Classics back to full strength next tour?

[U2387]

There has been alot of recent discussion about U2 classics such as Sunday Bloody Sunday, Pride and With or Without you being performed so poorly for a long time. Some of it I buy into, some not so much. I think the Vertigo tour was promising: Bono's voice was the best it had been in a long time, especially during the last leg, and Bad stood out as one song that had been revived after a many rough Elevation performances.

With Bono's voice improving and Adam, Larry and Edge seemingly as passionate as they have been in a long time about new material, what does everyone think about the chances these songs actually return to their former glory next tour?

Especially:

Pride:Vocals much better and Edge's guitar the best it had ever been on Vertigo performances of this song. However, watch Larry on this vs rattle and hum or studio and you will see Pride is down a key or two from its prime and does not pack the same instrumental punch and passion of 1980s performances or the studio version. Anyone think this gets corrected next tour and the song finally becomes complete with the vocals and guitar matched by picking it up to original key.

WOWY: Bono had some much better vocal performances, Japan Vertigo shows especially. Still not back to where he should be for this song, if he can do Miss Sarajevo or Sometimes, Vertigo or Streets so well in the same shows, he should certainly be able to do better on With or Without you. Still the same issue as Pride with the drums, Larry is noticeably being held back as compared to 1987-1992 period, especially JT and LT. The drumming between the ohhhhhh ohhhhhhhh ohhhhhhhhh and the outro as well as during the outro leading to shine like stars is noticeably lackluster on Popmart forward.

Again, given other songs that were performed so well during the same shows, you would think they would be able to give these 2 songs some better performances. Not that they have been bad by any means, just a little flat and missing something for a while.

 

[gherman]

What I would like to see this next tour:

I want them to take the approach that they had for Zoo Tv which was to dump most of the old songs, really focus on the new album, and take on a more specific theme for the tour. The last two tours were "best of" tours IMO with a little emphasis on the new albums. I loved them but I would like to see a different approach.

 

[AndrewCowley]

It is as 'simple' as them not playing those songs EVERY night. Play them less frequently and then some of the 'fire' will return. The world won't end if Joe Average goes to see U2, the only show he sees on the tour, and they don't play Pride. If they put on a great show Mr Average isn't go home dissappointed. U2 need to find some confidence and learn to put on a show that doesn't contain all of the classics. Mix it up. Like Springsteen and Pearl Jam. So in the end we have yet another setlist thread.

 

[bono_man2002]

What I would like to see this next tour:

I want them to take the approach that they had for Zoo Tv which was to dump most of the old songs, really focus on the new album, and take on a more specific theme for the tour. The last two tours were "best of" tours IMO with a little emphasis on the new albums. I loved them but I would like to see a different approach.

Uh....yeah.......no focus on the latest album at all. Heres the stats:

· How To Dismantle An Atomic Bomb (10 songs)
· Cover songs (8 songs)
· Achtung Baby (7 songs)
· The Joshua Tree (7 songs)
· All That You Can't Leave Behind (6 songs)
· Boy (6 songs)
· Rattle And Hum (3 songs)
· The Unforgettable Fire (3 songs)
· War (3 songs)
· Non-album songs (2 songs)
· B-Sides (1 song)
· October (1 song)
· Pop (1 song)
· Unreleased Songs (1 song)
· Zooropa (1 song)

I guess there was no....particular theme based on HTDAAB, but still. Thats only 1 less song that was played off Achtung Baby on the Zoo TV Tour.

 

[intedomine]

When they got to the Aussie leg of the tour, there were only 4 HTDDAB songs I'm pretty sure

 

[kingofsorrow]

stop performing the following songs: WOWY, UTEOTW, pride, bullet, mysterious ways, one and NYD(my favorite u2 song by the way).
not because they can't perform the songs like they use(that is a little of it), but because these songs are getting worn.
out of control sounded great on the "luggage tour" because we hadn't heard in so long. the electric co, an cat dub sounded great because once again, it's been a while.

 

[Screwtape2]

Uh....yeah.......no focus on the latest album at all. Heres the stats:

· How To Dismantle An Atomic Bomb (10 songs)
· Cover songs (8 songs)
· Achtung Baby (7 songs)
· The Joshua Tree (7 songs)
· All That You Can't Leave Behind (6 songs)
· Boy (6 songs)
· Rattle And Hum (3 songs)
· The Unforgettable Fire (3 songs)
· War (3 songs)
· Non-album songs (2 songs)
· B-Sides (1 song)
· October (1 song)
· Pop (1 song)
· Unreleased Songs (1 song)
· Zooropa (1 song)

I guess there was no....particular theme based on HTDAAB, but still. Thats only 1 less song that was played off Achtung Baby on the Zoo TV Tour.

