Shuttlecock XVI - Cobbler's Revenge

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Fuck, that is absolutely crushing. I was really hoping we would see it here. I'll never see it again :sad:

They had fucking better start the e+i tour here :angry: throwback to Lovetown and keep One Tree Hill in the set for the NZers
 
Sorry to you guys down under :(

You have been by far the most neglected region over the years.

I was inspired to do some research on U2gigs.

They played a combined 35 shows down under during Lovetown and ZooTV - 23 in Australia and 4 in New Zealand for Lovetown, and 6 in Australia and 2 in New Zealand for ZooTV.

35 shows over two tours doesn't sound too bad. In fact, the 35 shows you guys got on those two tours - and in fact the 27 you got on Lovetown alone - are more than than you've gotten on all subsequent tours combined - Popmart, Elevation, Vertigo, 360, I+E, JT30.

To get right to it - In the last 20 years, there have been only 23 shows down under - 19 in Australia and 4 in NZ.

That's 4 in Aus on the last leg Popmart, 7 in Aus and 2 in NZ on the last leg of Vertigo, and 8 in Aus and 2 in NZ on the fourth leg of 360. That's it.

It becomes more eye-popping when you compare it to what other regions got in the same time period.

In the last twenty years, including shows yet to be played on JT30, Europe has gotten 195 shows.

And, in the last twenty years, including shows yet to be played on JT30, North America, the band's adopted second homeland, has gotten a staggering 315 shows.

(As an aside, holy FUCK were they playing a ton of gigs on those North American arena legs of Elevation and Vertigo - they played 50 show legs on both of those tours! Pretty sure we won't see that again!)

Even that rest-of-world category that features Central/South America, South Africa, and Japan has gotten 42 shows in that time period, nearly double with Australia and New Zealand have gotten.

You've gotten the shaft, and I'm not sure why(thought I've heard things about the band having trouble working with promoters down there or something like that).

It sucks that you guys have to travel across the world to see the band most of the time. They should really rectify that.
 
I was adamant about wanting JT30 down here, but since I will get to see it in a couple of weeks in Europe, I would now rather EI come down here—purely selfishly, because that will maximise the different songs I get to hear. Plus, outside of JT itself, this tour's set isn't much chop.
 
That was a great show, but for the first time ever I'm not left feeling like I absolutely need to see another one. Just this one concert is good enough for me. I'll see them on the I & E tour, presumably next year.
 
I was adamant about wanting JT30 down here, but since I will get to see it in a couple of weeks in Europe, I would now rather EI come down here—purely selfishly, because that will maximise the different songs I get to hear. Plus, outside of JT itself, this tour's set isn't much chop.


That's the spirit!

Some people could learn from your example COUGHcobblerCOUGH.
 
That was a great show, but for the first time ever I'm not left feeling like I absolutely need to see another one. Just this one concert is good enough for me. I'll see them on the I & E tour, presumably next year.

Same for me.

Nice that they finally realized they could play both Vertigo AND IWF in the encore.

But regardless, these setlists have quickly become the most boring and inflexible in a long time. ASOH seems permanently out of the running (at least until Dublin but I wouldn't hold my breath), the new song isn't in rotation anymore. The only change you're going to get from here on out is MW instead of Ultraviolet, and maybe Vertigo instead of or in addition to IWF.

Wake me when the new album comes out.
 
That was a great show, but for the first time ever I'm not left feeling like I absolutely need to see another one. Just this one concert is good enough for me. I'll see them on the I & E tour, presumably next year.


I agree. Awesome show though. This is a minor issue but did anyone else feel like they were kind of rushing through the songs? They sounded great but everything felt sped up a little, maybe it was just me.
 
It did a bit, but then I looked at the time and it was later than I thought. Just enjoying it too much I think.
 
I'm really glad you're going Dave. Looking forward to your review.

don't think i've said anything you all haven't said much more eloquently several times by this point but here goes:

totally a last minute decision to go. i woke up and went to work thinking i'd just periscope it with a cold beer but i saw a post here offering a face value GA, figured i didn't have anything else to do in the evening, did some math wrt my finances and realized i could easily afford it so i jumped on the chance.

didn't see the lumineers and didn't care to, my ticket seller was stuck in traffic and i didn't get in the venue until 8ish. still lots of room on the floor towards the back but filling up quickly. it was extremely hot. they opened the roof while i was in line for beer and all the humidity and tension was instantly sucked out of the building. it seemed like they took a real long time getting on stage, i think it was about 9:10 before larry came out.

i liked SBS as an opener and NYD right after it. not having the screen on at this point added to the rawness. crowd seemed a lot more focused on getting their videos and photos though which was distracting trying to see through all the phones.

bad really suffers from being this early in the setlist. pride suffers from the same issue, though not as much as bad. best performance of pride i've heard in person. the crowd was really starting to get into it at this point.

of course the reveal of the screen was such a cool moment. loved the desert driving visual. i liked how the band let the visuals take centre stage for streets, it works really well.

loved the desert time lapse for ishfwilf - it's like they went into my psyche and dug out the images i've always had in my head listening to the joshua tree. pretty uncanny, really.

