When I was 15, I saw my first concert — U2's The Joshua Tree, in Tampa Stadium.

The only thing that's changed in 30 years is the name of the stadium (well, and an entirely new structure — R.I.P Big Sombrero). Also, Bono's ratcheted up his awesomeness factor. And yes, awesome's a dated word, but since Bono and The Edge took a stadium full of middle-aged people (and a few bemused millennials) back to the 1980s at RayJay Wednesday night, count yourselves lucky I'm not using the phrase "grody to the max."

Of course, there was — and, thankfully, remains — a world of difference between the Valley Girl culture of the 80s and The Joshua Tree, evident not only at the concert but the reaction to the message.

Playlist: Listen to every song U2 plays at Tampa's Raymond James Stadium on June 14

Thirty years ago, the iconic post-funk band ended their set with an encore of "Sunday Bloody Sunday." As they left the stage, we chanted at them, "How long? How long?" until it became apparent they were not coming back. I remember my friends Maria turning to me and saying, "That's so sad."

Wednesday night, U2 opened with "Sunday Bloody Sunday." The bitch of the song? Consider the lyrics, written about a January Sunday in 1972, when the British army opened fire on unarmed civil rights protestors in Derry, Ireland. Soldiers killed, among others, seven teenagers.

"And the battle's just begun/There's many lost, but tell me who has won?" and "I can't believe the news today/Oh, I can't close my eyes/And make it go away."

The song also asks, "How long must we sing this song?"

While British Prime Minister David Cameron officially apologized for the massacre in 2010, the song, as predicted in 1983, "will be sung wherever there are rock fans with mullets and rage, from Sarajevo to Tehran. Over time, the lyric will change and grow."

And there's the bitch of it. How long, indeed?

"We're sick of it!" Bono told the mostly-Gen-X-but-maybe-a-Boomer-and-a-bemused-Millennial-or-two audience. The audience responded, well, let's say enthusiastically.

This tech-heavy show brought the big guns — over 1000 screens made up a backdrop, and they didn't seem remarkable until the video kicked into high gear after the first few songs. I realized why they wanted to get a few songs in before they launched into the video for "Where the Streets Have No Name": For the first 15 minutes after the footage started playing behind them, I don't think anyone saw anything else. It wasn't any one thing that made it spectacular; it was the movement of the camera and the places the video took us. At times we went down a road (presumably, with no name); we visited a Syrian refugee camp in Jordan and saw it through the eyes and words of a teenage Syrian girl (this, by the way, accompanied by Emma Lazarus' words for the Statue of Liberty: "Give me your tired, your poor/Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free" and a giant — as in, almost a section tall — passport picture of an immigrant woman being passed around, wave-style, the stadium.); and a lump-in-the-throat tribute to women on screen, where "history" morphed to "her story" and assaulted us with photos of incredible women in history, starting with Sojourner Truth and taking us through history, including Rosa Parks, Michelle Obama, Suffragettes, Match Girls Strike, Pussy Riot, Women of Iceland, Caitlin Moran, Virginia Woolf, Condaleez Rice, Oprah and — this was undoubtedly the coolest part of the montage — Nadine Smith.

As for the music, well, when the Edge got going, those strings saw Jesus. It was some Frampton-style playing that hit you square in your soul. Bono played the harmonica and joked that he couldn't and hell, I wish I couldn't play it like he couldn't play it. The Salvation Army joined them on screen — a pre-filmed, horn-heavy accompaniment.

The only downside was some footage of a hot chick, clad in an American flag bikini, working a lasso. Gratuitous, yes, and somewhat tacitly at odds with the powerful message about women.

Bono Vox — do people still call him that? — is a breed of rock musician on par with Neil Peart, Arlo Guthrie and Bob Dylan. Because of that, the best way I can give you a sense of what it felt like to be back at The Joshua Tree is to let you hear what I heard.

• As an intro to "Bad" he talked about Guggi: "my best friend since I was three years old. He was four years old. He still kind of behaves that way." That's not the spectacular part; he talked about how Guggi (Derek Rowan) struggled with drugs, then said, "He made it through the fire. We're singing this for him tonight."

• "In the Name of Love": "We will find common ground reaching for higher ground."

• "In God's Country": "As Irish folks we want to thank you stir giving us safety and sanctuary for so many years. Thank you, America. We love you."

• To women: "You light our way."

• To everyone there: "Thank you for giving us a great life. These songs belong to you."

• After playing a dubbed film clip where it appeared the actors said "Trump lies": "The government should fear people, not the other way around."

•And, finally, ending with a message of hope: "So much is possible if we agree to work together as one."

See the rest of Tracy May's photos below.

Setlist

Sunday Bloody Sunday

New Year's Day

Bad

Pride (In the Name of Love)