June 24--In his first visit to Chicago, Jon Thompson has been to two places: The Marriott near the West Side and a patch of grass outside the United Center.
Thompson, who lives in San Antonio, went to the United Center about an hour after his plane landed Monday morning so he could get in line to snag the best spot on the floor for Wednesday's U2 concert.
"It's the fear of the unknown that drives you," said Thompson, who said he has attended about a dozen U2 shows, including a 2011 concert in Denver where more than 50 people were ahead of him in line. "The panic was, I don't want to be at the end of the line."
Thompson, 41, is No. 5 in line for Wednesday's 7:30 p.m. show, the first of U2's five-night run at the United Center. There were 77 fans in line at 5:30 a.m. Wednesday, up from 43 fans on the list Tuesday afternoon.
These fans are general-admission ticket holders, many of whom have attended multiple U2 shows, who arrive to the concert venue hours and even days before doors open to try to get a space near the stage so they can make eye contact with the band members in the hopes of feeling like they're sharing the experience of the show with them.
"The goal is always to get the spot where you can get communion with the band members," said Christy Black (No. 14 in line), a Chicago resident for 13 years who now lives downstate in St. Peter.
The system of the self-policed U2 line, which is supposed to keep general admission ticket-holders from just running willy-nilly when doors open, has been studied by university researchers for insight into the psychology of the queue and detailed in a 2011 documentary "General Admission: Layin' it on the line for U2."
Each concert rulebook is different, based on who starts the line and who is there to help decide the rules.
The playbook for the Wednesday show was simple: Fans arrived at a grassy knoll outside the United Center south of the Michael Jordan statue to put their name on the list. They needed to be at roll calls to keep their name on the list.
There were roll calls Tuesday at 5 p.m. and 11 p.m., and one Wednesday at 5 a.m.
The 5 a.m. roll call was the final one. A man named Brad (No. 1 in the line), who declined to be interviewed, wore sunglasses and a shirt from the current "Innocence Experience" tour as he called out the names on the list and their places in line, while Steve Lawrenz (No. 4) used a black Sharpie to write the corresponding number on fans' left hands.
Those who didn't make the roll call dropped off the list and were assigned numbers when they arrived later. Despite the rules, at least one fan tried to argue to keep a place in line after missing a roll call, Thompson said.
The list was only for the Wednesday show. No one had drawn up rules yet for the Thursday show, not as of Wednesday morning.
U2 is playing five shows at the United Center between Wednesday and July 2. Doors will open at 6 p.m., and ticket-holders were able to start lining up at 6 a.m. outside of Gate 5 by Honore Street, per United Center rules.
But the dozens of fans who got to the United Center before then spent Tuesday on the grass sharing their experiences at previous U2 concerts, showing off their tattoos of the Irish quartet and, in the case of Lawrenz, his Bono Halloween costume, which he has worn for a decade, though he said "it's not a Halloween costume, it's a lifestyle."
Lawrenz, 50, and his wife, Marla (No. 3 in line), are in town from Gaithersburg, Md., just for the Wednesday show.
"This is the highest (spot on the list) we've been," said Steve Lawrenz, who added that the line experience at the United Center was better than when he attended the 2009 U2 shows at Soldier Field. Security there had the queuers line up by bushes, which caused a commotion and created two lines that eventually had to be consolidated, Lawrenz said.
The Tribune watched a United Center security guard check on the line Tuesday afternoon but no one was forced to move or pack up their stuff. The United Center website says overnight camping and tailgating are not permitted for the U2 shows, but fans were careful to stay on grounds outside the United Center.
Logistics are key to making the line experience tolerable. A few fans set up lawn chairs, while others had tents. Some, like Thompson, stayed in nearby hotels. The Lawrenzes said they slept for four hours Tuesday night into Wednesday morning at his sister's Brookfield home.
There are port-a-potties nearby but food options are limited. One fan said he was mostly going to the Billy Goat Tavern near the United Center and a McDonald's. Fans don't have to be at the check-in except for roll call, but many with low line numbers took shifts to check new arrivals in.
Black and her Nashville friend Amiee Stubbs (No. 13 in line) seemed to have complete mastery of the system.
Black, 40, and Stubbs, 41, said they met at a U2 show in St. Louis 18 years ago. They shared a tent Tuesday night outside the United Center and plan to continue to camp out the rest of the week because they are seeing four of the Chicago shows. Stubbs said she is also scheduled see four U2 shows in New York next month.
Both women described the band's music as spiritual and praised U2's work for social causes, including their campaign to fight AIDS.
Stubbs is such a U2 concert purist she brought earplugs so she wouldn't have to hear other fans talking about the rumored setlist for Wednesday's show, and she didn't want to know the set-up of the United Center before the show started.
She said she wanted to be surprised because it reminds her of her time growing up listening to U2 before the Internet age spoiled plans for the band's concerts, which she called her happy place.
"There is just something so uplifting about being here and it's not like anything you've seen before. Nothing will compare," Stubbs said. "It's a beautiful experience."
tswartz@tribpub.com
