Opening Act(s): Robert Hazard, David Johansen
Setlist:
Out Of Control, Twilight, An Cat Dubh, Into The Heart, Surrender, Two Hearts Beat As One, Seconds, Sunday Bloody Sunday, The Cry, The Electric Co. - Send in the Clowns. Encore(s): New Year’s Day, Gloria, I Will Follow, 40.
Remarks:
U2 perform at the University of Albany’s “Mayfest”. The other acts are Robert Hazard and David Johansen (from The New York Dolls).
Fan Review:
By Dave
This concert was held as part of the University at Albany’s “Mayfest”, an annual spring concert/festival/end of semester frolic on the main campus lawn, with the stage at one end and many keg filled trucks at the other.
The day was warm and sunny. I was a junior in college. There was a big crowd, maybe 8,000. Everyone was young, everything seemed possible. U2 was the feature act of the day. Like most of the crowd, I had heard New Year’s Day on the radio once or twice, but otherwise knew nothing about the band. After a 90 minute high energy, passionate performance, I was hooked.
Bono climbing up the stage scaffolding and waiving the white flag during Sunday Bloody Sunday was particularly memorable. At the end of the show, Bono said “thank you…we will never forget this day!”
Images:
All photos by © Neil Morganstein
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I was there....remember it like it was yesterday. SUNY @ Albany Alum (1984). I hadn't heard much about U2 before Mayfest.....they've come a long way. U2 just came through LA and I missed them at the Rose Bowl. They're coming back in June of 2010....just picked up the tickets today. Looks like a great stage....can't wait.
We almost didn't get U2 for this MayFest. As a WCDB (SUNY Albany's radio station) DJ-- I know we all knew U2 would be an incredible act to book for the college, but as one of the student's on the Student Government's finance committee (comitte chair Neal Saffer-- anybody remember Neal?)-- the full government body was very reluctant to devote such a heavy payment to book what they thought was a band that "played Irish Music." Eventually we moved everybody up the learning curve and the gig was booked. What a perfect day, what a great time music-wise to be a kid. There hopefully remains archived somewhere WCDB's interview of the band... and the David Johansen's set was pretty high-power, too.
I was there & it was an awesome day ! I was a 2nd year student at Albany College of Pharmacy & went out to visit a buddy @ SUNY Albany whose sister was a year ahead of me @ ACP. Definitely remember Bono climbing the scaffolding for Sunday Bloody Sunday. After the show, we were blown away & wondering if U2 was really that good, or maybe we were a little wasted. Think it might have been a little of both - very memorable day !! U2 had a new & different sound & they rocked with such energy - maybe a little foreshadowing of things to come ...
Had heard the stories from the previous contributor that it was a tough sell to SUNY Albany & maybe that U2 might have tried to get out of the show as they started to get some airplay & become modestly popular. I think it was shows like this that help to establish the band early on - everyone was buzzin' about the show. So glad I was a part of it !!