What is your favourite U2 live show/bootleg, and why is it Irving Plaza 2000?

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Fucking lol no. Probably the worst 11 O'clock Tick Tock, for starters.

I never listened to this boot even when I was a massive fanboy.
 
Fucking lol no. Probably the worst 11 O'clock Tick Tock, for starters.

I never listened to this boot even when I was a massive fanboy.



Tick tock is a bit slower, but I love the solo. Definitive versions of Mysterious Ways, Ground Beneath Her Feet, and great versions of all the Attyclub songs. Mostly I like the show because all four are in great form, and the sound is wonderful.
 
I can't really decide between these four:

  • A Fire in Dortmund (1984-11-21)
  • Lovetown Rotterdam (1990 all four shows)
  • Zoo TV Milan (1992-05-22)
  • Zoo TV Stockholm (1992-06-11)

A Fire in Dortmund is my favourite pro-shot U2 show. Those performances of Electric Co. and Gloria are probably two of the greatest live performances ever.

Lovetown was U2 at its peak live. The Rotterdam shows are actually slightly better than the much-lauded Point Depot shows, which are fantastic in their own right.

Zoo TV Milan has the best crowd participation ever for a U2 concert. Just listen to Milano sing its heart out with Bono during Ultraviolet if you don't believe me.

Zoo TV Stockholm is probably the most fun U2 bootleg to listen to, what with the show being broadcast live to the house of an MTV contest winner. Bono's banter with that guy in between songs is hilarious. The band is on top of their game as well. One of my three favourite performances of Ultraviolet, alongwith the aforementioned Milan performance and Zoo TV Washington performance.

I must have listened to these shows hundreds of times by now. And I still never tire of them.
 
Dublin 1993. Maybe also in part because it was the first one I'd heard, my brother had a CD. Great sound, nice mix of AB/Zooropa songs and a great home crowd.

Irving Plaza would still be very close to the top though.
 
Re Irving Plaza - how random that that Who cover is in there. I love it, but it's pretty random for them, and that's thr only time they've played it. I wonder what was behind it?

Dublin 1993. Maybe also in part because it was the first one I'd heard, my brother had a CD. Great sound,

Same! A friend had a copy and I heard it in his car, I immediately went to Atomic Records in Milwaukee (R.I.P.) and spent way too much money on my own copy.

My first bootleg was a cassette copy of my first U2 show, Madison 1992. Crappy sound, but I loved it. Man, Atomic Records was the best. I bought several U2 and REM bootlegs there over the years.
 
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It's unfortunate that U2 are so down on the Lovetown Tour, because that was definitely when they were at their best as a live band. Bono was even playing rhythm guitar somewhat effectively.
 
cori. U2 (1980/1) has mentioned The Who as an influence in the structural technique how they often bring calmer and more intense, slower and faster contrasts within a single song.

Plus part of the music of "All Because of You" is a sonic tribute to The Who as well.
 



Great thread title [emoji106]

I'd say it's one my favorite boots, listened to it at least 200 times from a cd I burnt off radio. 200-2004. Since iPods and YouTube it's gotten pushed off, but because of this thread remaining me, I will listen this weekend.

Great period for U2. Underdogs fighting to regain the title, BD and Elevation kicked ass and mysterious ways and 11 O'clock tic tock were incredible.
 
January 10 1990. The final Lowetown show. Bono's voice is recovered from the troubles he had earlier on that tour. Epic and definitive versions of almost every song. U2 at their most powerful IMO. Only negative is that WOWY is strangely absent.
 
I never listen to them any more because there's so much stuff out there, save for just two performances I always listen to over and over - Running to Stand Still and One Tree Hill, both from the Point Depot shows. RTSS with Dirty Old Town coda is phenomenal, and One Tree Hill with the improvised Bono verse is the definitive version of the song.

It's unfortunate that U2 are so down on the Lovetown Tour

Huh?

Plus part of the music of "All Because of You" is a sonic tribute to The Who as well.

Pretty horrific tribute...
 
^

If you read U2 at the end of the world, or U2 by U2, the band cite the Lovetown tour as the most unhappy time of their career. They rarely acknowledge that tour in a positive light, they've never given us a DVD (even though we know Sydney and Dublin were proshot). Bottom line... they don't want to own the LT Tour.

Forget that musically they were at their peak.
 
1986-06-15 - East Rutherford
1989-12-26 - Dublin
1992 Outside Broadcast TV Special
1993 Dublin Broadcast
2005 Rock N Roll Hall Of Fame
2009-07-07 - Milan
2015-07-02 - Chicago
 
I know too much!

;]

It would be easier to pick one from every tour but it could vary depending on when asked.

Today it's Riverboat President, 2/11/81 (the master source surfaced in 2014 with outstanding quality) and it's the first and last time (to my knowledge) that they ever played on a boat! Plus they worked with Anton for the first time that day and I'm a sucker for live Fire.

It's worth checking out!

Gun to head, it might be 8/28/93 (as others have cited). That version of Stay might be my favorite live moment from the band. I still can't believe how good it is (especially considering how much better it is than any of the other live renditions). I think it's the *only* time they nailed it.

I still remember the day I got the double CD from a local shop. I had just gotten a new system in my car and it sounded so dang amazing. Some bastards ripped it off when my clutch broke on vacation...but that's another story...
 
Lovetown New Year's Eve (my iPod was running this into the ground during my I&E trip to Vancouver)
Zooropa Dublin Night 2
Popmart Santiago
The unedited bootleg of Red Rocks
 
Zooropa show in Dublin 1993 from the radio broadcast, Leeds PopMart, any one of the 4 Dublin Lovetown Shows and Wembley 2009
 
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