SOE 18: New Tour, New Despair...

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I have to say. I love this band. I love the Joshua Tree. I was exposed to Boy/October/War when i was a wee one, and then got more interested during UF, and got full fledged fandom during Joshua Tree.

But, I have seen them 16 times, I'm not as into going to see live shows as I once was. So while I will probably hit this tour, I would rather have a new album by far.

They have every right to celebrate this classic album. But it's the first time I've genuinely felt that tinge of disappointment that they have entered the final phase of their career, and instead of going out with a beautiful, poignant, album for the ages, they are doing commemorative tours of old material.

I know, they aren't "done" I hope. But this is a detour that doesn't really excite me. Although i do think it may be a good move to get older fans back into the fold and excited for SOE (or whatever it may be called). Fingers crossed.
 
It's gonna suck when 2018 comes around and we still haven't gotten the album. All I'm saying.

Still going to the JT show though. Should be cool.
 
It's gonna suck when 2018 comes around and we still haven't gotten the album. All I'm saying.

Live in the moment. Enjoy these shows for what they are. I guess that's what U2 wants us to think. But spare a thought though for the countries that didn't get the I tour (note I have dropped the E since it's dead) and now aren't getting any shows this year.
 
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It's gonna suck when 2018 comes around and we still haven't gotten the album. All I'm saying.

Still going to the JT show though. Should be cool.

Edge and Adam's comments don't exactly fill me with confidence. They're sort of dismissive and noncommittal about SOE. It's like there's no urgency or motivation AT ALL. Like "Yeah, we'd like to explore the Innocence and Experience Tour again at some point". Okay...

Had that Columbus I&E tour date not leaked, we might not suspect a thing. But we do know that at one point U2 intended to tour the USA leg of the I&E Tour in October 2017. The fact that the SOE album/tour has been delayed, and now this Joshua Tree thing has come to pass, tells us one of two things;

1. The band, management, LN, etc, realized that the 30th anniversary of TJT was coming up, and saw a massive potential to rake in millions of dollars by doing 30 some stadium shows. So SOE album/tour was simply delayed again... why not?

2. The band had their SOE album/tour ready to go in 2017. LN was pissed off for not getting the I&E tour in 2016, but were alright with it because it was going to happen in 2017... and then it wasn't. Band decides to sit on SOE for awhile, and delay the tour. LiveNation gets pissed off and says "YOU HAVE A CONTRACT, YOU BETTER THINK OF A WAY TO MAKE US SOME FUCKING MONEY!!!!"

I don't believe for a second that this is some sort of artistic statement about how this current political climate is similar to what it was in the mid eighties. You could bend that narrative to fit any time, really.

I'm quite excited for this 2017 JT tour, don't get me wrong. I just wish that the I&E Tour could've run it's course throughout 2015-16, with SOE in there too, wrapping it all up in a neat little package. Then do this JT Tour this year with a clean slate.
 
Live in the moment. Enjoy these shows for what they are. I guess that's what U2 wants us to think. But spare a thought though for the countries that didn't get the I tour (note I have dropped the E since it's dead) and now aren't getting any shows this year.
Oh man. You have to give it up. It's not dead.

The plan as it stands is for album in fall. Followed by resumption of ie tour. Rumored to be those markets they didn't get to last time around (winter 2018 is a great time to tour southern hemisphere, not northern.)

All good. It's been 2.5 years since the last record. It'll have been be 3, MAYBE 3.5 when we get the next. Pretty good by u2 standards.

I heard about TJT tour 6 weeks ago. It was told to me in confidence as part of a plan that included releasing SOE after. It seemed a wacky rumor, but the first part proved to be true. All good.

All good!

...unless they get cold feet :wink:
 
Quoting this post from Headache from the last thread, because it's really damn good and I agree.

I get how some are upset at a "nostalgic" look from the band. I'm not that guy. I think it's silly to ignore your history when you're a band of the stature of U2. You can do both. You can be retrospective while also forward thinking. You can compartmentalize the two. A hat tip to the past on the way to the future. If anything I believe that's one of the things this band has been missing over the past 10 years. They're so desperate to remain hip and cool with the kids that they've lost their course and forgotten who they really are. I actually see this as a step in the right direction there... almost a dual acknowledgement and middle finger to the mockery they got in the SOI release debacle. Yea, we kinda overstepped... but, um, oh by the way, we're fucking U2, we're one of the biggest bands in history, and this one album sold more copies than any of your favorite artists will sell in their lifetimes combined. Don't you fucking forget it.

