I just recently celebrated my wedding anniversary and as couples will do when celebrating such an event, heading out for a special meal as part of the day’s activities seemed appropriate.  After going over our options, we opted to head to a sushi restaraunt.  Yum!

Knowing we had a bit of a drive in front of us, I thought it would be appropriate to grab some music that meant something to both my wife and I for the ride.  So I grabbed our copy of the September 21, 2005 show from Chicago.  It was the last show in Chicago on the Vertigo tour, and it was the only show on the tour we were able to catch this time.

That performance, while being an excellent overall show, had a few standout moments for me.  The first truly special moment was during Electric Co. when Edge took his solo while walking around the ellipse.  He was sporting the biggest smile I’d seen him have on stage in a very long time, and it just added to the appreciation of the moment to have him walk past us at the tip of the ellipse with such obvious joy while playing.  We knew that if Edge was that loose, we were in for something special.

The next moment came during Sometimes You Can’t Make It On Your Own.  We all know what that song means to Bono, and this happened to be a night where not only did he get deep into that song but he almost got lost in it as well.  When he got to the line “I don’t need…I don’t need to hear you say” he choked up and nearly lost it but recovered quickly and carried on to the end without any other issues.  That made a powerful song feel that much more powerful to both my wife and I as we had each lost someone very close to us in our family over the past year.

Those of you who read Matt’s Off The Record column may also recall that he posted a Youtube link in one of his columns which had this show’s version of Bad.  It was special because Bono wove in all of The First Time within the Bad rhythm.  If you can find it out there and have not seen or heard this yet, I’m urging you to check it out because it was awesome.  I can remember standing there during that song and thinking to myself that this is one of those versions that happens once in history and I was there for it.  It was amazing.

The final moment is the moment that inspired the title of this entry.  The band closed the show with 40, like they should every show if you are an old-school U2 fan like I am, and it was a solid performance of that song.  As Bono left the stage, he hung his hat on the microphone stand and waved to us all.  After Edge and Adam also left the stage, Larry finished up with his drumming while we all continued to sing.  When Larry finished, I think he surprised everyone when he walked up to Bono’s microphone stand, put Bono’s hat on his head, stood there for a moment and then walked off the stage. 

It was almost a declaration that while Bono is the voice of the band, we were instructed to never forget that U2 exists because Larry formed a band and no matter what had transpired since that time, it was still Larry’s band.  It was a really cool and unique moment, and a great way to close a show in a city that the band loves to play in.