Shuttlecock XXI: Laz is Bigger Than Anyone in His Way

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When you think Laz titles are done
They've just begun
 
:drool:

Two in a row! Suck it, Cobbler.

Looking at that second set, aside from the song that isn't being consistently put in spoiler tags, I could honestly skip that whole thing. Overplayed standards, the three worst songs on the new album by far, and the insult of hearing
Pop's least experimental track, and on top of it the indignity of doing it acoustic so who cares? I mean look at it:

Elevation
Vertigo
Desire
Acrobat
You're The Best Thing About Me (acoustic)
Staring At The Sun (B&E, acoustic)
Pride
Get Out Of Your Own Way
American Soul
City Of Blinding Lights

The encore has a nice treat and Love is Bigger finishes the show strong, but honestly, you have to be a real Other Place apologist to think this second half is acceptable.

Now again, if they change it up once they hit cities that already got i&e in 2015, we can reevaluate. I'd imagine at least 2 of RBW/Cedarwood/Iris would get dropped (Song For Someone stays cuz thematics), and hopefully we see another SOE track like Red Flag Day, even a legit Pop or Zooropa selection.

Or maybe they just add Mysterious Ways and In A Little While.
 
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I'm going to try and avoid hearing/watching videos of the great white whale song until I see them in Boston. I know its there, but I hope to hear it live for the first time in person. We'll see how I do with that.
7 weeks.
 
While the set list isn't really one that I would compile for my own pleasure, it has its fair share of curveballs that I certainly wasn't anticipating a month ago.

I love that.
 
:drool:

Two in a row! Suck it, Cobbler.

Looking at that second set, aside from the song that isn't being consistently put in spoiler tags, I could honestly skip that whole thing. Overplayed standards, the three worst songs on the new album by far, and the insult of hearing
Pop's least experimental track, and on top of it the indignity of doing it acoustic so who cares? I mean look at it:

Elevation
Vertigo
Desire
Acrobat
You're The Best Thing About Me (acoustic)
Staring At The Sun (B&E, acoustic)
Pride
Get Out Of Your Own Way
American Soul
City Of Blinding Lights

The encore has a nice treat and Love is Bigger finishes the show strong, but honestly, you have to be a real Other Place apologist to think this second half is acceptable.

Now again, if they change it up once they hit cities that already got i&e in 2015, we can reevaluate. I'd imagine at least 2 of RBW/Cedarwood/Iris would get dropped (Song For Someone stays cuz thematics), and hopefully we see another SOE track like Red Flag Day, even a legit Pop or Zooropa selection.

Or maybe they just add Mysterious Ways and In A Little While.

For me it's:

They played 2 of my top 7 SOE songs. Next is Love is All We Have Left which is mostly pre-recorded, and Lights of Home. Then apart from The Showman, which they rehearsed but didn't play, the bottom four songs were all played.

Playing not a single JT song is a bold move, but maybe not playing Beautiful Day, Vertigo and Elevation would be even bolder.

Pop and Zooropa are self-explanatory. I want to acknowledge that they finally finally played a Pop song, but they chose the absolute bare minimum approach possible.

If the last six songs of set one remain the same as I/E three years ago in cities where they've already played them, that'll be a bit lazy.
 
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How the absolute fuck is Fuck Off Own Way in ambivalent and not fuck right off?!

I'm honestly amazed by how vehemently you hate it. It's a nothing of a song. It stirs up only apathy in me. I couldn't care less if they play GOOYOW or don't. I'd rather something else be there in the setlist, but it doesn't personally offend me like some absolute utter fuming shit like Blurst Thing or American Mole does. Bono, shut up ya mole.

While the set list isn't really one that I would compile for my own pleasure, it has its fair share of curveballs that I certainly wasn't anticipating a month ago.

I love that.

They might be curveballs, but apart from Acrobat, they're not exactly ones anybody was clamouring for. Who the fuck ever wanted to hear ABOY ever again? It's not exactly been a common feature of fan requests, and it has maybe the worst intro in U2 history. I can but hope it doesn't last.

For me it's:

They played 2 of my top 7 SOE songs. Next is Love is All We Have Left which is mostly pre-recorded, and Lights of Home. Then apart from The Showman, which they rehearsed but didn't play, the bottom four songs were all played.

Playing not a single JT song is a bold move, but maybe not playing Beautiful Day, Vertigo and Elevation would be even bolder.

Pop and Zooropa are self-explanatory. I want to acknowledge that they finally finally played a Pop song, but they chose the absolute bare minimum approach possible.

If the last six songs of set one remain the same as I/E three years ago in cities where they've already played them, that'll be a bit lazy.

