SOE 18: New Tour, New Despair...

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I was listening to TJT today and my boss saw the album cover on my phone - and he just taps me on the shoulder and says "great album"

SYNERGY.




Release a new album at the moment - the band who invaded your itunes - and the general perception will be, broadly speaking, derision.
But resow a shitload of TJT seeds and the new album might get more of a chance.

Or, you know, it gets compared unfavorably to a decades-old masterpiece that they just toured for.
 
:up:

Plus, it gives them some good will and momentum going forward, especially if they incorporate a look towards the future like Edge and Adam have alluded to in interviews.

Oh, and I'll get to hear fucking RHMT, One Tree Hill, Exit, In God's Country... basically all of side B for the first time um hell yes.


Exactly!!

I'm beyond thrilled to hear literally every song that's not the big 4.

Even the 3 they've played since 1989- Running, One Tree Hill, In God's Country.... have been done very sparingly. Running only a staple of Zoo Tv then 1 leg of Vertigo and OTH and IGC extreme rarities played only at shows where there is a connection to the location.

Exit, Mothers, RHMT.

Trip Through Your Wires! Highly underrated and always excellent in the number 3 spot on JT tour shows!

Bring on JT 30!

This will be outstanding, bring back a lot of fans and get the general public interested again. Best thing U2 could've done now.

I hear far more criticism of U2 from causal fans and the general public that focuses on their lack of attention to the back catalog than I do criticism that they don't push new/relevant material enough.

Let's face it- we all know this is the crowd U2 needs to win over. Casual fans and the general public. Us hard core types, no matter how much some of us bitch, will be at 1 or more of these shows screaming our lungs out when they play all these JT songs. We'll love every second of it even if we complain now. We know this and so does the band!
 
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:up:

Plus, it gives them some good will and momentum going forward, especially if they incorporate a look towards the future like Edge and Adam have alluded to in interviews.

Oh, and I'll get to hear fucking RHMT, One Tree Hill, Exit, In God's Country... basically all of side B for the first time um hell yes.

Yep. We've been saying for some time on this forum that they need to do something to wash out the bad taste that SOI left in so many mouths.

Judging by how well this is going down, it seems they've done the right thing.
 
Who cares whether this was serving Live Nation, it appears to be working, and could be great. I am shocked by the number of people in my Facebook feed liking the announcement - people who hate current U2, or I had no idea they liked them at all.


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Ps, the promo video has nearly 8 million Facebook views. The Red one posted days before only has 1.1 million


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I am very excited about this tour. I just hope they stick to their plan and play the full album. And I think they should only play songs from the 5 first albums. Nothing else. Bring us back to 87, that s the point after all.
 
If U2 had just gotten SOE out anytime between the end of the I&E Tour and fall 2016 (as originally semi-promised), they would already have an album in the books and could focus on the relevant political message for the *next* record.
 
I have to say. I love this band. I love the Joshua Tree. I was exposed to Boy/October/War when i was a wee one, and then got more interested during UF, and got full fledged fandom during Joshua Tree.

But, I have seen them 16 times, I'm not as into going to see live shows as I once was. So while I will probably hit this tour, I would rather have a new album by far.

They have every right to celebrate this classic album. But it's the first time I've genuinely felt that tinge of disappointment that they have entered the final phase of their career, and instead of going out with a beautiful, poignant, album for the ages, they are doing commemorative tours of old material.

I know, they aren't "done" I hope. But this is a detour that doesn't really excite me. Although i do think it may be a good move to get older fans back into the fold and excited for SOE (or whatever it may be called). Fingers crossed.

Thank God for this post. I felt weird because I really felt this way too. JT was great (but not even my favorite U2 album), but I saw them like 3 or 4 times on JT Tour. I am good. I would have much rather had the new album (if it was GREAT like it damned well should be) and an epic bad ass tour, not a rehash.

I don't feel excited. Especially after that not so great Vegas show I saw last Fall which was a total nostalgia-fest.
 

Agree! The band obviously aren't confident enough in their new material, hence we probably won't see SOE or whatever form the new album will be released until 2018/2019. I hope I'm wrong and would be stoked if the album was released later this year, but who am I fooling. This is U2. It probably won't happen.
 
Yep. We've been saying for some time on this forum that they need to do something to wash out the bad taste that SOI left in so many mouths.

Judging by how well this is going down, it seems they've done the right thing.

Thing is, you do this nostalgia thing once and gone is the ability to make Joe public ever care about new music again. So yeah it's great but they are shooting themselves in the foot since it means SOE or any future album can't have any impact or meaning. As I have already said, the idea that this is some sort of launching pad for SOE is deluded.

Bottom line is they have effectively given up on new material.
 
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Except for the part where plenty of bands tour full albums regularly and continue to release new albums that do just fine, sure.
 
