Joshua Tree

It was like you said Dwain. Pretty sure the sorority was Delta Delta Delta (TriDelts). It was a concert I'll remember as long as I live. U of I had this lottery system where the students would present their ID and be assigned a random number. The lower the number, the earlier you got to chose your seats. My roommate out of 10s of thousands got #4; we were fourth in line to chose seats. I don't know what happened to 1-3, but we ended up with the best seats in the house. When U2 opened with "Where the Streets Have No Name", the slow crescendo drove the crowd insane. Bono was a little under the weather that night; he hit the notes well, but seemed to have a sore throat. He apologized for it graciously, but there was really no need. With "Exit", Bono slung his guitar around and around, then thrust it out into the crowd right in front of me and I strummed. The moment of a lifetime. I had never been in a front row center seat before, but I was floored by how much eye contact I was able to make with the band, especially Bono. Made it a beautifully personal experience. Bought a T-shirt at the concert which I wore for years but eventually it bit the dust.

I was at this show in 1987. It was amazing - and the band seemed to notice it was a college town making several references to that during the show. During "I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For" the band actually noticed the audience singing along so loudly that they stopped playing in the middle of the song, and just marvelled at the audience singing the chorus LOUDLY - then finished the song. Bono commented before continuing the song "Man - we are for sure coming back here" to ecstatic cheers from the audience. The local campus newspaper reported the next day that after the show that U2 was overnighting at the University Inn, the local hotel near campus of the University of Illinois, and they wrapped themselves in sheets to disguise themselves, and walked over to a sorority at midnight. The girls came down squealing with delight in their PJ's and nighties, with cameras in hand. The cover of the newspaper was Bono sitting at a piano with a sorority girl in PJ's hugging him. The story said Bono sat down at the piano in the sorority house and played a tune for the girls. I think the band was on a high from the performance (with the audience participating as much as they did) and couldn't go to sleep, so they went out walking the campus. I've been to hundreds of concerts since, but this probably was the most memorable concert experience of my lifetime. I've even been to U2 shows since, and they were good, but this one stands out as a unique experience in my life.