Twentieth Anniversary: Point Depot Lovetown shows

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digitize

digitize

ONE love, blood, life
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Twenty years ago this week (starting yesterday - I'm a bit late in opening this thread), U2 performed some of the most incredible shows that they ever performed, and that they will ever perform: the Lovetown four-night-stand at the Point Depot in Dublin.

Let this thread show some well-deserved respect for those shows.

Some of my personal highlights:

She's A Mystery in its (her?) true form:
YouTube - U2 - She's A Mystery To Me (Day 30) - Point Depot

Best AOH ever:
YouTube - U2 - Angel of harlem - Suspicious minds (Day 26) - Point Depot

Streets at the dawn of 1990:
YouTube - U2 Where The Streets Have No Name Dublin New Year's Eve 1989

My favorite Streets:
YouTube - U2 Where The Streets Have No Name Dublin 1989-30-12

"We'll shine like stars in the summer light; we'll shine like stars in the Christmas night."
YouTube - With or Without You - U2 - 1989-12-26 - Lovetown Point Depot

Last, and perhaps most importantly:
YouTube - Best ever One Tree Hill - U2, Dublin Point Depot
 
I went to a couple of the lovetown gigs, i was 15. Absolutely awesome, other than ZOO TV, they were the best U2 shows I've ever seen.
10 out of 10.
 
I just found out today, thanks to Axver's site, that Two hearts beat as one was played on 12/27/89, and that it was the only time between 1985 and now that they played the song live. Anybody have this? I love that song, can't believe they'd abandon it like that.

I have bootlegs of the 12/26 and 12/31 - 1/1 shows, and both are absolute perfection! As much as they claim to have not liked the Lovetown tour, they sure were "on fire" at the time!
 
The_acrobat said:
I just found out today, thanks to Axver's site, that Two hearts beat as one was played on 12/27/89, and that it was the only time between 1985 and now that they played the song live. Anybody have this? I love that song, can't believe they'd abandon it like that.

I have bootlegs of the 12/26 and 12/31 - 1/1 shows, and both are absolute perfection! As much as they claim to have not liked the Lovetown tour, they sure were "on fire" at the time!
Click to expand...

Full quality WAV file of Two Hearts (about 38MBs) taken directly from the original "XXVII" silver cd bootleg set:

https://www..com/download/VGlmRFFaTlE4NVhIRGc9PQ

T.B.
 
27th and 30th are my favorite of that run...the 30th in particular with great versions of many songs, plus "She's a Mystery to Me" and Bono's famous "dream it all up again" bit before Love Rescue Me (by the way, LRM on this tour is about a zillion times better than the studio version).
 
God Part II, Desire, ALTW and AIWIY were totally insane on the 26th as well as OTH and WOWY. All 4 shows had some brilliant moments, OTH on the 30th was pretty damn sweet too.
 
The Dec 26th show is incredible. During Streets Bono goes into overdrive during the 'trampled in dust' line. For me that is his best vocal moment ever, period.
 
I also like the intro to Streets from the 30th...with the Jack Kerouac bit.
 
i've been listening to the point depot shows like crazy for more than a week now :applaud:

God what i would give to go back in time and be there for this monumental event......:drool:
 
personally i feel the new year's eve performance of One Tree Hill is the best. it's not markedly superior to the generally acknowledged one, but i do feel it's an overall slightly tighter performance

and i adore the opening night Streets the most, with Bono reciting Resolution & Independence at the start
 
These days were U2 at their "akme" – the band hasn't played better since, Bono has not sung better since. 1989/90 WAS the highlight of U2 playing live on stage. It was all about the music back then. And this was more than enough. How I miss these days, especially now ...
 
I dunno, it's not like they could have kept their level of relevance by simply playing JT type music and stage set-ups, it had it's time, but I've certainly enjoyed their progression. I think we'll definitely see a more music-focused tour following 360 though.
 
AndrewCowley said:
The Dec 26th show is incredible. During Streets Bono goes into overdrive during the 'trampled in dust' line. For me that is his best vocal moment ever, period.
Click to expand...

That entire performance of Streets is when I think the song peaked. I've always been tremendously fond of the Resolution And Independence intro.

I personally rank the 26/12 and 30/12 shows as the two best. 26/12 had a fairly bland setlist in comparison to other Lovetown shows (except for God Part II opening out of the blue), but the performances are absolutely phenomenal. Little else can touch Edge's solo and Bono's improv verse in One Tree Hill or the Streets intro. The 30th has an improved setlist (11 O'clock Tick Tock!) and the debut/definitive performance of She's A Mystery To Me, but falls just a hair short of emulating the 26th's individual peaks.

I then rank the 27th as the third best, another quality Lovetown show but not one I return to as much as the aforementioned two, and the 31st last. By 'last', I mean that I would still rank it as one of the best gigs of U2's careers.

