Another Irishman

Another Irishman

Friday was the last night before the big U2 event. Saturday, the crew opposite mine was supposed to be premiering the U23D movie at 9:45 PM and showing it again at midnight. As it turned out, Bono was coming in for a final sound check.

Strictly speaking, I didn't have to stay after our last movie, but I did, ostensibly to help out with the crowd. You'd be surprised at how many people like to loiter in a theatre lobby after midnight when a film gets out. Well, maybe not. It was pretty cold outside. We kicked them out, called them cabs, and checked the building for loiterers.

Somewhere, out in the Park City darkness, a Chevy Suburban was circling for a landing. The team that handles VIPs kept in radio contact with them and checked in with us to make sure the house was clear. I walked through the ladies room to make sure no one was hiding out there, lurking for Bono.

After the building was cleared, we stood outside in the sub-zero temperatures as we tried to clear the parking lot. Whose car was that? Why was that taxi entering the lot? We kicked them all out. We stood for about ten minutes as the VIP team checked with the vehicle team. Finally, they began their approach.

The Suburban emerged from the darkness of Kearns Boulevard like a ship in the fog. The running lights were the first tell-tale signs. the driver pulled into the parking lot when suddenly, a small car darted in behind it and approached our landing strip! The car pulled ahead and came to us first. It was a woman we recognized from the waitlist line. One of our volunteers stepped out to greet her.

"Is this where U2 is playing?"

We were all shocked. This midnight rendezvous was supposed to be top secret, hush hush, on the QT, the down-low, however you want to put it.

As it turned out, she was there to pick up her daughter, who had tickets to the Saturday night show. She just had the day wrong. She left, and Bono's chariot finally docked at our entrance.

He emerged. He looks as he does in photos. Someone said he looked shorter, but I wouldn't say he looked short. He had on his trademark glasses and a thick Russian-style hate with a pin in the front. He was greeted by his handlers and a woman who, I'm not sure who she was, and they proceeded into the lobby.

My friends had all anticipated the entire band setting up and going through a traditional sound check, but as far as we knew, it was just Bono, and the tech crew was checking the equipment for the 3D film and the kick-ass sound system, whatever it was called.

The funniest site was the cleaning crew mopping the tile circle in the lobby.

I've overheard mixed reactions to the whole U2 presence. I like U2; I remember listening to The Joshua Tree over and over in my first year of high school, the entire album was just amazing. Bono does seem to genuinely care about the issues he supports; he's not a vapid rock star. It's my indie friends who kind of harumph about him, and theat just may be the indie world rocking against the super-stratosphere rock band world.

Whatevs. It was cool to see Bono, the movie is interesting, and the band rocks, over twenty five years after they started. That's impressive.