The Music of U2

One of my very favorite things to do in the summer is to see a Utah Symphony concert at the Deer Valley resort.  I love being in the mountains and I love listening to music!  Several months ago, I was picking up some tickets from the box office at Abravanel Hall and I saw a concert entitled "The Music of U2" on a brochure for the Deer Valley Music Festival.  I may or may not have hyperventilated because I really love U2.  The ticket representative took great pains to assure me that U2 would not actually be performing, which I thought was hilarious!  Marilyn and I always see a concert every summer and I told her this was the one I wanted.  I imagined that U2's music would sound fantastic played by a symphony orchestra (and it did).  Marilyn was not able to go to the concert last Saturday night so Tashena volunteered because she is required to see one live music performance every term in her orchestra class.  She is already thinking ahead to the new school year!

Most people bring picnics to eat before the concert so Tashena and I stopped at Subway for ours and it was delicious.  Tashena enjoyed people-watching because some bring very elaborate picnics and she was particularly fascinated by the wine glass holders that stick in the ground.

I wasn't sure if Tashena would like this concert so I told her to bring something to do.  She told me if she got bored she would just go to sleep.  She ended up really enjoying it but she was horrified because I was screaming and singing along!  It's not a successful outing unless I can embarrass her!  The Utah Symphony was joined by vocalist Brody Dolyniuk who sounded remarkably like Bono.  Apparently he also performs the music of The Who, Queen, Led Zeppelin, the Rolling Stones, and the Eagles with symphony orchestras around the country.  I would love to see the Led Zeppelin show!

They played a cross-section of music spanning U2's thirty year career including "Vertigo," "Angel of Harlem," "Desire," "In God's Country," "Sunday Bloody Sunday," "New Year's Day," "I Will Follow," "Walk On," "I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For," "One," "Stuck In A Moment You Can't Get Out Of," "Bad," "Mysterious Ways," "With or Without You," and "Pride (In The Name of Love).  For the encore they performed "Where The Streets have No Name."  I thought it was a great selection.  Tashena recognized "I Still Haven't Found..." and "With or Without You" and she danced to "Mysterious Ways."  During the intermission I asked her if she was bored and she told me she really liked it and wanted to look at her parents' iTunes account to see if they had any U2 songs she could download.  I had so much fun with her!

Note:  On the way home I let Tashena pick the radio station and I didn't recognize any of the songs.  It occurred to me that "Sunday Bloody Sunday" came out when I was approximately Tashena's age and I probably annoyed my parents singing U2 songs all the time!