Interesting but you should have looked at the top ten most played songs from each tour:

ZooTV: 6 of 10 from Achtung Baby
Popmart: 5 of 10 from Pop (6 of 10 if you include HMTMKMKM)
Elevation: 5 of 10 from ATYCLB
Vertigo: 3 of 10 from Bomb

 

[U2girl]

Dodgy stats

 

[Screwtape2]

Dodgy stats

Which set of stats?

 

[bono_man2002]

Dodgy stats

Mmmm Doggy Stats.............wait..............

 

[Yahweh_OMG]

I also think that Larry is the one that slows those songs down. SBS is a lot slower than before, WOWY less intensity, Pride very boring since 1997, etc... Larry gives the rythm. Maybe he got some "orders" not to play as fast as before because Bono couldn't follow with his voice or lyrics or whatever, but I doubt it. I think it is really up to Larry so speed it up and stop doing the minimum work. He is a great drummer (see early days till 89) but he is aslo the laziest of the 4 and the one with the worst performance (now) compared to what he was doing 20 year's ago. Adam got a lot better, Edge got a lot better (even though he was already good), Bono does what he can to stay in great shape and improved so much since 97-98... the only one who goes "downhill" is Larry.

Anyway, I would like to see a lot of new songs, with some Pop stuff (Mofo, Disotheque), R&H stuff (God Part2, Hawkmonn) and of course some rarities like 11 o'clock, Boy stuff (Twilight) and October stuff (October, I fall down).

 

[U2BROTHR]

You know.....dare I say it. I saw Radiohead twice this tour. Once in Montreal and once in Toronto. I love U2 to bits....but I would have to say. Radiohead had a varied and different set list every night WITH an emphasis on the new album. A fellow U2 friend of mine also went to the Toronto show and was in disbelief (in a good way) that he didn't hear the classic Radiohead tunes while viewing the show in Toronto.

My U2 friend made a comment that surprised me. He said..... "I hope Bono takes note to realize that you don't have to continually do your 'best of' in order to do a show."

 

[digitize]

The problem, of course, is that the last two tours have been supporting sub-par albums, by U2 standards. IMO, COBL has been the only truly-amazing live song to come out of this decade thus far. Back in the 90s, when you saw huge amounts of new material every night, they were supporting three of their strongest albums. Radiohead is touring in support of an excellent album, In Rainbows. The reason that the 90s U2 tours didn't have more varied setlists is because they were theatrical shows (especially Zoo TV) as much as concerts, and couldn't really have varied setlists.

 

[AndrewCowley]

The reason that the 90s U2 tours didn't have more varied setlists is because they were theatrical shows (especially Zoo TV) as much as concerts, and couldn't really have varied setlists.

Um, with all due respect, U2 have always had fixed setlists. It has nothing to do with the complex staging that started with Zoo TV. Setlists from the Unforgettable Fire tour are perhaps U2's most fixed ever. And the stage set up for that tour was as simple as you can get. So blaming fixed setlists on the staging is simply being too kind to U2. It just isn't their thing.

 

[gherman]

A little compare and contrast:

Vertigo Tour Leg I
North America

03/26/2005 Sports Arena - Los Angeles, California, USA
City Of Blinding Lights, The Electric Co. / Send In The Clowns (snippet), An Cat Dubh, Into The Heart, Beautiful Day / Blackbird (snippet), Miracle Drug, Sometimes You Can't Make It On Your Own, Love And Peace Or Else, Elevation, Stuck In A Moment You Can't Get Out Of, Yahweh, Bullet The Blue Sky / The Hands That Built America (snippet), Running To Stand Still, Zoo Station, The Fly, Vertigo / Stories For Boys (snippet)
encores: Pride (In The Name Of Love), Where The Streets Have No Name, One, All Because Of You, 40

So thats, what, 7 songs on the first night of Vertigo. Pretty good.