I heard about TJT tour 6 weeks ago. It was told to me in confidence as part of a plan that included releasing SOE after. It seemed a wacky rumor, but the first part proved to be true. All good.

All good!

...unless they get cold feet :wink:
:thumbs up:

Just think, this time next year they'll probably be announcing the resumption of the IE tour off the back of SOE released this year, hopefully starting out with all of the locations they've missed in the last few years.

...unless they get cold feet. :wink:
 
Live in the moment. Enjoy these shows for what they are. I guess that's what U2 wants us to think. But spare a thought though for the countries that didn't get the I tour (note I have dropped the E since it's dead) and now aren't getting any shows this year.

I agree. While I'm happy to be going to a show this summer (Cleveland), I do feel guilty. North America has gotten 3 tours since the last Australian tour (2011, 2015, 2017). I realize it's a big expense to lug all that stuff down under for not that many shows (aka DOLLARS), but it's still not right. Looks like you guys might not get any shows until 2018. If they do resume the I&E Tour again, they had better hit you guys up first before they even think about returning to Europe or North America. Who the hell knows what they'll do anymore.
 
I have to say. I love this band. I love the Joshua Tree. I was exposed to Boy/October/War when i was a wee one, and then got more interested during UF, and got full fledged fandom during Joshua Tree.

But, I have seen them 16 times, I'm not as into going to see live shows as I once was. So while I will probably hit this tour, I would rather have a new album by far.

They have every right to celebrate this classic album. But it's the first time I've genuinely felt that tinge of disappointment that they have entered the final phase of their career, and instead of going out with a beautiful, poignant, album for the ages, they are doing commemorative tours of old material.

I know, they aren't "done" I hope. But this is a detour that doesn't really excite me. Although i do think it may be a good move to get older fans back into the fold and excited for SOE (or whatever it may be called). Fingers crossed.

:applaud::applaud:
 
Oh man. You have to give it up. It's not dead.

The plan as it stands is for album in fall. Followed by resumption of ie tour. Rumored to be those markets they didn't get to last time around (winter 2018 is a great time to tour southern hemisphere, not northern.)

All good. It's been 2.5 years since the last record. It'll have been be 3, MAYBE 3.5 when we get the next. Pretty good by u2 standards.

I heard about TJT tour 6 weeks ago. It was told to me in confidence as part of a plan that included releasing SOE after. It seemed a wacky rumor, but the first part proved to be true. All good.

All good!

...unless they get cold feet :wink:

TJT 30th Anniversary Tour...then SOE!!!

All strategy my friends!
 
Oh man. You have to give it up. It's not dead.

The plan as it stands is for album in fall. Followed by resumption of ie tour. Rumored to be those markets they didn't get to last time around (winter 2018 is a great time to tour southern hemisphere, not northern.)

All good. It's been 2.5 years since the last record. It'll have been be 3, MAYBE 3.5 when we get the next. Pretty good by u2 standards.

I heard about TJT tour 6 weeks ago. It was told to me in confidence as part of a plan that included releasing SOE after. It seemed a wacky rumor, but the first part proved to be true. All good.

All good!

...unless they get cold feet :wink:

Yeah, we've just gotta pray they don't second guess SoE by the end of the year!

What do you think the odds are of them debuting a lead single for the tour? Or is that too soon? Is it more likely - if they do play a new song - that it'll be like EBW on 360, an experimental live debut for fun, without an official release until later?

I see 3 options (assuming a late 2017 SoE release):

1) No new material until the JT tour is finished.

2) 1 or 2 new songs occasionally thrown in the set, but no single or album release/news until the JT tour is firmly over.

3) lead SoE single in the weeks before TJT tour, played every night as a staple (possibly set or encore opener) and promoted on radio/talk shows alongside the tour.

I suspect option 2 is the most likely.
 
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Edge and Adam's comments don't exactly fill me with confidence. They're sort of dismissive and noncommittal about SOE. It's like there's no urgency or motivation AT ALL. Like "Yeah, we'd like to explore the Innocence and Experience Tour again at some point". Okay...

Had that Columbus I&E tour date not leaked, we might not suspect a thing. But we do know that at one point U2 intended to tour the USA leg of the I&E Tour in October 2017. The fact that the SOE album/tour has been delayed, and now this Joshua Tree thing has come to pass, tells us one of two things;

1. The band, management, LN, etc, realized that the 30th anniversary of TJT was coming up, and saw a massive potential to rake in millions of dollars by doing 30 some stadium shows. So SOE album/tour was simply delayed again... why not?

