Muse + U2

The weird thing is, I realized that Muse and U2 at FedEx Field last night for the 360 Tour was my first real stadium show ever. (The closest I've come to a big outdoor show was Compton Terrace in Phoenix. First date of the first ever Lollapalooza in 1991, my friends.)

Anyhoo ... Muse: awesome. Really. Bombastic fantastic. All massively stadium-filling sound and listen to my falsetto and you cannot resist our rocking on. And the remaining 80% of the audience that hadn't bothered to show up yet or didn't leave early enough from work and were inching forward on the Beltway missed out.

(We left at 3:30 and took this bizarre shady back roads route through Southeast that Karim found on Google Maps, which I was totally dubious of, but damn if it wasn't the best way to get there -- from the office to the Orange Lot in 40 minutes, thus leaving us 2 hours to realize we really should've planned to tailgate. Luckily, our parking space neighbors were friendly and grilling stuff.)

Anyway, so Muse totally vindicated my reason for buying tickets in the first place, which was 90% seeing the band's monumental kicking of the ass and 10% "I saw that U2 3D IMAX movie and man they put on a big show; I really should see them live sometime." Cannot wait for Muse to come back on their own tour, hopefully in the spring.

And U2? Why yes, they did put on a big show. As in epic. As in the stage was as tall as the stadium. And there was a massive 360-degree (get it?) video screen hanging underneath it, that raised and lowered, and was made out of interlocking hexagons that expanded and contracted -- oh, and were sometimes individually lit, just for fun. And the main stage was circular, with an outer catwalk ring. Oh, and the tower thing on top sometimes shot lights up into the sky.

Bono did his Bono thing, which you expect going in, and you think you're going to be somewhat jaded about (what part of the world am I supposed to be saving today?), and yes, Cardinal McCarrack is here and the president of Rwanda, whatevs, and then they launch into "Sunday, Bloody Sunday" and the massive spaceship stage is lit green, the green of the Iranian election protest movement and they're showing video of the brave Iranians who dared to stand up against their government, risking death and even dying, and then Bono sings "How long must we sing this song?" and ... sniff, sniff ... where's my Kleenex?

And did I mention that the video intro to "One" was Nobel Peace Prize-winning South African Archbishop Desmond Tutu? (Of course it was.)

Yep, Ticketmaster/FedEx Field extortion fees aside -- $30 tickets that were $50 with fees included -- I'd say I got my money's worth.

(And we got out of the lot and onto the Beltway and back to where I'd parked my car in 40 minutes. Boo ya!)