Thing is, you do this nostalgia thing once and gone is the ability to make Joe public ever care about new music again. So yeah it's great but they are shooting themselves in the foot since it means SOE or any future album can't have any impact or meaning. As I have already said, the idea that this is some sort of launching pad for SOE is deluded.

Bottom line is they have effectively given up on new material.

Joe Public hasn't given a turkey about new U2 music since 2004.

The only people this may have a negative effect on are whiney U2 fans.

Springsteen did a greatest hits tour in 1999 - then he released The Rising.

Bands do this all the time now... nobody cares
 
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When SOI was released, as "irritating" as it was to the world, wasn't there a huge uptick in sales for the entire back catalog? I remember TJT breaking the top 20 in album sales, or something.

TJT is universally loved and respected, now also by a new generation who stumbled upon it. Now they can experience it live.

In a way, this tour is kind of a genius move.
 
Joe Public hasn't given a turkey about new U2 music since 2004.

The only people this may have a negative effect on are whiney U2 fans.

Springsteen did a greatest hits tour in 1999 - then he released The Rising.

Bands do this all the time now... nobody cares

you just reminded me about The Rising.

what a record.

headphones time.
 
The real question is can bono play guitar this tour


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that's actually a very good point and something I was wondering myself...

many of these songs would require a second guitar. obviously they can tweak things to work however they'd like... but traditionally, you would expect a rhythm guitar part on a lot of these tracks.
 
Very true, assuming Bono's out of action guitar wise and they don't play some stripped down version, I'm wondering if Red Hill Mining Town will sound a bit flat? If any song on that album needs two guitars live it's that one!

If U2 had just gotten SOE out anytime between the end of the I&E Tour and fall 2016 (as originally semi-promised), they would already have an album in the books and could focus on the relevant political message for the *next* record.

Yeah pretty much. I'm just picturing this nightmare scenario where U2 finish the Joshua Tree tour, then show up almost a year late to the party with their big anti-trump song that they've square pegged into Songs Of Experience :lol:

For all we know they could come up with some insanely good song that isn't too on the nose and fits perfectly with the album, but right now I'm not exactly impressed.

I mean say some other massive event (god knows what) suddenly happens. At what point do U2 stop saying "oh, how does this album we wrote in 2015-16 fit in with what's happening in 2017? Better work on it some more." ??
 
something tells me there may be a minion or two under the stage playing rhythm guitar or keyboards etc.

On a side note...I am hoping SoE has a bit more cowbell in it. I don't think Larry's explored that enough.

I believe Refugee has one.
 
Bono's guitar playing is absolutely unnecessary. Like on Exit in rattle and hum... it looks cool with him knashing away at the guitar... but he is literally nowhere in the mix. Then listen to the Paris version of "Exit". That distant scratchy, tinny sound you hear that's not really helping anything and is actually making it worse... that's Bono's guitar.

On official concert releases they clean up (aka delete or bury) Bono's guitar. Listen to Dirty Day in Sydney vs Dirty Day in Adelaide... you really hear Bono's "contributions" in the Adelaide video.

I'm not hear to rag on Bono, but I think some of you over estimate the importance of his guitar playing. It's a prop, a chance for him to stand still for a song, and to make him look cool. Sometimes on a song like "crumbs from your table", Bono will pretend to play the lead guitar part, but it's actually prerecorded.

While I'm no virtuoso, I have been playing guitar for over 20 years and am pretty decent. Since I know how to play most of U2's songs at least somewhat, I know what to look for in Bono's playing.




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While i am at it....What if the band actually did this instead...Forget what has just transpired with JT tour announcements.

Release SoE today.

Announce SoE tour.

At the SoE shows, they play a first set of 10-12 songs, with about 7 from the new album. Have the intermission. Then come out and perform the entire JT album. That would blow a lot of people away since they were not expecting this. This would have gotten crazy buzz.
 
Oh we can debate the merits of this tour\album ad naseum...but we'll still be left with:

The Joshua Tree 2017 Tour
SOE - Q4

Pop Culture relevance and hits be damned. Give me something to believe in...:rockon:


I think we'll get SOE Q4 if we're lucky. Plenty of time to get cold feet and reimagine things between now and August.


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30 year old band takes new album on tour. Plays some of it, but decides to play of songs of a 22 year old album in its sequential entirety.

In 1994!

Pink Floyd. The Division Bell Tour.

Perspective.
 
There's no way we'll see SOE until after the tour is over and there's been a very likely couple of timelines suggested already which seem to make sense.

If they don't scrap or tweak SOE, I expect they'll use this mini-tour as a launch pad for a lead single, the album and arena (?) tour of the US and Europe in 2017-2018.
 
Maybe we'll get that cool Edge loop version of Running To Stand Still since Bono can't play rhythm guitar.
 
He should wear his 87 arm sling for old times sakes.


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good call. He'll probably need it at some point. Only a matter of time before he injures himself again...falling off stage or falling out of bed etc.
 
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