A good sign of things to come on the road?

[jick]

The album hasn't even been released yet and the tour is four months away, yet U2 have already played a number of songs live. From this BBC performance, they did four songs. In TOTP, they did a few others and City Of Blinding Lights. In the Apple launch, they did an acoustic version of Original Of The Species. In the DVD that will accompany the cd, there is a performance of Crumbs From Your Table. That is a grand total of 7 out of 11 songs already and the album hasn't been released yet!

Compare this to the promotional gigs for ATYCLB where they only juggled four tracks (BD, Elevation, Stuck In A Moment, New York). During the tour, they never ever played three tracks in full version live (Grace, Peace On Earth, When I Look At The World) and actually dropped a few tracks off the setlist (In A Little While, New York was dropped for a few European shows).

Compare also to POPMart, where they tried playing a number of new songs in opening night but as the tour hit full speed, they had already dropped Do You Feel Loved, Miami, and If God Will Send His Angels - not to mention never playing Playboy Mansion or a full Wake Up Dead Man live.

From the looks of it, HTDAAB shows great promise to be fully brought on the road as this early they have already done 7 of 11 songs. 7 of 11 would be a good batting average for new songs on the tour, but it is a great/exceptional batting average for a promo tour! So I predict U2 will even add more songs to the live settings, and there is a small chance they could do a perfect 11 of 11 - something they've never done before in any album. But if that would be the case, then there will be little room for obscure old fan favorites to creep into the setlist because the new songs will be using up so much concert space. But that is something I can live with actually. I'd rather have them play all the new songs, since I already have definitive live versions of their older songs from previous tours in bootleg audio or video form anyway.

Cheers,

J

 

[Headache in a Suitcase]

hell hath frozen over... a message of positivity from the jick man. i'm at a loss for words. this is like watching the red sox win the world series.

 

[Axver]

Jick, you make a very good point, though one correction - every single song from Boy was played live. It would thus be rather appropriate if U2 played all eleven Hut Dab songs, considering that they're calling it their first album.

Also, considering the rotation present in this promo tour, I am hoping that's a sign of setlist rotation on the full tour.

 

[kawai17]

I'm envisioning a HTDAAB-heavy opening set on this tour (much like ZooTV). If they had to drop a song on this album, I would guess Yahweh... I think OSC is both underrated and would make a great closer.

 

[david]

I think about 10 songs will be played live, in their entirety on the road, and songs like Beautiful Day, Kite, Stuck (maybe), Elevation, Walk On will be carried over as well. Maybe Electrical Storm will be played live too. And just MAYBE some b-sides. But I see this tour focusing on newer material and not relying so much on old stuff. Though, I think some old forgotten songs will come back for guest appearances?

But I just see this tour being like the Zoo TV tour in terms of what material gets played.

If you ever go to that U2 tour site and look at the Zoo TV set lists it's unbelievable how many new songs they played live and also when Zooropa came out, They played a ton of newer stuff rather than the old stuff.

 

[username]

jick, are you sure you are feeling well. Somebody get a thermometer!

 

[Tip Top Prince]

hell hath frozen over... a message of positivity from the jick man. i'm at a loss for words. this is like watching the red sox win the world series.

It makes you violently ill?

yeah... me too.

Oh, and Axver - WTF is Hut Dab? Some stupid way of referring to the new U2 album?

 

[AussieU2fanman]

lol Axver. That whole 'hut dab' abbreviation aint gonna take off man

 

[ADecentMelody]

lol Axver. That whole 'hut dab' abbreviation aint gonna take off man

I think it already has. I use it in real life lingo and have even heard it used already. Try it, it rolls off the tongue.

 

[U2DMfan]

Is the new version of Beauitful Day from Radio One any different from Elevation versions? Or is the same?

 

[U2DMfan]

"htdaab"=6 letters
"hut dab"=6 letters

conserve time and just say "atomic"

oops that 6 letters too.

 

[ADecentMelody]

BD is different because Bono incorporated some lyrics about the show. I thought the music was great as well, just very...well, lively.

 

[U2DMfan]

I love the "Eno strings" in Sometimes. I don't hear them in the studio version. Very "From Father To Son" Dirty Day=esque.

They just sound Eno-ish, I know in all likelihood he didnt perform them for the live track but I love that stuff.

Anyhow, I am sidetracking an otherwise sane Jick post.

 

[mofo82]

Great post Jick...gives me hope when I can't believe

 

[ADecentMelody]

For the first time, Jick feels love.

J/K Jickster.

 

[BigMacPhisto]

Vertigo
Sometimes You Can't Make It On Your Own
City of Blinding Lights
Miracle Drug
All Because Of You

Those will all automatically be tour staples. I think "A Man and A Woman" will also be among those.....and perhaps "Original of the Species"

.....Love and Peace or Else would be kind of cool in concert, but would run out of steam a bit....."One Step Closer" and "Yahweh" are album tracks really.......I don't think "Crumbs" sounds like a concert song either.

 

[Michael Griffiths]

Man, I think 'Crumbs' has the potential to be the highlight of the tour.

 

[Aardvark747]

Having all played at some stage or another would be great!

 

[Tyagu_Anaykus]

I agree with Michael Griffiths
Aardvark747 I would love that... specially if they do that in Portugal...

 

[Axver]

Oh, and Axver - WTF is Hut Dab? Some stupid way of referring to the new U2 album?

Would it kill you to speak to me in a polite manner? Really, I'm sick and tired of your superior attitude towards me.

With that out of the way, Hut Dab is what you get when you try to pronounce HTDAAB phonetically. I type it because I feel like it.

 

[U2girl]

Whenever I see that abbreviation, Axver, it makes me think it reads "hot damn" which I guess most people who heard the album wouldn't disagree with!

 

[david]

Man, I think 'Crumbs' has the potential to be the highlight of the tour.

Crumbs will be the new "Gone"

 

[boosterjuice]

Axver: I love the abreviation "hut dab". It sounds cool. Almost like Hot tub. I will start using your abreviation, as long as it's not copyrighted.

 

[deltau922]

I think they'll close with Original of the Species, and that Love and Peace would be a good one to kick off the first encore with that slow, rumbling approach.

 

[popacrobat]

Crumbs will be the new "Gone"

 

[U2dork]

I'm totally with Axver on hut dab. We spoke about having to have an actual way of saying acronymns aloud in order to remember what they stand for and hut dab just works for "htdaab". It's only 2 syllables whereas "atomic" has 3, btw.

 

[LPU2]

There are a couple of things that I have hunches about...

1. They will sing a snippet of One Step Closer—probably the first two verses—which will transition into Where the Streets have no name. The songs are similar sonically and a perfect pairing thematically.

2. There are two songs, All Because of You and City of Blinding Lights that are, or can be, about the U2 audience. I could honestly see ABOY leading off the show for that reason, but I'll admit, it WOULD be strange not to open with Vertigo. Also, I see City of Blinding Lights ending the first set with the lights up. How can he say "you look so beautiful tonight" without the lights up?

Just some thoughts