What a run of shows. Perfect way for the band to end the eighties; I reckon they rather nicely (though not necessarily ideally) summarise U2's eighties output.
 
i posted the streets clip on my fb page and was going to post it here, but you beat me to it. where has the time gone?

digitize, you are wise beyond your years my young friend :up:

-dan
 
I remember my 1st encounter with the "new years day" show. This kid in one of classes(high school) was a passing u2 fan. He told me about a show he recorded off the radio a few years before when he was a more avid u2 fan. I had never heard off the Point Depot shows before. He gave the tape seeing that I was a rabid u2 fan and figured I would appreciate it more.
I listened to that tape and fell in love with that show. I made a copy so I wouldn't wear out the "original" and gave the original to my mom for safe keeping, since I loose things alot. She still has that tape. She's kept all my u2 stuff from my teenaged years. She gave my daughter a bunch of my old t-shirts and aeryn was ecstatic to own some "classic" u2 items.
Thanks for this thread, it reminded me off how rich of a history u2 has with my family.
 
word to all that's been said.
the best moments of their career thus far.

I do often wonder however if we didn't have the soundboards of these shows whether they'd still be so revered?

What if we had soundboards of all the Sydney 89 shows for instance? Maybe they would top the Point Depot shows....:drool:

I dunno, just wonderful wonderful shows...

Anyone have the story of when/how all these soundboards leaked? Would love to know...
 
chrissybaby said:
word to all that's been said.
the best moments of their career thus far.

I do often wonder however if we didn't have the soundboards of these shows whether they'd still be so revered?

What if we had soundboards of all the Sydney 89 shows for instance? Maybe they would top the Point Depot shows....:drool:

I dunno, just wonderful wonderful shows...

Anyone have the story of when/how all these soundboards leaked? Would love to know...
Click to expand...
I've heard something about the shows being recorded so a doctor in Dublin could listen to how Bono was singing and state that, indeed, he would wreck his voice if he continued to sing like that... and somehow those tapes leaked out (other than the 31st), but I have no idea if that is correct or not.
 
These shows were just absolutely incredible. Think about it, where else do you get an entire thread of everyone on interference in agreement!

I am all about the 90s and experimental U2, something maybe they would do well to think about going into this next decade, but Ax is right. This very nicely summarizes what U2 was about in the 80s, the earnestness, the deep voice Streets, the raw energy and passion that made this band the biggest band in the world.

It is perfectly ok that alot of us prefer the 90s to the 80s U2. Me, I could never pick a favorite, as both are too great in too many different ways to really compare. Its apples and oranges, and as I strongly argue about all U2 eras, one or the other is not better or worse, just different.

The above being said, no one can deny the 80s were the most magical decade for U2. And I doubt very much that a convincing case can be made for a better run of U2 shows than Point Depot, December 26-31, 1989!!
 
youarenotimmune said:
personally i feel the new year's eve performance of One Tree Hill is the best. it's not markedly superior to the generally acknowledged one, but i do feel it's an overall slightly tighter performance

and i adore the opening night Streets the most, with Bono reciting Resolution & Independence at the start
Click to expand...

The above version of OTH is my second favorite. The ending is fantastic and full of power. However, my favorite is from Austin, TX in 1987 (part of the JT tour). Bono does this wail at the beginning and really hits both high notes at the end. If I could combine both versions, I'd be very happy. ;-) As it stands, both are outstanding.

I'm glad bootlegs exist, but I wish U2 had more official versions of these shows or, as was already stated, DVD's.
 
doctorwho said:
The above version of OTH is my second favorite. The ending is fantastic and full of power. However, my favorite is from Austin, TX in 1987 (part of the JT tour). Bono does this wail at the beginning and really hits both high notes at the end. If I could combine both versions, I'd be very happy. ;-) As it stands, both are outstanding.

I'm glad bootlegs exist, but I wish U2 had more official versions of these shows or, as was already stated, DVD's.
Click to expand...

Yeah, the Austin show had a great OTH.

Too bad I wasn't alive at the time, or I could have seen that show!
 
Like everyone, I love these shows and especially the slightly spontaneous (or so it seemed) nature of the setlists, as well as the fact that it was the last time they were just "4 guys on stage" without any technological trappings. For perhaps only the 2nd time on this forum, I agree with Axver -- that the Dec. 26th show is the best of the best.

As great as these shows were, however, it would have been incredibly lame if they had gone onstage at the end of 1991/start of 1992 and played the same kind of show. With the Manchester/dance music explosion in Britain, and college/alternative rock about to hit the top of the pops in America, another "Rock Dinosaurs play their greatest hits" kind of show would not have gone down well beyond the 80s' fanbase, and most of you would not now be U2 fans and would never have bothered to unearth those old 1989 shows.

I was 13 or 14 in 1990, and at the time I considered U2 washed-up dinosaurs. I ate humble pie when the ZooTV period got going.
 
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