On July 30, 2011 a good friend of mine and I set out on an epic journey to the city of Moncton so that we could see U2 play live. While making our way up the 104, better known to the rest of the world as the Trans Canada Highway we came upon a pretty crazy accident…so we drove carefully around it. (Hopefully that guy wasn’t going to the show…because he would have had his plans changed) Upon arriving in Moncton we parked at one of the places that was offering parking for the show. We could have taken a shuttle into Magnetic Hill, but we realized that the line was extremely long for the shuttle so we decided to walk the four kilometers into Magnetic Hill from the parking site. This proved to be the smartest thing because some of those who were waiting for the shuttle missed the first part of the show. However, because we walked in, we did not miss anything. It had rained in Moncton that day so there was plenty of mud on the concert grounds…which only made things more epic. The first band to play was Carney and they were quite talented. The next opening band was Arcade Fire. Half way through their set it appeared that the crowd was anxious for U2 to show up and show people what real music was like. At 9:30 PM ADT we were certainly not disappointed. U2 showed up and did what they do best. This was by far the most fun concert I’d ever been to! They played all our favourites.
Set List (From www.u2.com)
Even Better Than The Real Thing
The Fly
Mysterious Ways
Until The End Of The World
I Will Follow
Get On Your Boots
I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For
The Ballad of Springhill
Stay (Faraway, So Close!)
Beautiful Day
Elevation
Pride (In The Name Of Love)
Miss Sarajevo
Zooropa
City Of Blinding Lights
Vertigo
Crazy Tonight
Discotheque
Sunday Bloody Sunday
Scarlet
Walk On
Encore
One
Where The Streets Have No Name
Encore 2
Hold Me, Thrill Me, Kiss Me, Kill Me
With Or Without You
Moment Of Surrender
Out Of Control
40
Yes it was a great show. Bono had a bit of a sore throat but he still rocked it. Adam Clayton, Larry Mullen Jr., and The Edge were just as solid as ever. Upon reluctantly leaving I remember hearing a few people actually complaining about the show. I had a blast but apparently they didn’t. I don’t know why, I suppose some are never satisfied. The main thing is we had a good time!
The show ended around Midnight and then we had to walk back to where we had parked and make the journey home. As we were going down the highway we noticed that the cops were having a field day….and that’s all I’m going to say about that.
Definitely not a bad way to spend a Saturday night!