2. The band had their SOE album/tour ready to go in 2017. LN was pissed off for not getting the I&E tour in 2016, but were alright with it because it was going to happen in 2017... and then it wasn't. Band decides to sit on SOE for awhile, and delay the tour. LiveNation gets pissed off and says "YOU HAVE A CONTRACT, YOU BETTER THINK OF A WAY TO MAKE US SOME FUCKING MONEY!!!!"

I don't believe for a second that this is some sort of artistic statement about how this current political climate is similar to what it was in the mid eighties. You could bend that narrative to fit any time, really.

I'm quite excited for this 2017 JT tour, don't get me wrong. I just wish that the I&E Tour could've run it's course throughout 2015-16, with SOE in there too, wrapping it all up in a neat little package. Then do this JT Tour this year with a clean slate.
Who's to say that they don't still plan on being in Columbus in October?

I mean... it fits the timeline. It's also a smaller city in a smaller venue, after a big city stadium run.

So that still might happen exactly as you were hoping it would... Just with this first
 
if we assume the rumors in autumn were correct... that Dallas Schoo really said they would TRY to rehearse new SOE songs for a first live performance... but failed... then a few months back from now there certainly did not exist a big masterplan regarding the JT tour....

they simply were not ready... and the 30yr TJT story came in handy..., the now told narrative putting SOE on ice because Trump won the election makes a good story.... but I don't buy it.

I am OK with what we get now.... if they manage to release SOE later this year and I am able to see a complete Joshua Tree set.... that's not a bad thing at all.
 
Yeah, we've just gotta pray they don't second guess SoE by the end of the year!

What do you think the odds are of them debuting a lead single for the tour? Or is that too soon? Is it more likely - if they do play a new song - that it'll be like EBW on 360, an experimental live debut for fun, without an official release until later?

I see 3 options (assuming a late 2017 SoE release):

1) No new material until the JT tour is finished.

2) 1 or 2 new songs occasionally thrown in the set, but no single or album release/news until the JT tour is firmly over.

3) lead SoE single in the weeks before TJT tour, played every night as a staple (possibly set or encore opener) and promoted on radio/talk shows alongside the tour.

I suspect option 2 is the most likely.
Based on what Adam said today, I think 2 too.

But, it'll probably be one of the planned singles.. They just won't say as much
 
1) No new material until the JT tour is finished.

2) 1 or 2 new songs occasionally thrown in the set, but no single or album release/news until the JT tour is firmly over.

3) lead SoE single in the weeks before TJT tour, played every night as a staple (possibly set or encore opener) and promoted on radio/talk shows alongside the tour.
Betting on option #1.
 
they simply were not ready... and the 30yr TJT story came in handy..., the now told narrative putting SOE on ice because Trump won the election makes a good story.... but I don't buy it..

They've made concocting inventive bulls--, sorry, explanations into an art form.
 
Based on what Adam said today, I think 2 too.

But, it'll probably be one of the planned singles.. They just won't say as much

Fingers crossed. It would be interesting to see that happen (live debut of a future lead single). I wonder if they might 'road test' a couple of potential singles, see which ones have the best reception from the audience.
 
I know Sicy created a new subforum for this tour, but I can't find it on the app. Where/how can I find it?

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Fingers crossed. It would be interesting to see that happen (live debut of a future lead single). I wonder if they might 'road test' a couple of potential singles, see which ones have the best reception from the audience.

Lol if they did that then they'd play those songs once or twice and them bench them forever.

Seriously a nostalgia concert is not a place to delude yourself into thinking you can road rest new songs based on audience reaction. By definition most of the people at those shows couldn't care less about new material.

Can't have it both ways. The idea that these JT shows are some sort of promotional tool for SOE is deluded.
 
Lol if they did that then they'd play those songs once or twice and them bench them forever.

Seriously a nostalgia concert is not a place to delude yourself into thinking you can road rest new songs based on audience reaction. By definition most of the people at those shows couldn't care less about new material.

Can't have it both ways. The idea that these JT shows are some sort of promotional tool for SOE is deluded.

Ordinarily I'd agree with you. I think the focus will be on the anniversary. And i think the chances of any new material are slim because, in terms of promotion, the band wouldn't want SoE to distract from the tour, or vice versa.

But I don't think tying SoE into TJT for promotion is deluded. The former is apparently lyrically based on the latter, so thematically it would make sense. And as mentioned earlier, after the negative to reception to SoI because of the Apple fiasco, reminding the public of their best work, and promoting their new material as an extension of that work could be good promotion.

