I was at the U2 concert last Saturday in Seattle. It was a glorious day here in the Pacific Northwest – clear, warm, and sunny as 65,000 people streamed into Qwest Field. The crowd was slightly different from the last time I went to a U2 concert – in 1987 in Croke Park in Dublin with 100,000 of my closest friends. This time there were more balding and grey-haired attendees, fewer teens, more people bringing their kids. Where in Croke Park the people did their drinking before entering the hallowed grounds of Gaelic Football, in Seattle, you could get your beer and wine in the stadium. And the middle aged folks certainly did that. Along with kettle corn and red vines, which is weird. This is U2, people! You should be attending with your petitions in your hand, not a hot dog dripping mustard down your Amnesty International shirts. Whether you have enough cash for an $8 beer and some overpriced nachos should be irrelevant.

I came to some conclusions during the show that I think are the result of being more mature now than I was 25 years ago. This is my list of revelations.

1. Bass players all look stoned, whether or not they are. They also all look like they’re playing with themselves because they wear their instrument down by their instrument.

2. I’m pretty sure I know what the sex face of every drummer I’ve ever seen looks like. They all all in that pre-orgasmic space when they’re beating away on their snare drums.

3. The sex face thing: also pretty sure I know what Bono looks like when he’s finishing up.

4. Lenny Kravitz opened the show. He can say absolutely anything and it would sound sexy. I was going to write “and it would want to make me git nekkid”, but I decided that would be unseemly.

5. The backstage folks run a well-oiled machine. There’s a song where Larry Mullen is banging on some bongos, walking around the outer stage. He was back behind his drum kit and the bongo tossed to a stage hand in about 3 seconds flat. I’m thrilled I caught that.

6. Screeching 40-something women in my 40-something ears isn’t pleasant. Actually, I don’t care how old the screechers are. I also think after a point, it’s just a little siilly. You guys know Bono can’t hear you, right?

7. There really is a Northwest Look. For men, it’s cargo shorts, a button down short sleeved shirt, Keen sandals and wool socks. Sometimes there’s a baseball cap. For women, it’s jeans, Birkenstocks, a t-shirt, polar fleece vest, and sometimes a baseball cap. Neither wear makeup or do much to their hair.

8. Women teetering on stillettos, wearing a puffy skirt, a ton of makeup and extensions look really out of place at a Seattle concert. Even if it’s not Dave Matthews.

9. U2 was the perfect band for me when I was an idealistic college student sure I could change the world. Now, at a time when I am continually questioning whether there is any overarching justice in the world, it makes me wistful to see them. They still think they can change the world. I’m not sure I can. Or they can.

‎Lastly, a no screeching section. Really. I want one. It took me twice as long to recover from this concert as the last big-venue show I saw. Here’s the question, though: If my desire to see another arena concert is predicated on whether there is a no-shrieking section, am I officially too old to see an arena concert?