Hijinks in San Jose - or how not to plan for a U2 show

Maybe I've just gotten too comfortable with getting U2 tickets, thinking something will always pop up. A story from San Jose 1.

On Saturday evening my brother, visiting from NY, and I head down to San Jose for the night 1 festivities. I had been searching Ticketmaster regularly for the elusive GAs tickets, but no dice. No dice even on seated tickets. I figured we'd go with the day of show drop and get something when we arrived. We arrived later than I had hoped: 8:45, but confidence was still high.

We made a bee line for the box office, finding about 40 people still in line, and no tickets available. I thought, they'll probably release more by 9:00. Sure enough they did, two tickets. D'oh!

Determined not to miss a U2 show we strike out in search of a ticket, with about $170 between us. One fellow offers us two 200 level tickets, at $200, a piece. We pass, holding out for a better deal (I realize this all probably sound ridiculous right about now). Soon it's 9pm and City of Blind Lights is rumbling through the walls. Crap!

We walk around the arena in search of good fortune, or maybe even a door left open by mistake. Luck starts to turn our way when we get around the back of the arena and notice people walking in and out to a smoking area, and no security guard in sight. As we get to the top of the steps we encounter two fans who are also ticketless and thinking similar thoughts. They explain that three of their friends just walked in without tickets. Gid-e-up! Here we go... open door... walk in... get greeted by security guard. I promptly forget all that I learned on the POP Mart Tour on sneaking to the b stage: 1) never make eye contact and 2) act like you know where you're going.

"Can I help you?" the local security fellow says. "Ummmmm, we're just looking to get inside and listen to the music" I say.

"Do you have tickets?"

"Ummmm, no."

"Then you have to leave."

Foiled in our plans we return to the outside of the arena to hatch a new plot. The guard follows us outside and stands at the door. Does he think we'll try to sneak in again? We resume our walk around the arena and find a spot where the sound is listenable. Short on ideas we come up with the ingenious plan of trying again once the guard has gone inside, but we'll take off our jackets this time to try and fool him (I kid you not, this was the best we could come up with). After a while the guard heads back inside. Love and Peace is playing now, crap they're getting to my favorites. Jackets off, we do our best to mix in with the fans enjoying there hard earned money and hard to find tickets by standing outside the arena smoking and talking on cell phones. The guard is still right inside the door. I figure what we need is for a mass exodus of people, where we can get lost in the crowd. A slow song would do nicely right about now. Sure enough, my favorite song of the show.... Edge starts playing the piano on Running to Stand Still, and people come pouring out of the arena through a number of different doors.

Jackets still off, remembering rules 1 and 2 we head inside, not looking back. We're in! We head up into the stands, finding ourselves behind the stage. We walk up to the top of the arena and find a place to stand for the rest of the show.

Moral of the story, if at first you don't succeed, try try again. I returned a little earlier on Sunday, about 8:15 and found a kind person selling GAs for $60.