Also, THEY HAVE NEVER PLAYED A SINGLE JT SONG IN TULSA. The previous tour is such a fucking stupid reason to drop JT completely - especially when a bunch of the other nightly features are still there. Do they think people who went to JT30 don't want to hear Streets or any of the other ten again but do want to hear Beautiful Day, Elevation, etc.? Either literally play NOTHING from 2017, or whack a couple of JT tracks in the sets.

And I'm surprised that The Showman isn't in the set after how extensively it was rehearsed, though I'm also relieved. I reckon it's pretty damn likely that it'll rotate into the e-stage set, take the place of SATS or something.

I should be a bit more grateful about acoustic SATS, because they could just not do a Pop song or they could've inflicted IGWSHA on everyone. But... fuck it's so lazy and unimaginative. "Oh the people want Pop do they? Let's give them a performance and a song as distant from the bold brilliance of that album as we possibly can!" Though at least it has the word "intransigence", which shows a vocabulary at least twice as broad as the one used on Songs of Love Thing Way.
 
That they think Staring at the Sun is the Pop song people really want to hear further confirms how they are such poor judges of their own talent.

I'm with everyone that things that setlist is pretty meh. If Acrobat and WGRYWH survive, I'll be happy to see my one show. If they are dropped, I'm not sure there would be much to go for, considering how many times I've seen them in the last few years.
 
Am I the only one who finds it egregiously lazy that they just plopped an entire section from I+E into the set verbatim? Especially when the set is already missing so much, including new songs that really have potential to be great live, like Red Flag Day or The Showman.

And I don't see the purpose in playing both SFS and 13 if it means not playing a single track from the Joshua Tree. Come on.
 
:drool:

Two in a row! Suck it, Cobbler.

Looking at that second set, aside from the song that isn't being consistently put in spoiler tags, I could honestly skip that whole thing. Overplayed standards, the three worst songs on the new album by far, and the insult of hearing
Pop's least experimental track, and on top of it the indignity of doing it acoustic so who cares? I mean look at it:

Elevation
Vertigo
Desire
Acrobat
You're The Best Thing About Me (acoustic)
Staring At The Sun (B&E, acoustic)
Pride
Get Out Of Your Own Way
American Soul
City Of Blinding Lights

The encore has a nice treat and Love is Bigger finishes the show strong, but honestly, you have to be a real Other Place apologist to think this second half is acceptable.

Now again, if they change it up once they hit cities that already got i&e in 2015, we can reevaluate. I'd imagine at least 2 of RBW/Cedarwood/Iris would get dropped (Song For Someone stays cuz thematics), and hopefully we see another SOE track like Red Flag Day, even a legit Pop or Zooropa selection.

Or maybe they just add Mysterious Ways and In A Little While.

:up::up::up: you replace Acrobat there with Mysterious Ways (especially sans solo given that's how lazy they are now) and it's comfortably the worst segment of songs they've ever played at a live show, and second isn't even close (I couldn't even think of what it would be... a five-or-so song stretch from 360 or SOI, but even that's not 10 songs).

I'm honestly amazed by how vehemently you hate it. It's a nothing of a song. It stirs up only apathy in me. I couldn't care less if they play GOOYOW or don't. I'd rather something else be there in the setlist, but it doesn't personally offend me like some absolute utter fuming shit like Blurst Thing or American Mole does. Bono, shut up ya mole.

They might be curveballs, but apart from Acrobat, they're not exactly ones anybody was clamouring for. Who the fuck ever wanted to hear ABOY ever again? It's not exactly been a common feature of fan requests, and it has maybe the worst intro in U2 history. I can but hope it doesn't last.

I'm honestly amazed that it doesn't personally offend you. The intro is Coldplay-lite, which is kind of forgivable, but the second Bono starts singing it's sickeningly bad. It makes all the songs we've voted worst - Red Light, Refugee, Bottoms, Elvis Ate, Standup, etc - look like Streets. It's a nadir to which I never thought U2 would plummet.

Indeed. Not sure anything in this set makes me angrier than bringing back ABOY. There was literally not a single person on the planet, dead or alive, calling for the return of that song.

That they think Staring at the Sun is the Pop song people really want to hear further confirms how they are such poor judges of their own talent.

I'm with everyone that things that setlist is pretty meh. If Acrobat and WGRYWH survive, I'll be happy to see my one show. If they are dropped, I'm not sure there would be much to go for, considering how many times I've seen them in the last few years.

You are so spot on here. They replace Acrobat at WGRYWH with Mysterious Ways and Even Better and there'd be pretty much no reason to go.
Of course I still would, to one show, but my point stands.
 