Hell, I'm not even saying this means it's more likely that we'll see some Songs of Experience on the JT tour. Just that in terms of tactical promotion/marketing, it could work effectively.
 
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Whether you love or hate or are somewhere in between on this tour, any suggestion that this is anything other than to appease Live Nation is really naive. LYV didn't sign U2 for them to put out albums, LYV signed them to sell tickets and merchandise - they were 'disappointed' by U2 in 2016 and put heavy pressure on the band to be on the road in 2017.

LYV doesn't grow towards its targeted $1B AOI without its major stars actually touring.
 
What a soap, this SOE thing. Relevancy can' t be reached by pushing albums back. I thought they'd learnt their lesson last time with the SOA/SOI thing. Waiting to release and pushing back albums doesn't mean necessary a succesful album
.... original plans (after SOI) were a 12-18 months gap between SOI/SOE. A quick follow-up would justify a connection between both albums and the Innocence and Experience tour would have made sense.
Don't get me wrong, I like the idea of a JT-TOUR... But if it gets back their relevance...I doubt !

To the u2-fans outside Europe and US it's a sad day. No album announcement or liveshow.

SOE will be out in the (far) future, but I'm out of patience. They used 2016 to bring the album back from 18 to 12 tracks... Come on...

Wait... Finally a great idea which will get them back in the (positive) spotlight: Give the FANS (not the whole world this time) Songs of Ascent on cd (and not a stream), we are collectors. The album will commercially never see the Light. And... it makes SOI relevant again in the time between now and SOE... The publicity does it's work and it will maybe get some new u2.comsubscribers! Everybody happy, maybe the band not, but we've been unhappy a lot about those statements that "the album is almost done'......

Sent from my SM-G930F using U2 Interference mobile app
 
I agree. While I'm happy to be going to a show this summer (Cleveland), I do feel guilty. North America has gotten 3 tours since the last Australian tour (2011, 2015, 2017). I realize it's a big expense to lug all that stuff down under for not that many shows (aka DOLLARS), but it's still not right. Looks like you guys might not get any shows until 2018. If they do resume the I&E Tour again, they had better hit you guys up first before they even think about returning to Europe or North America. Who the hell knows what they'll do anymore.


Wondering if reluctance to go to Australia is compounded by the weakness of AUD relative to USD. Hasn't that been blamed for similar issues before?


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Wondering if reluctance to go to Australia is compounded by the weakness of AUD relative to USD. Hasn't that been blamed for similar issues before?


Sent from my iPhone using U2 Interference

I think that was the reason for not taking Elevation there. The 3rd leg of Elevation originally ended after the 11/19/01 Los Angeles show, and then the plan was to do a quick tour of Japan and Australia. Mainly just 3-4 nights in Tokyo, Sydney and Melbourne. Might've been a 2 nighter in Brisbane as well. That was abandoned, and then they added 8 more shows starting in Sacramento through to the last show in Miami.

Australia was also supposed to be played in early 1988 for the Joshua Tree Tour, but the band were exhausted. Then they got busy with Rattle and Hum. Then the Australian leg was to take place in early 1989, but for some reason got postponed again until the end of the year.
 
My first and final predictions about SoE:

1. It will release in March 2018.
2. It will not be called Songs of Experience anymore.
3. One song from the album will be played on the TJT-tour. It will have some lyrical and thematical connection to TJT but written from a contemporary perspective.
4. The I+E-tour will not be resumed. Instead they will use much of the setup for this tour, adjust and revamp some elements, and tour the new album in 2018.
 
TJT 30th Anniversary Tour...then SOE!!!

All strategy my friends!

:up:

There's no doubt in my mind this was to satisfy the live nation contract, but if you are U2, you're going to make this work for musical reasons too and I think that that's where this works out. It's a great plan especially if the narrative of SOE as it was didn't jive with the band's feelings. Remember, they're artists. If the statement they want to make with an album is compromised, then it's a shit album to them. Which is why they're personally happy with NLOTH & SOI. They didn't cave in to release those albums under pressure of the fans or the record label. Then this strategy really works especially if SOE was always meant to connect w/ U2's post 80's sounds & sentiment. To piggyback SOE release after a successful Joshua tree 30 tour really makes sense and gets the bad taste out of the typical person's mouth of the SOI/ apple hiccup. I won't be one bit surprised if we hear at least one or more songs from SOE before this tour ends.
 
reluctance to go to Australia

I'd like to see a show as much as anyone, but I get that we're a tiny population in the middle of nowhere and there's no obligation to come here. It's just made worse by the fact that Lovetown had so many shows here and many of us weren't even born back then :sigh:
 
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