The Oct. 25 concert of the biggest rock band on earth made history via webcast on YouTube
2:21:22 HOURS OF PULSATING rock performance; 2:21:22 hours of pure Bono love.

?The future needs a big kiss!? yelled U2?s frontman Bono to a screaming crowd of more than 100,000 people, including staff, at the Pasadena Rose Bowl stadium.

As the crowd shouted back, ?Yeah!? fans the world over, hunched over their PCs to watch the concert via YouTube?s live stream webcast, were in near tears, the reality of witnessing a U2 concert in real time slowly sinking in.

On Oct. 25, 8:30 p.m. Pacific Standard Time, YouTube and U2 made history by streaming live the most widely viewed show on the Web so far. In fact, the Rose Bowl attendance for the band?s ?360 Tour? stop in Southern California broke the stadium?s record for most attended concert.

While the promotional clip advertising the concert received 2.7 million views, even more staggering is the 8.4 million channel views on YouTube?s host site collected from around the world. (Actual number on how many tuned in to the live feed has yet to be released by the Google-owned site.)

And the stream was the cleanest many have seen so far?it buffered only once, and just for a couple of seconds. The visual showed occasional pixels when viewed on full-screen mode, but there was noticeably no hiccup in the audio streaming. This is, after all, a rock concert, where a visual slip could go unnoticed but a mere chap in the audio could cause a major uproar.

It was past midnight Eastern Standard Time, dawn in The Netherlands, noontime in Asia, and afternoon in Japan; yet in a matter of minutes, the webcast became the No. 1 global trending topic on Twitter. The top three trends #u2webcast, Rose Bowl and Bono streamed tweets seconds apart in Spanish, Japanese, Filipino, Portuguese, English, French, Italian, Chinese, etc.

(Ironically, though, reports said there were no tweets coming from inside the concert itself as there was practically no connectivity in the stadium.)

Filipina model Helena Belmonte, who watched the show live at the Rose Bowl, said the mixed crowd U2 drew into the stadium was just overwhelming. She said there were babies in strollers, children, teenagers, adults, full-fledged adults and even grandparents.

?I have never seen so many people in one venue,? she said.

Larger than life

While the 48-year-old Bono already showed signs of wear-and-tear as he strained to hit the high notes, his stage presence is larger than life now more than ever. The tech-centered production featured a 360-degree, 72-ft tall LED screen that rocked to the tune of guitars and drums peppered with a whole lot of political messages in true U2 fashion.

Exactly what kind of technology are we talking about here? The mean giant screen, the centerpiece of ?360 Tour,? packs a whopping 500,000 pixels, with each light-emitting diode (LED) big enough to fit in the palm of your hand. It is an ?expanding? screen, opening up or spreading apart vertically during the concert.

How much did it cost? Reports say about $8 per pixel; factor in labor costs and all. Well, we?ll let you do the math.

?It made history by turning the Rose Bowl into a Milky Way Galaxy,? said Belmonte. Belmonte was located at the back of the stage, and wished the technology included the stage rotating as well.

But just the same, she said she enjoyed watching Bono put on the laser jacket and sing into a laser microphone. People at home enjoyed that scene, too, albeit it was a little too flashy for a rock concert. (Some concert viewers complained the band ended up playing for the cameras than its live audience.)

High-tech, hardcore

It was simply hard to separate technology from the band, despite the hardcore political songs and messages. Desmond Tutu magnified in megapixel graphics seemed almost surreal, akin to watching a sci-fi movie, his message of a one love awkwardly carried by the wind to a throng of screaming audience. Or at least that?s how it appeared in the laptop?s screen.

An emotional moment was the band?s song dedicated to Burmese political prisoner Aung San Suu Kyi, ?Walk On,? who described the democracy-advocate Kyi as a ?singing bird in an open cage who will only fly for freedom.? As Amnesty International volunteers came up the stage carrying the image of Kyi, U2?s message to free Burma was heard loud and clear even from over 11,000 km away, even when viewed in a ?small? 17-inch screen MBP.

?I just started crying,? Belmonte said, as Facebook had updated statuses from users admitting to getting goose bumps.

Contrary to popular belief, the ?360 Tour? by U2 is not the first live stream aired online. In June this year, Hulu broadcast the Dave Matthews Band, but it is U2 that gave a most impressive production and show, and commanded millions of viewers worldwide to stay put in their seats and stare at the computer screen.