LANDOVER, Md. - U2 fans were hoping to find out "what they were looking for" as the iconic band stopped in the Washington region as part of their world tour.

FedEx Field is accustomed to traffic and tailgaters during Redskins (web | news) games, but Tuesday brings tens of thousands of U2 fans.

The band's legendary sound -- infused with themes social and political -- filtered through a stadium packed with some 80,000 fans.

Many were concerned that the combination of a capacity crowd and rush hour traffic would overwhelm the Beltway and other roads, preventing fans from making it on time.

Dave and Jessica Feldman were so concerned about traffic they arrived hours early from their home in Reston.

"Heard about the nightmares, Dave said, "so we left Reston at 3:30 and got here in about an hour -- straight shot in."

The McDonalds are celebrating their 21st wedding anniversary with U2 but to get there they had to fight through rush hour traffic on the Beltway.

"We made the first 70 miles in 70 minutes and last 25 miles took us an hour and 10 minutes," said Tony McDonald.

"We came down from Lancaster, Pennsylvania, so we didn't want to get stuck in traffic," said Mark Goncalves. "We have Red Zone tickets -- right near the stage -- so we wanted to make sure we didn't have any problem getting to our seats."

But a lot U2 fans couldn't get off work early or work around family responsibilities, which meant they were forced to fight traffic to enjoy one of the biggest bands in the world.

"I wouldn't want to be on the Beltway or coming over the Bay Bridge," said Joseph Riedel, who predicted 95 was "mangled."

George Carrigan's issue had less to do with waiting in traffic and more to do with waiting in a massive line for tickets. "This line here -- about 30 minutes. Well it would be nice if it were a little faster but there's a lot of people here," he said.

Once inside, the hope was that the pulsing melodies of the iconic foursome would make that wait worth it.

 Email To Friend