Pick a memory from my life. Odds are good that somehow, at least in a fringe sort of way, a U2 song could be connected to it. Perhaps more so than any other band, if not simply because of the fact that the Irishmen's music has been around the whole time.

So the experience of actually attending a U2 show for the first time was a bit on the surreal, walk-down-memory-lane kind of side. Which creates a multi-level sort of evening.

On one level, the lights, the sound, the sights of the band members actually there, performing for me - and, well, 20,000 other people, of course.

On the other, the realization of just how much a band I've always liked on a cursory level has been woven into things without my realization.

And to a seemingly random assortment of things. Prom ("With or Without You"), getting ready for a night out in D.C. ("Elevation"), various trips to various locations (most of "The Joshua Tree," "Yahweh," "Sometimes You Can't Make It On Your Own" and "City of Blinding Lights"), school ("Pride"), concerts by other artists who busted out the covers ("One," "Where the Streets Have No Name," "With or Without You"), just feeling on top of the world ("Mysterious Ways") or below it entirely ("Stuck In a Moment You Can't Get Out Of.")

Cheesy? You bet. But I'm a strong proponent for the belief that the bands that truly affect you often wind up having that effect from time to time.

So there I am, six rows from the top of the Corporate Mad Libs Center, watching the stage light up with more lights than I ever thought I'd see at a performance, observing musicians with iconic names performing the songs I've heard countless times through countless sets of speakers. I'm standing, dancing, singing along at the top of my lungs because I can ever-so-faintly hear Beth and the guy behind me doing the same thing, and I know that it's just what we've paid to be able to do.

To sing, to dance, to holler out our approval and to see what else they decide to surprise us with.

And I realize that this sensory overload is well worth the price of admission.