Jumping back about 9 days, the following is a post about New York... it was the first stop (after a night in Montreal) on the leaving-town calendar. More Parisian posts to follow shortly...
The drive to NYC from MTL is roughly 6-7 hours, depending on traffic and the weight of the driver's right foot. We (my oldest friend Jason) and I left from downtown at about 7:45am.
Whoohoo! La Prairie here we come!
It's a very nice drive through upper New York State, and the trees were just starting to change (a week later and that same drive is a real kaleidoscope). You end up driving through (or rather, past) all sorts of small towns, including the lovely hamlet of Coxsackie, NY; no doubt a sister town to Balzac, AB.
The arrival in NYC was great - the whole city unfolding as you make your way down FDR drive. Our hotel was a Best Western just on the edge of Chinatown, on the corner of Bowery and Grand. Great spot - and fairly affordable for Manhattan rates.
Fast forwarding just slightly as I need to run... the U2 show!
The pre-concert started, appropriately enough, at an Irish pub. And with some Irish handcuffs (mine being Guiness and Jamieson) under our belt, we were on our way.
The show was at Giants Stadium in New Jersey with 82,000 fans. It was a very good show, but having seen the band 3 times previously, I would say not their best. Bono's voice is, sad to say, betraying his age - noticeably nasal and a little more brittle. And they played a lot off their latest No Line on The Horizon cd - a weaker one to be sure.
Still, with 82,000 New Yorkers in a great mood and in full voice, with weather in the low 20's, it was a great event. And there was a great vibe especially during a few songs - I tried numerous times to provide you a video link of With or Without You, but Youtube takes down any unauthorized material and the file size is too big for Blogger.. so these photos will have to suffice.
We were 30 rows away... the pictures don't really do it justice, but the spectacle and production was as much of the highlight as the music (fortunately or unfortunately).
For a more professional review, check out the New York Times version here:
Signing off now... chat again soon.
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