As U2 played many of their hits, ranging from “Vertigo” to “With or Without You,” the crowd moved and swayed with every word and sang along as if they had heard the songs hundreds of times before.

For Macomb, Mich., residents John and Kristen Leach, the concert was one they’ve waited more than a year to attend. After purchasing tickets to the show, which was scheduled to take place in 2010 before it was canceled after lead singer Bono’s back surgery, John Leach said they got a refund and later purchased tickets for Sunday’s show.

“They said it had to be at a venue that was outside — I think it’s a lot nicer here than if it were at U-M,” John Leach said. “I think it’s cool that it’s at a college campus. I’m sure there will probably be another 5,000 people outside the stadium who don’t have tickets, just to listen to the music. … It’s a great place to come.”

*Concertgoers *
As hours turned to minutes before Sunday night’s U2 concert, fans around Spartan Stadium could feel the excitement growing.

For the Pekala family from Midland, Mich., the excitement had quite some time to cultivate, since Mike and Lori Pekala bought tickets for their children, Andy and Katy, as a Christmas present in 2009.

Almost two years and one rescheduled concert later, the Pekalas met with family members Rob and Nikki Eberhardt of Cincinnati to finally see U2 perform in East Lansing.

The group had seen U2 in concert a combined 22 times before Sunday’s show but still pulled into the Computer Center parking lot to tailgate at 2:30 p.m., three and a half hours before the concert was scheduled to begin.

“We wanted to make an event out of it,” Mike Pekala said.

Missing out
In 1981, an Irish rock band from Dublin traveled to East Lansing to play a show at a bar, which was then called Dooley’s.

Gun Lake, Mich., Tim Anderson resident, and his roommate were living in East Lansing at the time. His roommate had tickets to the show and offered one to Anderson, who declined.

He had no interest in seeing some random Irish band, Anderson said.

Anderson said his roommate returned home hours later, around 5 a.m., and said he spent the night partying with Bono, the lead singer for U2.

Anderson had no idea the Irish band his roommate referred to earlier in the day was U2 and has regretted his decision ever since.

Now, 30 years later, U2 has returned to East Lansing for another show. Anderson said he has had his tickets for nearly a year and a half now. He bought them for the previously scheduled concert last summer and has been holding onto them ever since.

“I’m looking forward to partying with Bono tonight,” Anderson said.

Oldies
Cindy Gomez wasn’t sure how to react when Bono took her arm and pulled her on stage.

The then-21-year-old Irish rocker was trying to get her to dance, but she just stood there “like a deer in the headlights.”

Bono was hardly famous on that December night in 1981. Nobody at Gomez’s high school really listened to U2 — few even recognized the name.

But that morning, the 17-year-old made a decision.

She and her sister cut school and hitchhiked 30 miles down I-96 from Lake Odessa, Mich., to meet U2’s manager outside Dooley’s in East Lansing. They both were too young to get into a bar but previously had written Island Records explaining their situation.

With that escort, they easily got in.

The basement of Dooley’s — now Harper’s Restaurant and Brewpub, 131 Albert Ave. — has not changed much since the night of Dec. 7, 1981, recalled Dave Bernath, owner of Flat, Black & Circular, 541 E. Grand River Ave.

“Dooley’s was packed,” Bernath said. “It was a very exciting show.”

From Bernath’s perched view in the back, he remembers seeing a familiar girl — one of his regular customers who was obviously underage — get on stage during the middle of U2’s set.

That girl was Gomez, who eventually graduated from MSU in 1993 and is now a Lansing resident.

Afterward, she chatted with the band as they lingered in the bar.

Bono still wore his infamous mullet and talked to surrounding fans about his experiences during wartime in Ireland.

“He made me feel right at home,” she said.

Adam Clayton had an unkempt mess of curly hair, and The Edge didn’t have to wear a hat yet to hide his baldness. Larry Mullen Jr. played arcade games and showed off some Gaelic phrases.

Neither Bernath nor Gomez attended Sunday’s concert — they would rather keep their memories of the band in their young days.

“I never thought they would be as big as what they are now,” Gomez said. “Little did (I) know they’d come back and play Spartan Stadium.”