----- Original Message ----- 
From: "John L. Micek" <jlmicek@verizon.net>

>I may have told this story before, but I wouldn't be playing music 
>were it not for "Under a Blood Red Sky." Seeing that concert on MTV 
>inspired me to pick up a bass guitar, and sparked the love affair 
>with pop that's endured to this day.
> It's a priceless record, and U2 has rarely sounded so ferocious.

I'm sure I've told this story here before, but I was at that concert. 
And as cool as it looked on MTV, let me tell you: we were frickin' 
FREEZING in that rain!  Interestingly, I just ran a Google check to 
remind myself of the exact date of that concert (the same week was the 
equally looming-in-my-memory show that was the last time I ever saw 
the English Beat, with Bow Wow Wow and some kids called R.E.M. 
opening) and I found a bit of what strikes me as revisionist history: 
the Alarm's website claims that their set was cancelled because of the 
weather, specifically saying that they were unable to play on the day 
of the show due to the rain.  On the other hand, my memory is that the 
Alarm started their set and were booed off after only a couple songs, 
because the crowd was exceedingly cranky due to the general cold and 
wetness.  It's truly testament to U2's power as a live act that they 
started off with a crowd that was basically out for blood, or as out 
for blood as a Boulder crowd can be (what can I say, it's a mellow 
place), and they turned the entire vibe around.  As crap as many U2 
records have been in the nearly quarter century since then, I've never 
entirely dismissed them because of that memory.