U2 Zoo TV Tour 1992 Leg I
North America

02/29/1992 Lakeland Arena - Lakeland, Florida, USA
Zoo Station, The Fly, Even Better Than The Real Thing, Mysterious Ways, One, Until The End Of The World, Who's Gonna Ride Your Wild Horses, Tryin' To Throw Your Arms Around The World, Angel Of Harlem, Satellite Of Love, Bad / All I Want Is You (snippet), Bullet The Blue Sky, Running To Stand Still, Where The Streets Have No Name, Pride (In The Name Of Love), I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For
encores: Desire, Ultra Violet (Light My Way), With Or Without You / Shine Like Stars (snippet), Love Is Blindness

Thats 10 songs from Achtung Baby on the first night of Zoo. Very Nice.

At the end.

Vertigo Tour Leg V
The Pacific (Australia, New Zealand, Japan, Hawaii)

12/09/2006 Aloha Stadium - Honolulu, Hawaii, USA
City Of Blinding Lights, Vertigo / Theme From Hawaii 5-0 (snippet) / She Loves You (snippet), Elevation, I Will Follow, I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For / In A Little While (snippet), Beautiful Day / Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band (snippet) / Blackbird (snippet), Angel Of Harlem, Who's Gonna Ride Your Wild Horses, The First Time, Sometimes You Can't Make It On Your Own / La Vie En Rose (snippet), Love And Peace Or Else, Sunday Bloody Sunday / Rock The Casbah (snippet), Bullet The Blue Sky / When Johnny Comes Marching Home (snippet) / The Hands That Built America (snippet), Miss Sarajevo, Pride (In The Name Of Love), Where The Streets Have No Name, Instant Karma! (snippet) / , One
encores: The Fly / (I Can't Get No) Satisfaction (snippet), Mysterious Ways, With Or Without You, Window In The Skies, The Saints Are Coming / When The Saints Come Marching In (snippet), Rockin' In The Free World, All I Want Is You

So here we have and entire 4 songs!!!!!!!

U2 The Zoomerang / New Zooland Tour 1993
Australia / New Zealand / Japan

12/10/1993 Egg Dome - Tokyo, Japan
Zoo Station, The Fly, Even Better Than The Real Thing, Mysterious Ways, One / Unchained Melody (snippet), Until The End Of The World, New Year's Day, Numb, Tryin' To Throw Your Arms Around The World, Angel Of Harlem, Stay (Faraway, So Close!), Satellite Of Love, Dirty Day, Bullet The Blue Sky, Running To Stand Still, Where The Streets Have No Name, Pride (In The Name Of Love)
encores: Daddy's Gonna Pay For Your Crashed Car, Lemon, With Or Without You / Love Will Tear Us Apart (snippet), Love Is Blindness, Can't Help Falling In Love

Still strong with 8 songs. Including Zoorpoa songs we have, what 11 songs.

If you wan to add the Zooropa songs on the last Zoo show thats works since they were supporting two albums during those shows.

 

[zoopop]

Don't forget U2:18 was released around the time of 5th leg of the Vertigo tour. I'm sure they wanted to play more hits than a 2 year old album.

If U2 would just rotate the "hits" in/out & around the setlist things would be more interesting. For the fans and the band. I mean "One" doesn't have to be the closing song of the 1st encore everynight. Play it as the 1st ballad in the set or close a show out with it. Instead of the diehards complaining about hearing Bullet yet again, they'll talk about how it was cool seeing/hearing Bullet as the 2nd song in the setlist. Hearing "Bad" on select nights during the Vertigo tour made those nights very special.

I Will Follow
Gloria
Sunday Bloody Sunday
New Years..
40
Bad
Streets
ISHFWILF
WOWY
Bullet (This song really needs a break)
Desire
Angel of Harlem
MW
One
Even Better..
The Fly
Wild Horses
Discotheque
Beautiful Day
Walk On
Stuck
Vertigo

are all songs that can be rotated and moved around any given night. U2 knows these songs too well and are good enough musicans to mix things around.

I don't want U2 to turn into the Stones, but I'm thankful they still play the new material live.

 

[nathan1977]

Vertigo Tour Leg V
The Pacific (Australia, New Zealand, Japan, Hawaii)

12/09/2006 Aloha Stadium - Honolulu, Hawaii, USA
City Of Blinding Lights, Vertigo / Theme From Hawaii 5-0 (snippet) / She Loves You (snippet), Elevation, I Will Follow, I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For / In A Little While (snippet), Beautiful Day / Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band (snippet) / Blackbird (snippet), Angel Of Harlem, Who's Gonna Ride Your Wild Horses, The First Time, Sometimes You Can't Make It On Your Own / La Vie En Rose (snippet), Love And Peace Or Else, Sunday Bloody Sunday / Rock The Casbah (snippet), Bullet The Blue Sky / When Johnny Comes Marching Home (snippet) / The Hands That Built America (snippet), Miss Sarajevo, Pride (In The Name Of Love), Where The Streets Have No Name, Instant Karma! (snippet) / , One
encores: The Fly / (I Can't Get No) Satisfaction (snippet), Mysterious Ways, With Or Without You, Window In The Skies, The Saints Are Coming / When The Saints Come Marching In (snippet), Rockin' In The Free World, All I Want Is You

So here we have and entire 4 songs!!!!!!!

