Final Reflections - U2 360° Tour

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digitize

ONE love, blood, life
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Last night, U2 ended an absolutely incredible tour in Moncton, New Brunswick. Here's a thread for everyone to share their final reflections.

As for me, 360 was a pretty incredible experience. I only saw two shows, both in 2009: the first Chicago show, and the Houston show. I loved both, but Houston was my favorite, because I got to see a rare performance of Your Blue Room, and a not-so-rare performance of UTEOTW, neither of which was touched at Chicago 1. But Chicago 1 was also extremely special for its performance of Bad, one of two in North America over the course of the entire tour. So, even though I only saw two shows, I feel lucky about what I did see. When the tour started, I had just finished my sophomore year in high school; now, I'm about to be a college freshman. For someone my age, this is a fairly substantial chunk of life to be following a tour, but it was a lot of fun. When I wasn't at shows, I really enjoyed everyone's company on Interference. This is a really great group of diverse people that we have on the forum, and I'm extremely thankful for it. So thank every single one of you.

Enough about me - the tour itself was pretty amazing. Last night, after the Moncton show, I threw together a little statistical pie chart showing, out of the total 2625 plays of songs on the tour, what proportion each album had. Here you go:

screenshotujn.png


Of course, No Line On The Horizon wins this race, with about 21% of song plays. It was an interesting journey for NLOTH - U2 started by promoting No Line very heavily with the tour, at first doing a solid block of four No Line songs at the beginning of every show, and then playing three later. The first leg of the tour seemed to be centered around the NLOTH songs, with surprises being thrown in along the way, and a vaguely defined space theme taking shape. In the second leg, the NLOTH songs stayed around for the most part, but setlists grew more static and a space theme was more heavily emphasized, especially with Frank DeWinne's presence on Your Blue Room and later In A Little While. NLOTH's presence started at the first's leg's seven, then dropped to six and then five for one show, before rebounding back to six and then eventually seven with the re-introduction of Unknown Caller. This leg also had the large (some would say absurdly large) presence of ATYCLB that so many people complained about, essentially propelling ATYCLB into second place in the song-plays chart. U2 would play five ATYCLB songs in one night on many dates in the fall of 2009.

2010 came quite interestingly. As Interference watched the claw under construction in Salt Leg City for what would be the third leg of the tour, once again in North America, news came that Bono had broken his back. The third leg was postponed, along with U2's long-awaited first performance at the Glastonbury festival. But, by August, Bono was back and ready to perform, as evidenced by his swing on the microphone during HMTMKMKM; he obviously wanted to prove that he was back, and, as an added bonus, his voice sounded great, too. This leg featured a sharp reduction of both NLOTH songs and the space theme, now opening with Return Of The Stingray Guitar, an unreleased instrumental song from the TUF era, with its notoriously awkward segue into Beautiful Day. Along the way, U2 debuted several new songs, all of which have yet to be released: Glastonbury, North Star, Every Breaking Wave, an updated version of Mercy, Boy Falls From The Sky, and Stingray. The fourth leg, in Australia and New Zealand, was largely a continuation of the European leg (with One Tree Hill thrown in, of course), as was the fifth leg, in South Africa.

Then came the sixth and seventh legs. No Line's presence was often reduced to three songs per night, and, for better or for worse, U2 seemed to promote the ZooTV era pretty heavily. By re-introducing Even Better Than The Real Thing (as an opener!) and The Fly, and playing as much AB on some nights as they did ATYCLB in 2009, propelled AB into third place on the chart, quite easily. Zooropa also managed to get two songs per night throughout most of the North American leg. Ultraviolet, however, was very rarely played on this leg, showing up just on second nights and at the Baltimore show, with HMTMKMKM being heavily favored (sadly, in my opinion). And that led us to the end: the tour ending with a surprise performance of "40".

