U2 rocks Toronto
2011/07/11 | CityNews.ca staff
The U2 stage in Toronto on July 11, 2011. Courtesy of: Maurie Sherman - KiSS 92.5.
More than 60,000 fans found what they were looking for on Monday night as U2 rocked the roof off of the Rogers Centre.
The dome’s lid was open for the band’s latest stop on their 360° tour — all the better to display “The Claw.” The massive 150-foot high stage apparatus cost about $30 million, and allows U2 to face out in any direction (hence the 360° name).
Many of the fans had waited in the blistering heat for hours ahead of the Toronto show, and dozens of people with general admission seats spent more than a day lined up to get closer to the stage.
“We’ve been in line for, it will be, 50 hours by the time we get to the show tonight,” ticket-holder Dana Shereck said. “We’ve been here since Saturday morning.”
The Irish rockers took to the stage at 9:30 p.m., following 80,000-strong performances in Montreal on Friday and Saturday nights.
It was a make-up gig from last year, when U2 had to cancel a show due to singer Bono’s back injury.
But eager fans didn’t mind the wait.
“I think they’re just world-class veterans. They’ve been around for 40 years, and they’re still making great music,” fan Anita Delpriore told CityNews.
“They were the first concert I went to, and I fell in love,” agreed Debbie Portanova.
Montreal spent $1 million on security, shuttle buses, extra public transit and installing and tearing down the venue. No comparable figure was available for Toronto.
And now some merchants forced to close for the two days the band was in Montreal say they may sue the city for compensation.
The band plays Philadelphia on Thursday.
