Vertigo

Outbound:
Route 44: 6:50 Wallingford to Montlake Freeway Station
Route 242: 7:14 Montlake to Overlake

Listening: U2 Vertigo

U2 were in town last night for the first of two, sold-out Seattle gigs. I like a few U2 albums but I'm not too fussed on their latest offering and I'm definitely not much of a stadium rocker. Last night though, I realized I had never actually been to a mega-gig in the United States and that, in fact, the shows we see presented in football grounds or large fields in Ireland are designed to be hosted in high-capacity indoor venues of the type only found in the major US cities.
I was massively impressed at the production of this show and particularly how it succeeded in transforming a 17,000 seat, souless, sports stadium into an intimate, lounge-like music venue. No amount of musical talent can do this. We saw the Kings of Leon play a great warm-up set, they gave it their all but just couldn't avoid sounding very small (btw I saw them back in January in a club in Seattle and they blew it away). Caleb Followill, lead singer of KoL came back out to watch the show from the mixing desk so maybe he was picking up some tips for when they headline the Key themselves.

The gig was fantastic; you don't mind paying a high ticket price when it's obvious that a big portion of that money is going into the show. Being indoors means that the crew have complete control over lights, sound, stage setup and this means that the whole thing is more like a theatre production rather than a festival gig, which is unfortunately what these things become when staged outside.

Anyway, I just wanted to let everyone in Ireland know that you've definitely got something to look forward to in June.

b.