blog meme
All I seem to be able to read about on blogs this last week is the story of how people have or have not managed to buy U2 tickets. The first show sold out in two hours. TWO HOURS!!! How are there that many people who care enough about this band to actually remember to buy tickets in the first two hours they are on sale? I. Just. Don’t. Get. It.
I have a ticket buying story - I can’t believe that I spent half an hour this morning refreshing the ticketmaster screen to buy tickets for the second concert. Because, as you may know, I am seemingly alone in the christian internet community in thinking that this band is overrated. And now, unless Phil finds a new concert buddy, I will be the only person in the whole of TELSTRA DOME who thinks that this band is overrated.
Would it be bad form to take my ipod along?
December 12th, 2005 at 11:04 am
Lucky! They were $300 when they came to Seattle.
And Ticketmaster’s website is awful (more on that here).
December 12th, 2005 at 11:11 am
Meh, they are only general admission so will probably have to line up early and everything!!
December 12th, 2005 at 1:41 pm
Thank you. You have given me the courage to come out and say that I also think that they are overrated.
They’re not coming to Perth and I really don’t care.
I saw them in concert once, many years ago, and couldn’t have been less impressed.
I’ve been to dozens of concerts over the years, seeing some of the world’s greatest performers, and to tell the truth, I would have been happier staying at home watching TV than seeing U2 perform that night.
December 12th, 2005 at 1:46 pm
I’m a bit perplexed about the whole thing too…
There seems to be a concerted effort amongst so called missional types to rally against the consumer culture that drives the western world. Then as soon as U2 say they’re coming, those same counter culture ‘missionaries’ think nothing of spending $100+ to go and be entertained buy a band who’s lead singer might say something that they can hold onto and use as a mission statement for their faith community. U2 feeds off the consumer culture (just like all the Live8 bands) - if they were serious about ending poverty etc and giving all a free go, they would see their tickets for $10 each or even better, give them away at centrelink.
Don’t get me wrong. I love U2 and have some of their Cd’s. I just can’t justify paying that sort of money for a concert, and wonder if I could minister to the poor with any sort of integrity if I were to go.
December 12th, 2005 at 2:14 pm
Yeah I reckon it is a pretty tough call hey Matt-I as somebody who has a ticket, have no real justification other than that I really want to go… I know the money would be better spent on the poor, but I know I don’t-nor do I know many people, who legitimately use that as a litmus test for where I spend my money.
Dunno if making tickets over here $10 would make any difference? We’re not really the one’s whose poverty they’re trying to make history of. If they went to Africa and charged $100 I’d be pissed off, but most of us rich Westerners can afford it-so why not?
Perhaps if they really do give away all their earnings, it’s just their way of robbing the rich to give to the poor?
December 12th, 2005 at 2:19 pm
[…] onder if there is a question of integrity that needs to be addressed here. Anyway, Dan at Signposts has some other interesting thoughts.
[…]
December 12th, 2005 at 2:28 pm
Don’t get me wrong Digs. I think it’s fine to go. I guess I’m more worried that it seems to be THE thing to do if you’re part of the missional church movement. Not the sort of “consumer peer pressure” that I think is helpful.
How many do you think will be wearing their ‘Make Poverty History’ wristbands while they are there?!
December 12th, 2005 at 2:37 pm
Well, I actually did insist that we buy tickets and go (even though he has to be accompanied by his complaining wife). It is a lot of money to spend on a concert, and it is conspicuous expenditure - you buy a ticket and everyone knows how much you spent on it. However, Phil has genuinely been a huge U2 fan since I first met him, so I thought he would regret not going.
December 12th, 2005 at 2:47 pm
Ugh. Make poverty history armbands. They’re WWJD bracelets for the emerging set.
December 12th, 2005 at 3:19 pm
i think there is a huge segment of the emerging church scene that is really just another sub culture, kind of a spiritual/hippy/geeky blend where praying whilst listening to your ipod and sipping fair trade coffee or tea is the norm.
very dangerous that the emerging church doesnt just become another version of the est. church where you are pressured to look and act a certain way to fit in and be popular eh?
December 13th, 2005 at 11:57 pm
You too, Deege? You too?
Get it?
December 14th, 2005 at 9:35 am
DJ You are right!
* The concert is going to be terrible.
* Lining up to get in will be a waste of valuable time you could put into knitting, or gardening or playing with your dogs or chasing pretend princes in Hong Kong.
* The crush of the general admission crowd will be uncomfortable. For $99 the least they could offer was a seat.
* All those ‘Fully What Would Jabez Make History?” white armbands flashing around will make it hard to see what is going on anyway.
* What is with all the black and red on the stage? Everyone knows black looks so much better with white.
* If you wanted to see all the African flags you could just look them up in an Atlas and not waste time and money with a huge light curtain.
* They don’t let you take cameras in; and even if you did take a photo Bono never takes his glasses off, The Edge hasn’t any hair, Adam never smiles and uses too much peroxide and the only cute one is hidden behind the drum kit all night.
* The music is WAY overrated.
* You won’t hear the band clearly anyway. All those pseudo-spiritual rock fans will be singing their hearts out as if they were in a Pentecostal prayer meeting. I mean its not as if “40″ was sacred scripture or anything!
* Bono has sung in falsetto so often now even the Edge is doing it half the time! What is with that?
* Their politics is now all out of date: mean “Miss Sarajevo” was about finding hopeful signs of humanity in the midst of a war that finished last century OLD NEWS. “Bullet the Blue Sky” is about the obsessive violence of a United States that uses its military to achieve foreign policy objectives OLD NEWS. “Pride” is about some black dude who has been dead for like decades! OLD NEWS.
* If you really cared you could just listen to half of one of your husband’s CDs and then when you yawn mid-lyric about how Bono “loves the sound of his own voice” or “can’t dance disco” or “poor me, my dad died” or “poor us we are a rich rock band - how ironic” you could agree and just turn him off with a flick of your finger.
* Whatever you do DJ, DON’T GO TO THIS CONCERT!!!!
…and while your at it you could donate your precious sold-out-in-hours-two-shows-only-we-haven’t-toured-here-for-eight-years-and-Nigel-didn’t-get-one ticket to someone who is willing to sacrifice themselves and endure the ordeal on your behalf - like me
December 14th, 2005 at 11:32 am
Sorry Nigel, but it appears that my ticket has already been earmarked for your brother - something that happened even before I bought it, but which completely passed me by, leaving me to the impression that I was forced to go myself.
December 15th, 2005 at 5:31 pm
Burn!