This tour changed a lot over the course of two years. It kept a very basic skeleton throughout, but evolved heavily throughout the years. Here's a list of surprises that came through the tour:

- An astounding stage.
- Fighting through weather: from the pouring rain of the 2010 European leg with its gazillion Rain snippets to the practical desertification of the United States this summer.
- Rehearsals in Barcelona featuring, among more normal songs, TUF, Drowning Man, In A Little While, and Ultraviolet.
- A U2.com video indicating rehearsals of Electrical Storm later.
- More rehearsal reports indicating If God Will Send His Angels, Crazy Tonight and EBTTRT remixes, and an acoustic version of Mysterious Ways (thank God that never happened)
- A first night show with TUF, In A Little While, and Ultraviolet.
- A second night show featuring Electrical Storm
- The occasional introduction of favorites like Bad and UTEOTW through the first leg
- Rumors of rehearsals of Your Blue Room late in the first leg.
- A performance of Your Blue Room in Chicago.
- A new segue between One and Streets.
- Streaming and filming of the Rose Bowl show.
- HMTMKMKM and all of the new songs in Europe last year.
- Love Rescue Me in Australia last year.
- One Tree Hill in New Zealand last year.
- Mothers Of The Disappeared in South America (are this and the last really surprises?)
- Even Better Than The Real Thing displacing Beautiful Day as the opener in South America.
- Zooropa being played for the first time since 1993 in São Paulo, and sticking around.
- The Fly being rehearsed and eventually showing up in Anaheim.
- A bunch of little treats through the seventh leg, such as the occasional Bad and OTH.
- A very Zoo-heavy Glastonbury performance.
- And ending the tour with OOC and "40".

I'm sure I missed some - feel free to add.

So it really was an incredible. Thanks again to everyone here. Thanks also to everyone who kept us informed, from the good ol' folks at U2EastLink (remember them?) to Axver, Matthias, and Matkin at U2Gigs for, as usual, doing an incredible job keeping us informed throughout the way. Thanks to everyone who streamed and tweeted about and bootlegged and video taped shows for us along the way. And, of course, thanks to U2 and their crew for putting on an amazing tour that I'm sure none of us will ever forget.

I can't wait for the next tour. :wave: Now it's time for us to all furiously watch Where The Album Has No Name for nonexistent reports of a new album until then. :wink:
 
You should have seen them this leg.. It was a sight to behold

I really wish I had. I really really do. I nearly saw the Philly show, but it didn't work out. Back when they were adding shows, I kept hoping for an Austin show.
 
This was the leg in which everything coalesced and the Claw started to be used to its fullest potential. 360 took itself too seriously early on; rockers like EBTTRT, The Fly and HMTMKMKM were necessary from the get-go but the band were too concerned about making a coherent setlist, which happened to be extremely moody. I'm sure those that attended had fun during those first few legs, but the band weren't at their peak yet. They're closing the tour with a leg full of swagger and good times. They're working in their wheelhouse and crushing gigs every night, which they earned.
 
i have to agree, 2011 > 2009

Dallas was nice and fun, big crowd in the grand new Cowboys Stadium.

I loved the Norman show because it was my backyard. A beautiful fall day turned cold with the wind blowing the fog all over the damn stadium. It was a special night and a true party-like atmosphere. Little planes flying overhead watching the light show as we huddled together underneath the giant spaceship. All of my friends that got to see u2 for the first time finally got to understand what id been talking about all of these years. To them it was great, to me it was great, though i still wanted more....

I got the "more" and then some in Nashville. Its hard to describe what it was like for them to open with Even Better, The Fly, Until the End, Mysterious Ways....wow. For someone who missed ZooTv thanks to military commitments, this was an awesome gift for me to see all of these songs from my favorite album in this spectacular setting. And yet getting to hear The Wanderer really really was the big surprise. Nobody saw that one coming i think. Wonderful night, easily the best show of the tour for me.

St Louis, i don't think we even tried to get up close to the stage or the inner circle, we'd kind of decided that early on. Instead we walked right in around 7PM and made our way towards the back where we could stand with some freedom to move around and not be packed like sardines. This is where you get the full appreciation of what the claw is all about. And i have to say my favorite part of this show may have been Miss Sarajevo - Zooropa - City of Blinding Lights - Vertigo. That's about as beautiful - psychedelic - soaring - and intense as i could have possibly imagined. How do you top that? Well, a couple of songs later you play Sunday Bloody Sunday, One, & Where the Streets Have no name, thats how!!

I have to say i loved the encores with HMTMKMKM, WOWY, & MOS. Sure some people prefer Ultraviolet, and for the show not to close on such a somber note as MOS, but i did enjoy it immensely.

I don't know where we go from here. I would love to see some more DVD footage of this 360 Tour at some point featuring the latter set lists where everything was just right. This tour was the greatest show on Earth. Some will argue that "zootv was better...", etc. Well i cant comment because i missed that one. But statistically this one really is the greatest and hopefully nobody ever takes away, unless U2 themselves do, which is fine with me. I'm just very very happy that i got to see the four shows that i did, amazing and special nights all of them.
 
