It Was Twenty Years Ago Today...

That my life changed forever. I attended my first rock and roll concert with three friends from school. The show was at the Oakland Colesium Stadium and the ticket sales placed the audience at 62,000 (one of the largest shows I've ever attended). We arrived over four hours ahead of the door in order to get in line and do "the scene". My friends smuggled cigarettes with them and one bought beer in the parking lot from a guy selling them out of an army duggle bag slung over his shoulder. I had just turned fourteen and started my freshman year in high school. Three bands were on the bill though I hadn't heard of the opener. It would end up being the last Day On the Green. I was thrilled and scared at the same time, not knowing what to expect. I had three or four of the headlining band's seven albums and loved their latest. That album went on to sell nearly twenty million copies. The album was The Joshua Tree. The band was U2.

I still have memories of that day like no other. Like losing my virginity, except over the course of an entire day and with throngs of people there. Truly, I was William Miller, looking around in panic at the fact that people were smoking marijuana and not getting caught; that we'd get in trouble because we were sitting on the first base dugout; that someone's parents would find out that we had also taken a bunch of No-Doz thinking they'd give us some sort of buzz. Only a pack of young teenagers would do what we did: sit perfectly still for the opening bands, the BoDeans and the Pretenders (whom we loved and were thrilled that Johnny Marr from the Smiths was with them on guitar) but left our perfect seats several songs in to go wander around the concourse. I still remember us finding a pay phone to call the girl's older sister who couldn't go who was sitting at home in order for her to hear "October" and "New Year's Day". Then moving to the very top seat of the third deck for the remainder of the show where the band were ant-sized and the screens on the side of the stage gave me a slight glimpse of the four men whom I'd come to idolize over the last six months on stage. I remember watching a girl dancing to "Pride" though I didn't know the song because I didn't have the album yet and the view of the giant Mormon temple in the darkness. What I remember the most was the thought that I'd seen the face of God in a live rock and roll performance and that I'd never NEVER be the same again.

My dad gave me $20 in spending money, though I don't remember even eating dinner, or lunch for that matter. I bought a t-shirt for $17 and a $3 patch that I still have. Now I have the show on disc; it's nowhere close to the memory etched in my mind, though the two complement each other well. Like slight conflicting stories in the Gospels, both mix to create a bigger story than themselves; the band played many wrong notes and Bono was often out of tune. Bono pulled a girl out of the crowd during "I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For" and had to stop singing because she began to cry. The song fell apart structurally (as told on the tape) and yet it was one of the magical moments of the show. Having played a free concert in the Embarcadero of San Francisco earlier in the week (and Bono having been arrested for "vandalism" of a piece of public art), the band invited the sculptor of the piece to "vandalize" in return the stage's backdrop of the giant Joshua Tree, in which the guy did so for nearly most of the show. Closing with "40", the band walked off stage to the crowd singing, "How long to sing this song?" from the Psalm but I being so young and naive, had no idea what was being sung. I think I sang a half-dozen variations of the lyric for the minutes that only Larry Mullen, Jr. remained on stage keeping the beat with the snare and bass drums.

As we made our way to the BART station after the lights came on, I remember the thrill of the concert, the sights and smells of the entire experience and the rush of being swept up in something so much grander than myself; that tens of thousands of people would create a giant, living singular organism for a short several hours in order to serve a common purpose, that I had seen BONO and the other guys. And that I'd seen a girl named Nancy who went to Northgate high school and who was a junior and who was drop-dead gorgeous but whom never knew I even existed because I had only fallen in love with her from afar at the numerous swim meets our summer leagues and high schools entered. I probably have more indelible memories of this night than any other save for my wedding. Oh, what a night. I've never been the same since. Thank God.