I've never attended an evangelical church service, unless you count the Sunday Brunch at the House of Blues. The Vertigo Tour stop in Las Vegas came close to fitting my definition of a spiritual gathering. I was sitting with a group of people from Dallas listening and singing along when the band launched into Miss Sarajevo. The crowd stood up and held up their hands to punctuate the lyrics. Everyone was swaying. The effect of the music, the lights and the crowd zeitgeist combined to draw me in and I could see how this could be considered an evangelical experience. By the time Mary J. Blige hit the stage to join the band on One, I was convinced I was wrong to have missed the previous tour.
That concert was in 2005. When the Chicago Tour DVD came out, I bought it. And I re-joined the fan club. I even pulled out all of my U2 EP's and early albums and dusted them off. I became a fanatical follower rather than just a casual admirer.
I never found U2 because U2 found me. I had returned to college and was living in the dorm. The previous summer I had filled my afternoons listening to musicians like Exene Cervenka, David Bowie, Devo, Wall of Voodoo, Echo and the Bunnymen, The Police, Gary Numan and Berlin. If it was something no one else would listen to, then I listened to it.
Early one Sunday morning, from a room down the hall, came a pounding punk song with a key lyric, "She's a pretty face but at the wrong time in the wrong place. She's a pretty face. Her mama say one days she's gonna live in America. Yeah, America."
Who was this? How did I manage to miss something this clear? What bounced out was that ringing bell, hammered out on the guitar. It was like sitting in a church.
So U2 found me in 1983. I still have my vinyl copy of War. I later learned the band had been there just as long as Exene, but I had managed to miss its 1981 debut. I regret that, but no worries. By the time Live Aid appeared in 1985, I was considered a long-time fan, and that suited me fine.
I got a chance to experience that 2005 concert by sitting in an IMAX theater this weekend to take in U2 3D. What an electric spark! It was even better than the live concert. I can't explain it any better than to say it topped that evangelical experience I had at the MGM Grand Garden Arena when I was joined by thousands of other people who were tuned into a pure fraternal electricity. A clear moment when everyone was One.
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