SOE 30: With a Fanscore of 5 Bananas

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They got rid of ASOH, which sounded great. Fuck their idiotic decisions and unimaginative asses.

The concert was great to see, awful to follow. Bring on the new material.
 
The main set was great but the encore was about as dull as it could get. I'm glad the tour is over.
 
The tour was great, the performances were awesome, but a static setlist takes away some of the excitement of following the tour online. I saw JT 2017 five times and never got sick of it because the performances and the show were amazing each time I saw it, yet following every night on social media was boring because it was the same songs. In person, it's amazing, online, not so much.
 
The main set was great but the encore was about as dull as it could get. I'm glad the tour is over.

I agree, Ax.

I know it's early and we haven't heard anywhere near all of SOE but how many 80s songs do you think make it to next tour? I'm afraid not so many.
 
It was a great show, I hope the lack of online excitement due to lack of setlist variation doesn't take away from that. I feel that most people who saw it in person will understand it in a way that those who could only followed online weren't able to.

Yes, I wish it was a bit more varied (especially the safe consecutive hits in the encore) but I cut them a bit of slack because they played JT start to finish, and because U2.
 
I agree, Ax.

I know it's early and we haven't heard anywhere near all of SOE but how many 80s songs do you think make it to next tour? I'm afraid not so many.

They might start with just a couple of JT songs but you know they'll work their way back in, like how so many tours over the years have begun without NYD and SBS and look what happened.

Speaking of those two War hits, I imagine they might not be guaranteed, and Bad will probably go back to being a rarity. But you'd expect something from Rattle and Hum to get a run after it was excluded entirely from this tour.

I imagine if any album gets a deeper cut chosen though, it'll be Achtung. And I expect the four albums of 2000-14 will contribute probably about 7-8 songs minimum. Beautiful Day, at least one of Stuck/Elevation/Walk On, maybe one more from ATYCLB, Vertigo, COBL, at least one from NLOTH, EBW, at least one more from SOI.
 
They got rid of ASOH, which sounded great. Fuck their idiotic decisions and unimaginative asses.

This. You play one of your absolute best songs for the first time in like 30 fucking years, it sounds fresh and vital, and you fucking drop it after a few shows? What. The. Fuck. :angry:
 
Like on 360 there were opportunities missed, ie the beginning - a perfect segue for JT would be MLK into Streets simply because they use approximately the same 'synth' so a segue would work easily (thanks Eno). Alternatively MLK and then Bad - Streets similar to the 2001 performances.

If you have to ditch ASOH? don't! just ditch the naff 80s synth sample playing the old guitar melody. Keep the song, for me it's still the best opener on any of their records.

The rarely played JT songs aside from Red Hill were pretty good to great in places (as was Still Haven't Found), the thrill of the new sotospeak, Streets ach.. is still a plod for me and not comparable to it's 87-01 era. And as has been said the encore was kinda dull.

The second US leg was an odd choice with hindsight, seemed an obligation, but it might have worked better had they seriously revamped the intro set/encores and I think the BT single might have done even better in traditional U2 singles markets had they drawn the line after the Euro leg had a month + off and then wholly focused on the build up to this new record, while still acknowledging JT's influence and history in tandem with the new music to come.

A not bad 7.5/10.
 
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The tour was great, the performances were awesome, but a static setlist takes away some of the excitement of following the tour online. I saw JT 2017 five times and never got sick of it because the performances and the show were amazing each time I saw it, yet following every night on social media was boring because it was the same songs. In person, it's amazing, online, not so much.

Definitely agree. I’m really happy I saw this tour, it was a great show. Hopefully the next tour has a bit more setlist variation.
 
They got rid of ASOH, which sounded great. Fuck their idiotic decisions and unimaginative asses.

This. You play one of your absolute best songs for the first time in like 30 fucking years, it sounds fresh and vital, and you fucking drop it after a few shows? What. The. Fuck. :angry:

Truth be told (imo), I liked hearing it, but it was a bit on the 'meh' side the one time I saw it when compared to other songs in that part of the show. I'm actually not surprised Bad ended up in place of it 90%+ of the time as the tour went on.
 
Truth be told (imo), I liked hearing it, but it was a bit on the 'meh' side the one time I saw it when compared to other songs in that part of the show. I'm actually not surprised Bad ended up in place of it 90%+ of the time as the tour went on.



I agree - it was obviously a dream come true to hear it live (one of the highlights of the tour!), but for what they were trying to do in a stadium setting, Bad worked better. Here’s to hoping it returns on E+I, where they can probably find a better spot for it (arguably arenas will also work in its favor)
 
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They could easily drop the announcement and song tomorrow without warning. If it is this week, I'd think it's definitely going to happen tomorrow though.
 
We had exactly the same conversation last week, that something would happen on the friday, and it never did.
 
We had exactly the same conversation last week, that something would happen on the friday, and it never did.

Yes that's my fear too! But I did read somewhere in one of the articles, was is atU2? That a song would come out this week and now the tour is over. So there is certainly hope. Mikal may be right with a release with no warning.
 
Given that Spotify thing showed up, I reckon we're more likely than not to get some word.
 
Yes that's my fear too! But I did read somewhere in one of the articles, was is atU2? That a song would come out this week and now the tour is over. So there is certainly hope. Mikal may be right with a release with no warning.
Yeah and really I'm more eager than worried. I think we're as good as confirmed that the album is coming out on December 1st, so it's more a matter of when and how they announce it.
 
Tomorrow is more likely than last Friday simply given the JT tour is over and we're that much closer to Halloween with a Dia de los Muertos-themed video in the can. That said, compared to a Friday, does a Monday/Tuesday release have any benefit? Early next week could also make sense.
 
Tomorrow is more likely than last Friday simply given the JT tour is over and we're that much closer to Halloween with a Dia de los Muertos-themed video in the can. That said, compared to a Friday, does a Monday/Tuesday release have any benefit? Early next week could also make sense.

Good points and question. I'm not sure if there's any actual data that suggests one day is better than the other. I think we're all assuming Friday just because that's when new music is normally released.
 
I wasn't really expecting any teaser today, if things are coming out tomorrow. Maybe later we might here that Bono is going to be on Kroq or something, but I would think they would just drop it out there tomorrow. But who knows. Would be cool to hear a little rumbling today.
 
I sure hope you're right in that we'll hear something this week. I'm starved for info
 
Though I can't say I'm thrilled with the arrangement they did for ASOH, it would still have been nice to see it live, they dropped it by the time I saw the show in London.

I believe U2 just doesn't think some of these songs work live (including some JT songs), and I'm convinced ASOH is one of them. The difference however between ASOH and TJT songs is that they have to play the latter, they're sorta committed to that. But they could drop ASOH, and did, so that's that.

That said, the more I think about it the more I'm OK with them dropping ASOH. It's my favourite U2 song of all time, but the reality is they've never really been able to nail the song live, even on TUF tour. The atmospherics on ASOH (and most of that record) are just hard to recreate live. As great as the song is, there's a reason they haven't played it for decades (except for the odd performance here and there) before this tour. They probably know what they're doing.
 
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