For thousands of U2 fans in Hawai'i, yesterday was a beautiful day.

Some started it by lining up at midnight at Aloha Stadium to buy tickets for what could be the Dublin boys' final leg of their "Vertigo" tour.

Tickets went on sale yesterday for the April 8 concert at Aloha Stadium, and Haley Baldwin of Pupukea walked away with a $95 seat for herself.

"I'm wild about it," said Baldwin, 26. "They're the Irish Beatles. I'm an '80s baby, so I've been with them my whole life. They're absolutely the band of today."

Baldwin's love of U2's music is matched only by her admiration for the social causes — from AIDS to global poverty — pushed by the band's front man, Bono, whom Time magazine has named one of its three Persons of the Year, along with Bill and Melinda Gates.

U2 played its last Hawai'i concert in 1985, so Keith Ah Sam of Waipahu flew to Oakland in 2001 to see the band's "Elevation" tour and has seen the group three other times on the Mainland. Yesterday, the 44-year-old senior systems analyst was ecstatic to score four tickets for himself and his friends for the Honolulu show.

"I've been following them for at least 20 years," Ah Sam said. "I really like the sound they have — that wall of sound. And they're really committed to lots of great social causes. ... They put a lot of time and energy into their shows."

Aloha Stadium will be configured to accommodate about 40,000 U2 fans in seats and on the field. Yesterday afternoon, about 1,000 tickets remained, perhaps because of speculation that U2 might add a second Hawai'i show.

But Rod Nabua, a 45-year-old heavy-equipment operator from Kane'ohe, was taking no chances.

Nabua is a longtime U2 fan who has never seen the band in concert. He was happy to pick up a pair of tickets for himself and his 14-year-old daughter, Heidi.

"She has no idea who they are," Nabua said. "But I've been a fan for a long time."

David and Aimee Kirkpatrick of Kane'ohe also have been U2 fans for years and have never seen the group perform live. They were glad to buy eight tickets at $95 each but weren't pleased that the upper-deck seats are so far from the stage.

"That was all that was left," said David, a 33-year-old Coast Guard lieutenant commander. "I've never seen them, and neither has Aimee. That's why we were willing to pay the extra money to see them."

Aimee was disappointed — and a bit startled — that the good seats went so quickly.

"But I have a huge respect for their social consciousness," she said. "They're actually doing a lot of good with their fame and money to bring attention to the causes they care about."

Veteran Hawai'i promoter Tom Moffatt says the Aloha Stadium concert could attract U2 fans from all over.

"Who knows when they'll go on tour again?" Moffatt said. "People will be coming in from other parts of the world to see the show because it's the final date for their world tour. They're one of the supergroups of the world, and they haven't been to Hawai'i for years."

Baldwin didn't hesitate yesterday to start singing along to the band's latest CD, "How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb."

After buying her single ticket, Baldwin popped the CD into her beat-up 1991 Ford Escort for the drive back to the North Shore.

"It's great," she said. "But I can't wait to hear them perform the songs live."

Reach Dan Nakaso at dnakaso@honoluluadvertiser.com.