U2 in Baltimore 2011

We are recovering today from our trip to Baltimore to see the U2 360° Concert Tour! We came prepared to rock with the greatest band on earth... at least to our family! The kids were raised on their songs... "Beautiful Day" was always playing on the way to Montessori Preschool! We bought t-shirts online so we could wear them to the concert... (posing in the hotel room mirror!).

Nevermind that we had nosebleed seats! It was hot but we felt the wind in M&T Stadium. They were calling for thunderstorms but luckily they never happened.

This is before the crowds got there... 75,000 was estimated to be the final number!

Florence + The Machine was the opening act. You can see her on the big screen and down below in red. They're best known for "The Dog Days Are Over" from "Eat, Pray, Love". She got swallowed up by the enormous stadium... I wish I would have heard her when she played here in Lancaster just recently!

This is the giant "spaceship" that U2 came up with for this show... the screen was unbelievable and split apart at one point where you can see below. Our little town of Lititz is where these big stages are made and the sound systems (read about Tate Towers and Clair here!)

The band entered to David Bowie's "Space Oddity"...."This is Major Tom to Ground Control...." (one of my favorites from High School!!!). You can see them on screen as well as entering the stage below, though it's extremely blurry. The Baltimore Post said Matt Damon was down there in the audience as well as Nancy Pelosi, John Krasinski and some other big names. If only we'd known Jason Bourne was there... 

The light show was spectacular! There were also two bridges that moved which connected the center stage to the outer ring where the band would walk around. Bono's jacket was even glow-in-the-dark and had laser lights on it.

 Following their space theme, they had Gabrielle Gifford's husband broadcast from the space shuttle along with the other guys and he greeted Baltimore and belted out a song along with the band and the audience. Desmond Tutu also made an appearance. Bono always gets in his latest social action initiative but I wondered if the crowd really cared. The band played for a good two hours and it wasn't until 11:00 pm that they ended and we hit the streets to walk back to our hotel. There were more people there than populations of small towns. 

If you want to read more about the playlist and a review by The Baltimore Sun click here.

I'll post about our day sight-seeing in Baltimore next!