Digitize.... with that graph, you live up to your name. Thank you. Incredible chart right there.

These blurps are random. Please bear with my rambling....

- ZERO from Pop. The tour ended up being a greatest hits tour. I personally don't mind. I know they plugged No Line as best they could at the start of the tour to barely playing songs from it. The graph just solidified the question, do the boys really hate Pop, the album they created? ZERO SONGS! That's still a shock. I know that doesn't include snippets.

- I went to ten 360 shows. For me, my highlights included hearing One Tree Hill in Chicago (it seems so spontaneous)..... and hearing Bad in Pittsburgh.... (been waiting all tour to hear it....and when I hear it, to me, it's a special show).

- I managed to meet and talk to Bono in Winnipeg

- Bono said my name during One in Winnipeg (MARK!) as well as a "U2BROTHR" shout for MTL 1 and Pittsburgh

- I adored Unforgettable Fire during the first North American swing......but then fell in LOVE with Zooropa. Just watch Bono dance, snap his fingers, and clap his hands during Zooropa and you'll see what I'm talking about.

- The power that is Bono's voice was evident in MOS. Talk about fuckin' soul man.....soul and passion. Made my knees weak. Made my muscles crumble.

- I wish I heard Electrical Storm. Can't win em all. Never got to hear Glastonbury, North Star, Every Breaking Wave, an updated version of Mercy, Boy Falls From The Sky, and Stingray

- No other band can fill a stadium in this day and age. I try and think....wrack my brain.....zero, ziltch....nada. I doubt they will do it again in North America, but the claw brought the house down.

- Despite being a front row and wait in GA for a close spot, I did get to see the show from the soundboard (Toronto 2) and from the back of the pit (MTL 1 & 2). Allbeit, that isn't every angle, but the stage and screen were something to behold up close and far away.

- The fans. I will never forget the NOISE in MTL. I will never forget how people wanted to take a picture with the Mirror Ball Man 2.0 (I never denied anyone a picture....only one person who called me M.C. Hammer :|). Specifically, the support that people gave me and encouraged me to dress up and have fun to make people laugh. (I started to doubt myself!!!). What made it worthwhile, was the reaction by children. That made it worth it.

- After my travels and approaching my hometown show (Toronto 3), I really wanted something special to happen.....setlist.....new song......Toronto references. The show was just a dial by numbers, and left me disappointed. Yes I whored myself out to the media that day. Hope the kids in my class and their parents saw my level of fandom :cute:

- The tour revitalized, re-energized, solidified, my love for the band and U2 fans that I met around the world. The big belly laughs that resonated in my body with various people, is something I cannot explain. The hugs, the drinks, the sing songs, the adoration of the boys from Ireland is something to behold.

- Wish I made it to Moncton....can't win them all....can't be too greedy....I have to finish the renos of my kitchen, and I wanna stay married.....my wife has been generous with being a U2widow during the tour.

- I will never forget the reactions of U2 newbies who I was with in the pit. I'll never forget seeing grown men and women reduced to tears prior to the show starting as they are overwhelmed with emotion to know that their favourite band is gonna hit the stage. I'll never forget the wide eyed shock of 1st show folks who would come up to me and hug me and thank me as if I were responsible for putting the 360 show on. :ohmy:

- Say what you want to about that other thread about GA lines, some of my favourite times were spent in said GA lines.

I am gonna pop in the DVD of 360 today. I need to get my hands on the big boxset that comes with all the goodies.

I love this band and miss them already.
 
Saw 5 shows in 2 different countries and 2 different states. Loved every second of it :love:
Going to miss looking at reports of the stage rolling into town, and people getting excited for their upcoming shows!

Was glad to do the Anaheim shows. My last show before those was the Rose Bowl and I was ill, so I spent most of the show sat down under the catwalk bridge in GA. I couldn't have my last 360 being like that.
After Anaheim 2 finished we left the stadium quickly as possible to see the band leave by helicopter, I was waving like a mad man as they took off into the night.

I'm going to miss seeing all my friends, echoing what U2BROTHR said, the GA lines were the big highlights. Can't wait to do it all again soon.
 
Saw 10 shows in 4 countries, which was a blast as I'd never seen the band overseas before.....I've seen more U2 shows than I can count, but I have to say, the two shows on this last 360 leg rank fairly high for me.

