Well the intriguing thing about U2 and Edge is that, although they create very complex, sometimes too top-heavy, overdubbed tracks with layers of sound, it seems they can always pair a song down to it's best element for the live version.
Songs like Streets and Mofo are huge, layered, overdubbed-to-the-max tracks in the studio. When you look at the live version, there is always one great main melody or element in most of the songs and that survives the transition to four guys and some synth live.
Also some songs, like UTEOTW, really get streamlined and their sea legs live. I can't really listen to the AB version of the song anymore, it's really muddled, especially the guitar.
U2girl said:
I noticed a lot of their songs live turn more "dirty" as opposed to the album. Does it have to do with mixing/production or do they tune his guitars differently live?
For example, take Love and peace - the guitar sounds so clean on the album when compared to the live version.
A typical Edge thing to do is to add a bit more overdrive / distortion to his guitar tone to give a song a bit of 'omph' live. Also, the band tunes down for a lot of songs live as Bono is not a relatively good vocalist, technically speaking.