SOE 18: New Tour, New Despair...

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I love interviews with Williams. He's very insightful, always seems to offer a good look into the creative process behind U2's tours.
 
Dragonfave said:
U2's Longtime Stage Designer Talks 'Joshua Tree' Tour - Rolling Stone

Willie Williams talks about the upcoming The Joshua Tree tour and a little about I+E tour.
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I spoke to the Edge a couple of weeks ago and he said he wasn't sure if they should start with "Streets" and go right into the record, or build to it later in the show. How do you think it would work best?

Yes, but I'm not going to tell you [laughs]. I can't, really, but all will be revealed on opening night. Clearly The Joshua Tree is about an hour long and the show needs to be almost twice that length. Part of the reason I can't say is we won't know until we hear them play it. I think we have a great strategy, a really solid way of doing it without it being a classic-album nostalgia show, but we just won't know until we hear them play it.
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interesting... maybe they will look at the "play it backwards" idea.
 
Songs of Experience was finished months ago, but we went and did that JT Tour and now
the songs sound dated and we're starting from scratch...
 
lazarus said:
I'm amazed several people are beating this drum. It's not. Going. To. Happen.

Do you really think the band would begin the centerpiece of the show with Mothers of the fucking Disappeared?

Please.
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I don't. I think they should just play it in order.

But Willie made it seem like they had something up their sleeves, so I mentioned it.

So yea... beat your own drum or something.
 
Most interesting to me about the Willie interview was how firmly he said when the next leg of the i+e tour would resume. Wonder if that was a slip..

Do you think the next leg of the Innocence + Experience Tour will have the same basic staging as the last one, or could it change around a bit?
That was always the plan, of course. But it was going to follow within months originally, where now it will be two years later. There will be all sorts of compelling reasons to keep the same staging since I feel like we only scratched the surface of what we could do with that. But two years will have gone by and the world is an entirely different place. But we'll cross that bridge when we get to it.
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The last show was 12/07/15 so that would bring us to the i+e tour resuming Dec. 2017. Falls right in line with a Fall '17 SoE release after the conclusion of The Joshua Tree dates in August.
 
It would be weird if they played the album backwards. I really want them facing forward.


Sent from my iPhone using U2 Interference
 
It's funny to me that Adam was talking about the beginning of the show being kind of "How U2 got the JT." I thought that they'd be going through the catalog and selecting old songs that are relevant again (Seconds, the Refugee, Stranger in a Strange Land...a man can dream, right?).

I hope that they don't play any SOE songs in this show because they'd be momentum killers, and playing brand new stuff before, after, or in the middle of playing songs that are among their best would be inviting comparisons that they may want to avoid.
 
It's ironic, but if there's any complaints this is about nostalgia it's probably the same people who to go a show and insist on complaining that U2 are playing their new material. You're absolutely damned if you do and damned if you don't.
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He's right on in the last sentence, but I have a feeling he'd get a different answer on the previous stuff if he asked in these parts (or a million different ones at that).
 
Let's just say the typical U2 concert has 25 songs for easy math. I feel that at this point in their career they should play about 5 new songs per show. They can rotate new songs a lot so that we get a variety of new material for the hardcore fans who want to hear that stuff. But no more than 5.

15 songs that are the greatest hits. This is the bread and butter of why fans continue to buy tickets and come to shows. As much as I'd love to go to a show and not hear BD or Vertigo, it's not gonna happen.

That leaves 5 slots for obscurities and deep cuts. This includes things like Gloria, 2 hearts, electric co, etc.



Sent from my iPhone using U2 Interference
 
They're going to make it less of a nostalgia show by not playing the full album and only playing the RELEVANT HITS.

Lots more hits to come on SOE, guys!
 
Hollow Island said:
I hope that they don't play any SOE songs in this show because they'd be momentum killers, and playing brand new stuff before, after, or in the middle of playing songs that are among their best would be inviting comparisons that they may want to avoid.
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Well that's assuming quite a bit. Isn't that always the case? So, basically U2 should never play new songs ever again?
 
Could they possibly throw in a few related/connected songs or B-sides actually in between the JT running order, in between the songs? Maybe play Walk to the Water before or after WOWY, that kinda thing?

It would kinda screw up playing the JT in full concept, but throwing in a connected song etc every three tracks or so could possibly flesh it out into a real story of epic gloriousness. :D

:reject:

I'm sure some of you guys here could come up with a list of songs that could fit or be connected to the JT songs, although they may play some or most of them in the opening part of the show and build up to the JT songs part.

The band say they will start with earlier songs or related songs, then play JT with Streets starting or ending, then maybe some later songs with possibly one or two SOE thrown in. But maybe they are thinking of the show like telling a story, almost a U2 musical journey cinematic experience show...:hyper:

Okay, I'll stop :D
 
Just noticed it's my three years since joining the site Birthday! I may not have been on here very consistently, and have posted mainly insane surreal things, but I don't care!

Happy Birthday to me! I feel so young! :D

:hug: :heart: :hug:
 
PRB216 said:
Most interesting to me about the Willie interview was how firmly he said when the next leg of the i+e tour would resume. Wonder if that was a slip..







The last show was 12/07/15 so that would bring us to the i+e tour resuming Dec. 2017. Falls right in line with a Fall '17 SoE release after the conclusion of The Joshua Tree dates in August.
Click to expand...


Very interesting. I can't tell if he's intermixing album dates with tour dates with the 2 years comments. Perhaps SOE was supposed to come out months after the initial I.E. tour and then restart the tour. Thinking this 2 years means the album coming out 2 years later after the initial i.e. Tour ended. I don't think they will be touring in Dec 2017, guessing early 2018 after SOE is released late 2017.