Yeah, but take a look at that setlist -- 24 songs, rare tracks like WITS, First Time, Who's Gonna Ride, Angel of Harlem (rare on this tour), tons of snippets -- for those who complain about a lack of dynamic setlists, the Vertigo tour featured probably the most dynamic setlist since LoveTown!

 

[gherman]

Yeah, but take a look at that setlist -- 24 songs, rare tracks like WITS, First Time, Who's Gonna Ride, Angel of Harlem (rare on this tour), tons of snippets -- for those who complain about a lack of dynamic setlists, the Vertigo tour featured probably the most dynamic setlist since LoveTown!

Hence, U2's "Best Of" tour.

 

[The John Tree]

These threads usually bore me so much.

But I'll jump in anyway:

I'm not a fan of 'Pride' at all. Not even the recorded version. It's the one U2 "classic" that I never really got into. Which is funny, because if I could have to point a person to one song which completely describes U2, I would point to Pride (or maybe Streets). But I never liked it. But I'd at least be able to tolerate it if they actually sang it. The recorded version is Bono hitting a note during the "name" in the chorus. Live? Bono just screams "name" as loud as he can. So I say drop it.

Now as for songs that often fans want dropped, but I think need to stay:

Bullet: Bullet is remodelled every tour. And every tour it takes on a new meaning, and I think for that reason, it needs to stay. The Rattle Hum version was good. The Zoo TV version was unfuckingbelievable. Pop was good, with Bono's theatrics. In my humble opinion, the Elevation tour version was the absolute best, with Bono's gun control rant and Edge's unbelievable solo. Vertigo tour lacked a bit in the form of the solo, but I feel that Bono made up for it with his theatrics and the Hands That Built America snippet, as well as the ad-libbed Johnny Comes Marching Home snippets. Very cool part of the show.

With or Without You: This is the song that relies completely on Bono. If his voice is up to it, it's classic. If it's not, then it's not. WOWY at Boston during Elevation tour was lackluster. But at Slane? Loved it. Plus, I think With or Without You truly is one of the most beautiful songs in the U2 canon. But not as beautiful as...


One: One needs to be kept in the set if only for the mere fact that it's U2's best song and, in my opinion, the best song ever. The problem with the song live these days is that U2 has almost changed the meaning of the song. "One" was never meant to be a song about Africa, but it seems like that's what it's turned into. Whereas "Streets" was ALWAYS a song about Africa, yet doesn't seem to carry that connotation with it. "One" is a breakup song, but Bono doesn't sing it like a breakup song anymore. It's too celebratory. I think the full band version has run it's course. What I recommend for future live performances is the stripped down version of the song, the one Bono and Edge played with Pavarotti. It was just as beautiful, and just as heartbreaking, as the original version. They should bring back this rendition.

Sunday Bloody Sunday: Again, this one should come and go. The band has to be "feeling" this song for it to work. Once again: Boston 2001? Eh. SLANE 2001, with the reciting of the names at the end? Classic performance. So the answer to this one, Bono, is if you don't feel like railing against terrorism, then don't include the song when you're writing the setlist. If you do, then include it.

 

[The John Tree]

Speaking of dropping classics, the boys talked about dropping Streets for the Vertigo tour.

If they did that, I would riot.

Never drop Streets. Ever.

 

[david]

The only way they could dump a lot of old songs is if they put out a double album and play songs like Window In The Skies, Hands... and some stuff from the last album. That would piss people off though.

I really think certain old songs could be reworked. Bullet became a monster on Zoo TV because they made it funkier and Edge did his awesome solo. I wish they could tweak songs in that regard.

 

[The John Tree]

I think, honestly, that a tour is useless without the reworking of songs. Otherwise, I could just listen to the CD. Case in point? Discotheque, Chicago, 2005. Awesome, reworked performance.

 

[Rob33]

One of the stupidest things Bono could've done on the vertigo tour was sing Bullet with that wimpy voice....that's an intense song...I don't know if it was purposeful but it didn't enhance the song in anyway...

