U2, le 1983-06-17 à Los Angeles, CA (Sports Arena), USA
G AUD
ANA > CDR > FLAC
U2
Sports Arena
Los Angeles, California
June 17, 1983

Attendance: 9,633
Support: The Alarm

Disc 1 (62:55)

1. Out of Control
2. Twilight
3. An Cat Dubh
4. Into the Heart
5. Surrender
6. Two Hearts Beat as One
7. Seconds
8. Sunday Bloody Sunday
9. Cry-Electric Co.
10. I Fall Down
11. October
12. New Year's Day
13. Gloria

Disc 2 (18:24)

1. Party Girl
2. 11 O'Clock Tick Tock
3. I Will Follow
4. 40

------------------------------------------------------------------------

Pimm's details:

"After performing at numerous theatres and university auditoriums, U2 play their first headlining show at a sports arena. The show was added to the tour schedule when tickets for Worcester, which was originally to be U2's first arena show, were selling rapidly. Though the Sports Arena is not filled to capacity, sales of 9,633 tickets indicate that U2 are on the verge of breaking big in America.

'A few weeks ago we played in a large field about 50 miles from here,' Bono says, referring to the US Festival. 'Now we play in a large sports-complex. It's our ambition tonight to turn this large building into a small room.' He gets an overwhelming response and adds, 'And I think that maybe we've already done that...' Like at the smaller venues, the crowd are frenzied and push to the front. Their size somewhat intimidates the band. 'You have a word in your vocabulary that we don't use and you do so much, called 'party'; tonight I want a party,' Bono says amid much cheering during Two Hearts Beat as One. 'But,' he continues, 'our kind of party is different to a lot of other people's kind of parties. Nobody breaks their legs at our party.' He urges the rowdy crowd to move back and Sunday Bloody Sunday is interrupted for this reason.

As usual, Bono leaves the stage with a white flag during Electric Co. and climbs on the balcony. Though this stunt has always worked well, unifying the band and the audience, the LA crowd try to grab Bono. Hundreds of people push to get to him, while others close by get their hands on him and don't let go. He breaks loose and runs, but everywhere he goes people want to grab him. Meanwhile, Electric Co. ends and the band start I Fall Down. Bono tries to make his way back up to the stage and tells the crowd to stay back. 'Julie says, I want you to stay back, Julie says, you know I'm finding it hard to breathe,' he sings, but the crowd hysterically chase him down. Bono gets desperate and motions he will jump off the balcony if they don't stop jostling him. In a state of panic he indeed jumps 20 feet down into the arms of those below. Screaming with excitement people below now rush over to touch him and when, out of self-protection, Bno pushes someone, the guy pushes back and it almost results in a fight. Tour manager Dennis Sheehan comes to the rescue and with all his might pulls the singer back to the stage. Their clothes are ripped to shreds and the aluminum flag pole is broken in two along the way.

U2's first arena show is a complete disaster and in the dressing room afterwards the other members of the band and the crew express their anger at Bono. After ample warnings about the potential danger of his climbing, it has finally backfired with disastrous results. It is decided that for his own and the crowd's safety he will no longer climb balconies.

The incident generates much publicity and puts U2 in a negative light. Later, Bono comments in an interview with Rolling Stone magazine: 'I lost my senses completely...Somebody could have died at that concert, and it was a real sickener for me. It's meant a total re-evaluation of what we are about live. We don't need to use a battering ram. It has to be down to the music."

------------------------------------------------------------------------

This torrent corresponds with what Justin lists as "Out of Control in L.A.". Assuming these are one in the same sourced, Justin notes that "This recording was transferred from a low generation cassette to CDR by Jeff Roy, webmaster of Mass U2. Again, there is very little audience noise. The music and vocals are just a bit distant, but still quite clear. This is a very memorable concert, largely because of Bono's antics during 'The Electric Co.'"

A very big thank you is owed to Panouf for making this torrent possible...I had a version of this concert, higher gen and with static...this one is a marked improvement.

I am unaware of there being any cover art for this...

So, lineage here is unknown taper, FLAC files provided by Panouf and now seeded here.

http://home.mchsi.com/~petergoode111