i was convinced we were getting shine like stars - so much so that i started screaming it out at top volume when it would have started and got weird looks from everyone around me when they (and bono) sang the "ohhhhhhhh"s instead. fuck em. bummed it wasn't really shine like stars though.

bullet was so cool. also liked how the focus of the visuals switched more to the band and i was able to see edge's solo. some of the effects were boggling my mind (the video is editing itself on the fly? how the fuck is that even possible). seemed like this one was a bit rushed though.

very meh on red hill mining town. it was cool to hear it live but i'm not a big fan of the arrangement. adam chilling on the drum riser near edge and them all playing closely together was a neat moment.

i was worried that in gods country would lose a bit of its punch and wild momentum in a live setting but it really didn't. unfortunately it seemed like this was the point where the crowd around me started to lose interest, and i was getting distracted too - an extremely drunk girl who could hardly stand up and her boyfriend were causing a scene to one side of me, and the group of 4 or 5 people in front of me were very openly and obnoxiously doing a lot of cocaine (and they didn't even offer me any).

trip seemed to pull back a lot of the audience's interest. the film of the woman painting the barn was pretty cool. kinda wish they had figured out a way to put a canada flag in there with the way bono went on about the 150th several times during the show but that's a minor complaint. the song itself was really strong, one of the highlights of side 2. i need to take a piss soon.

one tree hill dedicated to leonard cohen was nice. this was the point where i reeeally started needing a piss, but there was no way i was missing exit. sadly i was a little distracted by my bladder and don't really remember much specific about the song itself.

the trump video was hilarious, but i think a lot of it was lost on the people around me because there was a lot of echo and it was hard to hear (holy fuck the acoustics in that stadium are awful). exit was everything i wanted it to be. this was the one JT song i hadn't heard and really really wanted to. so fucking badass. worth the price of admission alone.

mothers - oh FUCK exit made me completely forget, i really need to piss NOW. this one sounded pretty good from the urinal, at least.

i missed the intermission and first verse of miss sarajevo coming back from the can and buying a beer for the encore before the bar closed. the visuals were very moving and fit the song perfectly. i'm ambivalent about the pre-recorded opera portion and nobody around me seemed to notice or care.

i actually quite liked beautiful day. i expected it to be absolutely awful based on all the complaints i'd heard, especially about the bridge, but i really didn't find it to be that bad at all. in fact i thought it was kinda nice to hear a new arrangement of this song, i've gotten a little bored of the usual version beautiful day at this point and the variation was welcome.

fuck anyone who thinks they should drop elevation or play it much less. the crowd was going bananas, the song absolutely rips, the camera work was super cool - this is a great live song no matter how many times they play it. exact same with vertigo. those two back to back gave everyone in the stadium a new burst of energy. loved the throwback to the vertigo tour visuals with the red swirling effects.

i loved the tribute to great women during ultraviolet. it had every potential to be corny and overwrought but it definitely did not come across that way at all. the history nerd in me loved seeing some of the older, less known historical names on there. great performance of the song to go along with it, and the theme works so well. i had a big grin on my face by the end of this one. super cool.

one was the best version of this song i've ever heard in person. i remember looking up at the lights of the CN tower and the spotlights scanning the clouds most of the time feeling very emotional. hear us coming hit me like a ton of bricks. it was a quasi-religious moment for everyone around me and it was beautiful.

at this point it feels like the show has to be over, it's well past 11. a lot of the audience must have felt this way too because the exodus started the moment one ended. then i will follow started and everyone stopped where they were and started jumping around. i love this song as a closer, it brings everything full circle with the theme of the show too. everybody was bouncing and into it and it was a great send-off with lots of impact.

overall an amazing experience. the venue sucks acoustically but thank fuck they opened the roof because it added so much having the open atmosphere and the view of the CN tower lights were such a cool addition to look up on, not to mention the light breeze was a blessing. super glad i ended up going, like elfa i don't feel like i need to see it again but that's the way i am with pretty much all concerts and performances, i've never been the type to see the same show or movie more than once.

can't wait till they come back again in a couple years. hopefully that time around my life is a little less tumultuous in the months leading up to the show and i won't be buying a last-minute ticket. :up:
 
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forgot to add: bono's voice was on point last night. they're all in amazing mid-tour form (the edge was indeed on fire) but several times in various songs there were notes coming up that i thought he surely wouldn't go for and then proceeded to fucking *nail*. he was a little croaky at times when they were here on i+e, so that was another awesome thing to see. :up:
 
Nice review.
I go tonight. Have seen the set lists but haven't listened to any audio or watched any video save for the video of Eddie Vedder dueting on MOTD in Seattle, so it'll be fresh.
Boston is a good U2 city, so hopefully something a little different like Toronto got Friday.
 
He's obviously not a real fan. Probably doesn't even have one of Edge's picks. :tsk:
 
So apparently, according to U2gigs, the line Nazis got into it with venue security when they were told their list wouldn't be honored, and U2 security had to settle it.

I don't know why these people think they're in charge of anything.
 
So apparently, according to U2gigs, the line Nazis got into it with venue security when they were told their list wouldn't be honored, and U2 security had to settle it.

I don't know why these people think they're in charge of anything.


Please tell me someone got beaten down, maced, or ejected.
 
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