War

... we arrived at Grand Circus early, got to shake hands with the band coming out of the bus in the back... ...when the crowd rushed the stage in this 1400 seat venue, my brother and I moved up to 20th row... ....and there was this empassioned singer climbing up the speaker cabs and waving a white flag, a guitarist with solid certitude of his tones, a bass player with attitude, and a drummer who looked like he wouldn't be let into the local bar... solid, solid, solid... very confident, razor-sharp, nothing like I'd ever seen before... ...the closing bit, '40'... will never-ever forget... we were singing '40' all the way out the door, after the house lights were up, all the way into the parking lot... Detroit had been '40''d... ... been totally locked that U2 is my top band ever since...

A first kiss, 'the first time', the first whiskey, the first broken heart... Grand Circus theatre, first U2 show... one week before, stayed up all night listening to the new copy of 'War' (purchased on a trip to Toronto), never had heard anything like that before (told my friends it was like a bloody nose you didn't mind getting at the fight club)... also had listened to a crowd-sourced tape from a UK Greenbelt show sent to me by a friend... U2 hit the stage that cold Detroit night, totally captivated everything under a white-waving flag... delivery with such passion and conviction... never been the same since, seen every tour since 1983...