33 years ago today on Saturday, May 7, 1983, I was sitting in the gym at Shaker High School taking my SAT exam. Not fun. Later that afternoon, U2 played a concert at UAlbany. Fun.

We complain all the time about how technology ruins things and makes us less connected because we’re staring at screens instead of looking at each other. True true, but here’s a case where technology, specifically the discoverability magic that is Google, works for me.

I Google’d: U2 AND UAlbany

BOOM! On the first page of search results, I got a link to http://www.u2gigs.com/show340.html with a set list from the show and some grainy pics of Bono just owning his 80s-era mullet.

I found a link to the Albany Student Press campus newspaper article detailing plans for ‘Celebration 83,’ the annual concert/bacchanalia formerly known as Mayfest. The reporter, Chris Falk, wrote a pretty solid story. Tickets were $5. Opening acts were David Johansen and Robert Hazard. The previous year’s performers were Squeeze and Flock of Seagulls. No kidding. Flock of Seagulls played at UAlbany.

There were concerns that the event was getting too out of hand and efforts were made to limit the crowd to 12,000 with restricted ticket sales. Because the drinking age went from 18 to 19 the previous December, you needed two forms of (fake) ID. Thorough reporting, Chris!

I also found on Youtube an audio recording of the U2 show in Boston the day before and, even cooler, a video of a concert later that May in Devore, Penn. Check it out and get your u2 80s fix. It’s the same tour that U2 would later record for their “Live at Red Rocks” DVD. Look a little deeper and we see this Internet thing offers up more than nauseating stories of odious politicians.

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