Am I the only one who finds it egregiously lazy that they just plopped an entire section from I+E into the set verbatim? Especially when the set is already missing so much, including new songs that really have potential to be great live, like Red Flag Day or The Showman.

And I don't see the purpose in playing both SFS and 13 if it means not playing a single track from the Joshua Tree. Come on.

Not sure why you're surprised by it. It's essentially a new leg of that tour.

Also, as much as it kind of sucks that they've not taken risks with changing it up, at the very least, The Miracle is gone, and that is cause for great celebration, cos that song is fucking shithouse.
 
One noticeable thing about that particular song - Bono stayed quiet during the solo. I cannot overstate how important this is. :wink:
 
Not sure why you're surprised by it. It's essentially a new leg of that tour.

Also, as much as it kind of sucks that they've not taken risks with changing it up, at the very least, The Miracle is gone, and that is cause for great celebration, cos that song is fucking shithouse.

IS this a new leg of an old tour? It's been three years since the I+E tour came through here and there was a separate tour in between them. I remember a number of users expected very few SOI songs to appear in the set. So yes, I was surprised to see a fully identical end to the first set.

To be fair, Iris and SFS do find their way into SOE, so it makes sense that they would appear here, I'm just not sure if they're both integrated properly with Lights of Home and 13 yet.
 
Am I the only one who finds it egregiously lazy that they just plopped an entire section from I+E into the set verbatim? Especially when the set is already missing so much, including new songs that really have potential to be great live, like Red Flag Day or The Showman.

I wouldn't say egregiously lazy, but it certainly is at least a bit.

And I don't see the purpose in playing both SFS and 13 if it means not playing a single track from the Joshua Tree. Come on.

I agree with you here. No need to play both songs, just 13 is enough (as that is the new one).

However, despite this criticism I don't see the setlist as that bad. There are some good things to it and some bad. That's always been the case. I never get annoyed by the bad and just enjoy the good.
 
We really do need to be tentative here, because neither Tulsa nor St. Louis got i&e stops (a few more further into this leg didn’t either). Fair enough if the band views this as all of one piece and wants to give these smaller markets a taste of the bigger thematic journey.

We’ll know by Monday in San Jose whether they’re going to have an alternate set list (or primary one, really) for the bigger cities that already got a good dose of the “innocence” aspect.

The band could certainly pull another in a serious of head-scratching, idiotic moves, but considering the time frame and the other songs they rehearsed, I have to be optimistic here.
I think RBW, Cedarwood, and Iris all get yanked, and in place San Jose, LA, etc get The Showman, Little Things, and another older track. Which would mean that SOE gets 9 songs played, extremely impressive. That they’re doing 7 to begin with for a band their age is already more than any comparable artist I can think of.
 
I wouldn't say egregiously lazy, but it certainly is at least a bit.



I agree with you here. No need to play both songs, just 13 is enough (as that is the new one).

However, despite this criticism I don't see the setlist as that bad. There are some good things to it and some bad. That's always been the case. I never get annoyed by the bad and just enjoy the good.

This is ultimately how I feel even though I bitch about things.... I'm ok with no Streets - better than I thought I would be BUT I must say choosing the pre-recorded HMTMKMKM for the break and not actually playing this gem later in the set is an awful decision.
 
We really do need to be tentative here, because neither Tulsa nor St. Louis got i&e stops (a few more further into this leg didn’t either). Fair enough if the band views this as all of one piece and wants to give these smaller markets a taste of the bigger thematic journey.

We’ll know by Monday in San Jose whether they’re going to have an alternate set list (or primary one, really) for the bigger cities that already got a good dose of the “innocence” aspect.

The band could certainly pull another in a serious of head-scratching, idiotic moves, but considering the time frame and the other songs they rehearsed, I have to be optimistic here.
I think RBW, Cedarwood, and Iris all get yanked, and in place San Jose, LA, etc get The Showman, Little Things, and another older track. Which would mean that SOE gets 9 songs played, extremely impressive. That they’re doing 7 to begin with for a band their age is already more than any comparable artist I can think of.

I don't think that repeat "innocence" set changes. Tacking on to another conversation, yes, despite there being 3 years between the tours, I believe this is supposed to be a literal continuation of that tour. Aside from SFS, I'm okay with that section staying, as it was a highlight of IE.

I'm super excited for Monday, to be honest. It all came flooding back last night watching the reactions online. I think right now my only super minor quibble is 13 ending. I love the song, but other than 40, I am so not a fan of ending on a downbeat note.

Also, re Bono's tophat: That's some bad hat, Harry.
 
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