Baby, Please Come Home) (snippet) / Jingle Bells (snippet), Original Of The Species, Norwegian Wood, Sometimes You Can't Make It On Your Own / The Black Hills of Dakota (snippet), Love And Peace Or Else, Sunday Bloody Sunday / Rock The Casbah (snippet), Bullet The Blue Sky / The Hands That Built America (snippet) / When Johnny Comes Marching Home (snippet), Miss Sarajevo, Pride (In The Name Of Love), Where The Streets Have No Name, One / She's A Mystery To Me (snippet)
encores: Until The End Of The World, Mysterious Ways / We Wish You A Merry Christmas (snippet) / The Battle Hymn Of The Republic (snippet), With Or Without You, Crumbs From Your Table, Instant Karma!, Yahweh, 40
comment: During Mysterious Ways, Bono brings two fans onstage, one dressed as Santa Claus and the other as Elvis Presley.

so i obviously loved all the little nods to the beatles and john lennon (hello, goodbye / norwegian wood / instant karma). in particular, "instant karma" was amazing. the edge picked up a aqua-green strat and started strumming a real simple chord sequence that i sorta recognized, while the unnamed bassist (yes the bassist and drummer both exist and are real) played along side. bono said something like "who knows whats going to happen now... anything could happen" and by that time i realized that they were playing "instant karma". thats how you win my heart, all you bands out there.

to the more u2-specific questions though, they were pretty good. their new songs aren't great still, but "elevation" worked out pretty well, as did "beautiful day". the best stuff was definitely their old stuff though - "mysterious ways" was freaking awesome (as the comment above hints to), as was "i still haven't found what i'm looking for." also, i'm 99% sure i've never been in a building that was quite as loud as the td banknorth garden after "where the streets have no name" - this was clearly the favorite song of everyone at the entire show, and u2 brought their a-game when performing it. i was very impressed by how well u2 handled the show, given how old they all are and how great they were when most of the audience (myself included) was in elementary school or lower.

really, being within arm's reach of bono and the edge when they came over to the lip of the stage in front of us added a shitload too. being right near the stage is fucking awesome.

before i close out this review, i'd like to make one note about the edge. he's fucking awesome, even with a stupid ass show-biz name like "the edge". it was great when bono, on stage, would refer to him as the edge. and it was even greater when bono, on stage but not mic'ed, would say things like "hey, edge" - things you wouldn't notice if you weren't within 10 feet of the freaking stage (yes, beating dead horse, i know). but yeah, he's awesome. he plays the guitar well, he plays moderately difficult parts, but he doesn't act like an ass (:cough: institute guitarist :cough:) when he's playing. he doesn't act like he's playing ridiculously hard music, he doesn't do a jimi hendrix impression on stage (:cough: institute fucking guitarist you fucking suck :cough:) - he just grins, clearly doing something he loves in front of people he seemed to genuinely care about.

actually, on thate note - all 4 members of u2 really, really seemed genuinely happy that anyone would show up for their show. they didn't seem like jackass rockstars on stage, which i thought was really cool (:cough: fucking godsmack, you suck :cough:). the edge was giving away guitar picks every chance he could, and since he came on the stage first every time, he always sorta smiled sheepishly when the crowd went nuts. bono brought some jackass in a santa claus costume on stage (the guy was standing 4-5 people to my right, and i told jen he'd get on stage cuz he was dressed as santa), which just seemed to me to be a total "we're all in this together" move - letting santa and elvis dance all the way around the ellipse while he sang was a real cool sight, especially when elvis guy started doing his impersonation of elvis (shakin the legs and whatnot) and bono was standing and watching him in the same way all of us were watching bono - as a fan. it was pretty sweet. and of course, drummer and bassist are just happy to be there anyways.

so, u2 was pretty fun, and the whole experience worked out really as well as i could have hoped for. i have a lot more respect for the band, maybe not as artists but definitely as people. and "where the streets have no name" is still a really awesome song.