For a music fan, this night was heaven. Triple M's Byron Cooke finds himself on stage in front of 50,000 screaming U2 fans, a metre away from Larry Mullen Jr.'s drum kit while underneath a 164 foot giant claw. Yes, he nearly lost his s**t.
Byron takes the story over from here:
This isn’t a "concert review" - it's f***ing U2. You already know you want to go. I’m just reminding you.
We're on U2’s official guest list on show night and we've strapped ourselves in because when your product is this good, you’d be crazy NOT to show it off. And that’s exactly what U2 did for Triple M at Etihad Stadium in Melbourne on night two of the U2360 tour.
First stop was checking out Jay-Z from U2’s Red Zone. He isn't just a DJ, he brings his own HOT band. Any other night this is a 10/10 headline spot. At U2 it's not even sundown. It's just the warm up.
From the Red Zone I’m taken backstage. U2’s publicist Frances wants me to meet the band before they go on. My only warning is "don’t let the guys chat too much. The guys will wanna chat but they don’t have time".
Clearly they didn’t tell Bono. Straight away he walks toward my touring party for the obligatory photo and asks "did you see Jay-Z?".
Forgetting who he is and where I am, I bang on about Jay's clever use of a Radiohead sample at the end of his set. I'm chatting to Bono like he's one of my nerdy music friends! Only problem, they are meant to be on.
We get whisked away. And as you can see in the photo above within 2 minutes I’m behind the mixing desk, and the guys are on.
It took at least three laminated passes to get me to the entry point of this area, and when Frances led me through another tier of security and up the stairs to the control room, I lost my s**t.
This is where it all goes down. Sound, lighting, audio/visual. I'm standing in the middle of the engine room for the world's biggest rock show.
Cue the start of "City Of Blinding Lights" and the lighting dude in front of me makes the magic happen. A tower-like light image is beamed from the top of the claw. It towers over the night sky of Melbourne. Unbelievable.
This is leading edge technology driven by the best in the business. It's inspiring to be in the middle of.
Clearly where we are watching is the best seat in the house. I look around me and amongst the small group is Chrissy Hynde from The Pretenders, U2's manager Paul McGuiness and Jay-Z.
The most mind blowing part about the night was toward the end of the show. As I walked from the mixing desk back toward the Red Zone, I took in the show from the back of the dance floor at ground level.
This wasn’t the "VIP" area. This was where any of us could be if we bought tickets. I can honestly say the sound & view was just as good. There isn’t a bad seat in the house at this show. The way the guys have it set up gives EVERYONE a VIP seat.
source : http://www.triplem.com.au/ by Byron Cooke
No comments:
Post a Comment