If he would just sing this song like he did on JT/LT/ZooTV tours then it'd be awesome...maybe he simply couldn't do that on Vertigo Tour, I'm not sure about that, but he could definitely do it now...I'm expecting it next tour if it comes back

 

[U2girl]

Yeah, but take a look at that setlist -- 24 songs, rare tracks like WITS, First Time, Who's Gonna Ride, Angel of Harlem (rare on this tour), tons of snippets -- for those who complain about a lack of dynamic setlists, the Vertigo tour featured probably the most dynamic setlist since LoveTown!

It's good fun to hear setlists moaning about Vertigo, of all tours.

 

[The John Tree]

I agree. I think the Vertigo tour had the best setlist of all the U2 tours.

 

[zwervers2]

Pride:Vocals much better and Edge's guitar the best it had ever been on Vertigo performances of this song. However, watch Larry on this vs rattle and hum or studio and you will see Pride is down a key or two from its prime and does not pack the same instrumental punch and passion of 1980s performances or the studio version. Anyone think this gets corrected next tour and the song finally becomes complete with the vocals and guitar matched by picking it up to original key.

If Bono would sing Pride in the original key (Unforgettable Fire) he would collapse on stage, 10436% guaranteed!

There is NO way he can reach the high notes of that chorus.

 

[Rob33]

If Bono would sing Pride in the original key (Unforgettable Fire) he would collapse on stage, 10436% guaranteed!

There is NO way he can reach the high notes of that chorus.

what's your point? He hasn't sung it like the album version in over 20 years....are you saying that next tour if he can't sing it like the album version Pride cannot improve? By your logic, Pride has sucked for over 20 years....

For your information, Bono sang Pride very well on Vertigo Tour, much better than Elevation, Pop, and maybe even ZooTV....

 

[doctorwho]

What I would like to see this next tour:

I want them to take the approach that they had for Zoo Tv which was to dump most of the old songs, really focus on the new album, and take on a more specific theme for the tour. The last two tours were "best of" tours IMO with a little emphasis on the new albums. I loved them but I would like to see a different approach.

While I do agree with your ZOO TV part (more on that in a moment), I disagree with your latter statements.

Both of the last two tours featured 6-8 songs from the new albums. For example, on a typical Vertigo tour night, one would hear CoBL, "Vertigo", "Sometimes...", "Yahweh", "Love & Peace...", "Miracle Drug", "All Because of You" and sometimes even "Fast Cars". Given that HTDAAB only had 11 songs (12 if you count "Fast Cars), U2 usually played 1/2 to 3/4 of the album!

Also, U2 did dip into their back catalog playing songs like "An Cat Dubh", "The Electric Co." and "Into the Heart".

Granted, all of these songs weren't played at every show, but that's to be expected. Fans want varying setlists, yet they want classics, they want new songs, they want rarities - it's tough to please everyone. I felt the last tour was strong in all categories. It consistently played many songs from the new album, while also playing old hits as well as some rarities.

What makes ZOO TV stand apart though is that U2 started the concert with about eight songs from AB! Only after we got a good dose of AB did U2 finally give us songs from other albums. That was very bold. And from that point of view, I'd like to see U2 return to that boldness. The weakness in this, though, is that the rest of the concert was "oldies" with one exception, as U2 often closed with "Love Is Blindness" (at times "Ultraviolet" was performed too).

While ZOO TV did feature 8-10 songs from AB, the new tours have a much bigger catalog of songs for U2. U2 now have to play a good mix of new with many classics that the casual fan definitely wants to hear. Plus, Even ZOO TV featured the greatest hits after the AB songs.

So rather than completely eliminate some classics, I think if U2 focused on the new album a lot first (like ZOO TV), then hit the "oldies", that might be fun. And they could mix up some oldies ("Streets" should always remain, but have fun with the catalog).

 

[Screwtape2]

For your information, Bono sang Pride very well on Vertigo Tour, much better than Elevation, Pop, and maybe even ZooTV....

Bono's vocals on Pride has been iffy on the last three tours but it was good on ZooTV. Rarely though is Pride off the charts live.

 

[Rob33]

Bono's vocals on Pride has been iffy on the last three tours but it was good on ZooTV. Rarely though is Pride off the charts live.

Yes. I agree. But my point is that Bono sang Pride better on the Vertigo Tour than he had for over a decade prior. So to suggest that if Bono cannot sing Pride like he does on the album then Pride will not improve is just idiotic.