Welcome to town, but watch the traffic (U2 Concert)

Oct 1

Welcome to town, but watch the traffic

U2 is playing just 20 times in North America. Populous states like Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Michigan got bypassed, and gigantic California got limited to a single show at the Rose Bowl. But what may be the most popular band in the world did, however, pick Charlottesville. Or was it the other way around?
The promoter for Live Nation, Tres Thomas, lives in Ivy. We haven't heard back from him by press time, but, like that time in 2005 when he brought the Rolling Stones here, you can be sure he's arguing for business necessity– not his own convenience. After all, this is a man who commutes weekly to his office in Toronto.
Hey, isn't Toronto a two-night-stand for the boys from Dublin? Indeed it was.
Well, anyway, Charlottesville is ready. As Stephanie Garcia reports, concert general manager Larry Wilson has a traffic copter flying to ensure there's no repeat of the ginormous jam that accompanied the Stones gig. After all, some cynics believe it was a stuck motorist unhappy about missing Jumping Jack Flash who called in the bomb scare. (All the police would confirm was that the call did come from Pantops.)
Anyway, in the name of love... read on!

It may not be news to Daveheads, but one of Dave Matthews’ earliest recordings, one that pre-dates the Dave Matthews Band, features Matthews singing U2’s "In God’s Country." The song appears on Tribe of Heaven, a self-released album that Matthews and Mark Roebuck (who sings with Matthews) recorded in local Chapman stick player Greg Howard’s Scottsville home in 1989. You can listen to a sample, as Roebuck finally released the album on CD Baby in 2005.

"I brought it to the table," recalls Roebuck, who enjoyed some success with his own band, The Deal, in the 1980s, " but Dave really channeled Bono... he really teared into it. He loved that song."

Five years later, Steve Lillywhite, who produced U2’s 1980 debut album Boy, would produce the DMB’s debut album Under the Table and Dreaming, as well as Before These Crowded Streets and Crash. (The DMB ditched Lillywhite during the production of their fourth album, a falling out that would produce the bootleg Lillywhite Sessions. Lillywhite would later go on to win multiple Grammy Awards for his work on U2’s Beautiful Day and How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb.)

Incidentlly, while the DMB was recording Under the Table and Dreaming at famed Bearsville Studios, the same place where The Deal recorded their first album, Roebuck recalls another U2 connection during a visit. "I remember that Dave and I went out for a drink with U2's bass player, Adam Clayton, who I guess was there with Lillywhite," Roebuck recalls.

Concert tipster: Why tix were as low as $19

Less than a week before the Charlottesville U2 show, the event hadn't sold out, and the prices appeared to be dropping. Some $30 tickets were offered for $19, the $95 tickets for as little as $71, and the $250s appeared as low as $130. And with just six days before Charlottesville's own U2 concert, the head of the world's biggest ticket reseller was advising would-be concert-goers to hold off a little longer.

"Wait out the weekend, and see where ticket prices fall," said Joellen Ferrer, the communications director for StubHub, the eBay-owned service that links ticket buyers and sellers.

As of Friday, September 25, StubHub members were advertising nearly 1,800 tickets for the October 1 show at Scott Stadium. If the venue holds 60,000, that's about three percent of all seats.

"That's actually quite a high amount," says Ferrer, and that's why she was predicting a further price drop, as ticket holders have shown a willingness to discount in order to avoid getting stuck with already paid-for tickets.

4Better Or Worse