Sent from my iPhone using U2 Interference
 
2 years doesn't have to mean a rigid 24 months. It could easily be October or November unless you take it pedantically.
 
Back in the day when I was super into making setlists that I thought were ideal, I'd have been all over doing a prediction setlist and a setlist I'd find ideal for the tour.
 
Headache in a Suitcase said:
I didn't... Only made it to the stadium show (which was friggin epic, btw... 4 hours in length, his longest NA show ever... until he broke his own record a week later!)

I did see him do Born To Run from top to bottom, in a stadium setting even. Crowd was into every minute of it... It's such a well known album that even the casual fan knows every song; much like The Joshua Tree.

The River was a unique case in that it was a double album... so you're not going to get the same reaction to the lesser known tracks on a double album that you do on a regular LP. That's why he made the decision to stop doing every song once he hit stadiums.


If U2 were to play War in full, or Boy, yea... you'd lose a lot of casuals. If you're going to a Joshua Tree show, ya probably know every song.
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I am a huge Bruce fan but don't know his catalogue as well as I do U2's.

My friend is more familiar and the River and Darkness are his favorites. I got tickets for the arena show in Albany and immediately did my homework on the album...... I knew Hungry Heart, Out in the street, Independence day, the title track, etc but not much else. Luckily, it's a very accessible, high energy rock album for much of the affair. Then the contemplative pieces tell a riveting story.

That show was out of this world good. I loved the whole thing- I had worked the night before and then rolled right into a drive from Boston in a snow storm. So I fell asleep during the last few River tracks. Nothing against the album, I was physically past the point of exhaustion. What I was awake for, I enjoyed greatly- even the songs I didn't know- Ramrod, Crush on you, etc- they were highlights even.

Badlands woke me up and the last hour run through the rest of the catalog kept me up!

I also saw the stadium show in Foxboro in September. Unbelievable.

Anyways, JT is better known by casuals than the River. It's also much shorter. Every song will be played and get plenty good of a reception from all.
 
AndrewCowley said:
Was thinking...

It's about time U2 got on board with making the audio of all their shows available for purchase. I simply don't have time to fart arse around with torrents thesedays and would be more than happy to pay $$$ to download official audio.

Oh and as for side two of JT, I cannot understand anyone thinking those songs would be a dead patch in the setlist. It's a mighty fine collection of songs, surely as ingrained in the minds of us who experienced the JT era as the main songs on side one. Those songs have been tragically ignored and their resurrection will be one good thing to come from this tour.
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Absolutely 100% right!

These are well known songs that were extremely well performed and have been criminally ignored since.

Trip through your wires is sending no one to the bathroom!!

I know it's not popular here- but listen to those pulsating drums and bass. The lust filled lyrics. Edge's guitar. Bono wailing away on that harmonica.

People will go insane for any of the rockers- IGC, Exit, Trip and will be captivated by Mothers and One Tree Hill.
 
Its interesting how people can read comments and have different interpretations of them. That was an interesting interview with Willie Williams, but I thought some of his comments about SOE and resuming the tour made it sound like he had his doubts due to the time that's elapsed. Who knows.
 
U2387 said:
I am a huge Bruce fan but don't know his catalogue as well as I do U2's.

My friend is more familiar and the River and Darkness are his favorites. I got tickets for the arena show in Albany and immediately did my homework on the album...... I knew Hungry Heart, Out in the street, Independence day, the title track, etc but not much else. Luckily, it's a very accessible, high energy rock album for much of the affair. Then the contemplative pieces tell a riveting story.

That show was out of this world good. I loved the whole thing- I had worked the night before and then rolled right into a drive from Boston in a snow storm. So I fell asleep during the last few River tracks. Nothing against the album, I was physically past the point of exhaustion. What I was awake for, I enjoyed greatly- even the songs I didn't know- Ramrod, Crush on you, etc- they were highlights even.

Badlands woke me up and the last hour run through the rest of the catalog kept me up!

I also saw the stadium show in Foxboro in September. Unbelievable.

Anyways, JT is better known by casuals than the River. It's also much shorter. Every song will be played and get plenty good of a reception from all.
Click to expand...

Agree with everything you said. When I bought a GA ticket to see The River show last year, I had a month to familiarize myself with the album. Before that, the only songs I knew from it were Hungry Heart, Out in the Street and to some extent the title track. After a few repeat listens and knowing more or less what to expect in the set, I went and was able to enjoy the show a heck of a lot more if I hadn't heard those songs before. Then when he went into the last 15 songs, I was back to knowing at least "half" of them again! :lol:

Fantastic album and show though. Sherry Darling and Cadillac Ranch stand out as being songs I wasn't familiar with which turned out to be some of the better live performances I've ever seen.
 
trevgreg said:
Agree with everything you said. When I bought a GA ticket to see The River show last year, I had a month to familiarize myself with the album. Before that, the only songs I knew from it were Hungry Heart, Out in the Street and to some extent the title track. After a few repeat listens and knowing more or less what to expect in the set, I went and was able to enjoy the show a heck of a lot more if I hadn't heard those songs before. Then when he went into the last 15 songs, I was back to knowing at least "half" of them again! :lol:

Fantastic album and show though. Sherry Darling and Cadillac Ranch stand out as being songs I wasn't familiar with which turned out to be some of the better live performances I've ever seen.
Click to expand...

Yes to all of this! :up::up:

Sherry Darling and Cadillac Ranch were standouts at my show as well.
 
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