December 4, 2001 – the final elevation shows in Tampa and Miami

The glorious Elevation Tour has come to an end. Very sad, but what an amazing time we had!

Tasha, Jenny and Paola came over Thursday night, and we watched U2 stuff until about 1am. We left Friday morning November 30th at 5am, flew to Tampa, and arrived around 11am. Our hotel was absolutely beautiful and right next to the Ice Palace. We had lunch outside on the water at this nice restaurant. We got into the GA line around 1:30pm. We were numbers 6, 7, 8, and 9. We ran into some people we knew like Anna and Melissa. We had pizza for dinner in the GA line. We got silly around midnight. We slept on and off outside and in the hotel. The U2 trucks came in around 7am. We had a nice buffet breakfast at the hotel. We didn’t try to meet the band because we weren’t allowed to leave the GA line after we got our wristbands. But we heard that Bono and Edge stopped around 6:30, so I least I didn’t miss Larry.

Even though we were at the front of the line, it got chaotic with people running and pushing, but somehow we got right up at the rail between Bono and Adam – a bit closer to Bono than we were for Providence2. From left to right, it was Jenny, me, Paola, Tasha. Paola and I wore our ‘Larry Mullen Band’ shirts,  Tasha wore her ‘Adam Clayton Band’ shirt, and Jenny wore her MLK Pride shirt. Garbage opened and during their set, Shirley Manson looked at us and said something like ‘We have some fans of the Larry Mullen Band here. What else does your shirt say? It’s All About Drums. Yes, it is.’ That was very cool. When U2 came out, I tried to make eye contact with Larry. Paola had a sign to get a drumstick. Larry walked over and gave her one. I don’t really remember it, which is weird but Tasha took a picture of Larry leaning over as he’s handing the drumstick to Paola.

Elevation Tampa 12.1.01 Set List: Elevation, Beautiful Day, Until the End of the World, New Year’s Day, I Will Follow, Sunday Bloody Sunday, Stuck In a Moment, Kite / My Sweet Lord, Angel of Harlem, Please (B & E acoustic), Bad / Who’s Gonna Ride Your Wild Horses, Where the Streets Have No Name, I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For, Pride, Bullet the Blue Sky, What’s Going On, New York, One, Peace on Earth / Walk On.

The show in Tampa December 1, 2001 was SO amazing! I was just REALLY into it! U2 played Angel of Harlem instead of Wild Honey, which was great. They played all of Peace on Earth for the first time. They played My Sweet Lord in honor of the passing of George Harrison a few days earlier. It was very touching. They played Wild Horses during Bad! I liked the Tampa show as much as the Baltimore show. It just had an amazing energy!

We headed to Miami immediately after the Tampa show. After a long time at Denny’s, we arrived at American Airlines Arena just before 5am. We were numbers 108, 109, 110, and 111 in the GA line. We slept in the car until about 9am. We hung out with some folks like Claudia and Kathleen and then checked into our ghetto hotel. We showered, got our pictures developed, got lunch, and checked back into line. Then we went over to this cool Irish pub in South Beach to pick up our ETS tickets. We got tee shirts with 12.2.01 Miami and an Elevation picture on the back, as well as a poster with the 3^rd leg cities on it. We checked back in the line to get our wristbands and then went over to wait for U2 to arrive. A limo drove in around 4:30 and supposedly it was Larry, but I couldn’t tell who it was. We waited until just before 6, but no one else ever came arrived. We found out later U2 came in around 7, but didn’t stop so we didn’t miss anything.

We ended up one person back from the rail in front of Adam. We were pretty far to the right – just 3 people from the end of the rail. Garbage again opened. Before their last song, Shirley said their drummer was fired and he left. All of a sudden, I see Sammy dart out to the drum kit. Then Larry walks out on stage in a navy blue shirt – a new shirt! He played the drums to ‘Only Happy When it Rains,’ which is now my favorite Garbage song. He was so into it and so happy. When he walked out onto the stage, I put my hand on Tasha’s shoulder to stabilize yself, since we weren’t at the rail, so I could jump and down. My heart was pounding so fast! I was SO excited!

This Miami show on December 2, 2001 was awesome! I got to hear ‘In God’s Country’ for the first time ever!!! Bono played the harmonica at the end of it. Ahhh! U2 played Mysterious Ways, which was the first time I heard it on this leg. They played Wild Horses and My Sweet Lord again. Matt was pulled up on stage to play Knockin on Heaven’s Door with the band. Dan was pulled up again during Stuck in a Moment. And Tasha finally had her concert moment with Adam. She was wearing her bright orange PopTart shirt, and Paola had a sign that read, ‘PopTart needs a pick’ with an arrow pointing to Tasha. So after Pride, Adam reached out to give Tasha his pick. We he gave it to her, he squeezed her hand. I broke down crying during the show. I started crying during Streets, all through Still Haven’t Found and into Pride. It just hit me that this was the last show, plus I was exhausted.

Elevation Miami 12.2.01 Set List for the final show: Elevation, Beautiful Day, Until the End of the World, Mysterious Ways, Out of Control, Sunday Bloody Sunday, Stuck in a Moment, Kite, In God’s Country, Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door, Please (acoustic), Bad / Who’s Gonna Ride Your Wild Horses, Where the Streets Have No Name, I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For, Pride, Bullet the Blue Sky, What’s Going On?, New York, One, My Sweet Lord, Walk On / 40.

After the show, we hung out with everyone outside the arena: Ayaz, Dan, Mike, Dan, Anna, Ruth, Alice, Gabriella, Khelia. U2 had already left, so we just watched the trucks pull out.

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