Let me start this thread off by saying I saw the Toronto show the other day and thought they did an amazing job. The Edge was on fire, Larry and Adam were strong and solid as always and Bono’s voice was actually fairly decent. The concern is over the set list. Now I loved all the AB tracks being in their just as much as I’m sure as a lot of people did. But only 3 tracks from NLOTH? And none of those other tracks from the unfinished or discarded SOA that they had been playing last year? This is concerning! I actually liked NLOTH as I know a lot of the bigger fans did. But the fact that they aren’t playing many of these newer songs means they know that most people don’t like their newer stuff as much. This bothers them - A LOT. They want to be the biggest band in the world as judged by the masses. They want to be the chart toppers they had been through the JT and AB years and have desperately tried in vein to regain this status since POP. Through the Vertigo tour they at least believed in, and had enough confidence in their current record to continue playing half a dozen or so HTDAAB right through the tour. But not this time. NLOTH didn’t do nearly as well as they hoped and they clearly are struggling in the studio and have little confidence in their post NLOTH work otherwise we would have had SOA or at least something by now. Unlike the last few times, this time they really put their minds to making a quick follow up, had a lot of press about it that made it sound pretty definite and yet we got nothing since they haven’t completed any songs they have confidence in. To put this in perspective, this far into the Zoo tour we had Zooropa out in addition to AB and half their shows were songs from those records! This time only 3!
To sum this up I think the conversation before this leg of the tour went something like this:
“Look guys, we know were struggling with completing new material and that most of the more casual fans don’t like NLOTH that much. The best thing we can do now is have a show that goes heavy on songs from AB since that is the most recent album that everyone liked and distance ourselves from the newer stuff. We’ll deal with what to do about a new record after the tour.”
I know this thread will stir a lot of people up but let me again say that I liked NLOTH and think their current shows are really good. What I’m saying though is that more than ever, they are concerned about what people think of them and are really bothered by NLOTH not being as well received by the masses as they had hoped. This is one of those big crises of confidence they seem to have every ten years right around when a new decade starts.
To sum this up I think the conversation before this leg of the tour went something like this:
“Look guys, we know were struggling with completing new material and that most of the more casual fans don’t like NLOTH that much. The best thing we can do now is have a show that goes heavy on songs from AB since that is the most recent album that everyone liked and distance ourselves from the newer stuff. We’ll deal with what to do about a new record after the tour.”
I know this thread will stir a lot of people up but let me again say that I liked NLOTH and think their current shows are really good. What I’m saying though is that more than ever, they are concerned about what people think of them and are really bothered by NLOTH not being as well received by the masses as they had hoped. This is one of those big crises of confidence they seem to have every ten years right around when a new decade starts.
) I think that the fans are actually in crisis, not the band, at least according to my understanding of crisis and the concept of crisis is something I have had to deal with A LOT in recent years, so no, I don't believe they are in crisis, I think they are actually beyond it. The 1990s were the time of their biggest crisis. Now one can argue that a crisis is a state of something old ending and something new trying to be born, so it may not be the worst thing for the guys to be in crisis 
We didn't get The Fly but it was still such fun!