Highlights for me -

The pleasant shock of hearing the opening notes of The Unforgettable Fire
Zooropa
A fantastic All I Want is You at Anaheim 2
Your Blue Room
Reworked EBTTRT

Doing my first ever GA line (over 50 U2 shows in my life since 1987 and I had never once lined up for GA) in Barcelona and despite the searing heat, having a great time meeting people from all over the globe.

Getting good and fucking lost after that Barcelona show, falling asleep on a bus due to being up for 24 hours straight, etc.

Going to the Chicago shows in September of 2009 with some quality interference folks.

Meeting a shit-ton of interlanders at the two Anaheim shows.

I'm bummed that the tour is over but, hopefully the silver lining is that the band will release some new music in the next year or two.....
 
Great design. Willie Williams yet again manages to raise the bar in stage designs. The Claw is a great idea.

Priceless memories of my first U2 show. Opening roar of the crowd as the band entered the stage, electryfing. Chants - at first only on the right size stands, and eventually of the full stadium "Si-mo-na! Si-mo-na!" after the dance in MW (made it on U2.com). The grooving from everyone during Crazy tonight; the bopping heads on screen were a great intro. Superb visuals, in particular the UF-COBL-Vertigo-Crazy tonight-SBS section. The third highlight - the laser suit of lights and the steering wheel microphone, and a great reworking of UV.

Pity so much of NLOTH got lost along the way, and the tour turned into nostalgia show at the end. Still, a great tour. If this should be the last stadium worldwide tour, they sure went out with a bang.
 
LemonMelon said:
This was the leg in which everything coalesced and the Claw started to be used to its fullest potential. 360 took itself too seriously early on; rockers like EBTTRT, The Fly and HMTMKMKM were necessary from the get-go but the band were too concerned about making a coherent setlist, which happened to be extremely moody. I'm sure those that attended had fun during those first few legs, but the band weren't at their peak yet. They're closing the tour with a leg full of swagger and good times. They're working in their wheelhouse and crushing gigs every night, which they earned.

This times a million.

The first time around was good. The last one was epic.

The setlists reminded me of a Springsteen tour... not in that they changed every night... they obviously did not... but more so in that the beginning stages had a more scripted feel and an intent to plug the album, but when they made it back around 2 years later the intent was simply to put on the best F'ing show possible. And in this they succeeded.

I don't believe this is the final tour for U2... but if, for whatever reason, it happens to be... I will be more than happy with the last meadowlands shoe being my final memory of the band.
 
Fantastic thread for a fantastic tour. :up:

I'm not sure if the setlists in the final leg came close to being "greatest hits tour" material, but I don't really care, as they were amazing. The early setlists were great, too, but they probably would have been better suited to an arena tour.
 
Saw 10 shows in 4 countries, which was a blast as I'd never seen the band overseas before.....I've seen more U2 shows than I can count, but I have to say, the two shows on this last 360 leg rank fairly high for me.

Highlights for me -

The pleasant shock of hearing the opening notes of The Unforgettable Fire
Zooropa
A fantastic All I Want is You at Anaheim 2
Your Blue Room
Reworked EBTTRT

Doing my first ever GA line (over 50 U2 shows in my life since 1987 and I had never once lined up for GA) in Barcelona and despite the searing heat, having a great time meeting people from all over the globe.

Getting good and fucking lost after that Barcelona show, falling asleep on a bus due to being up for 24 hours straight, etc.

Going to the Chicago shows in September of 2009 with some quality interference folks.

Meeting a shit-ton of interlanders at the two Anaheim shows.

I'm bummed that the tour is over but, hopefully the silver lining is that the band will release some new music in the next year or two.....

you were a highlight for me, dork! :hug:
 
This had better not be their last tour. I mean, if they stop and I've only seen one show...D:

So I guess my highlights would be, first show. People getting drunk but not being jerks, but rather good fun to be around. Seeing the band actually as real people, in the same (huge) room as me :hyper: Watching my best friend act like even more of a fangirl than me...and of course, noticing Bono's leather-clad butt at the same time as she did :lol:
 
I saw ten shows total: 4 on the first NA leg and 6 on the last leg. The 2011 shows blew away those early shows. It took them a long time to settle on a great setlist, but they finally got it. EBTTRT was one of their best decisions ever. There wasn't much I would have changed about the final setlist.

We got a lot of surprises. I never, ever, EVER would have anticipated hearing Your Blue Room or Zooropa on this tour. They played Mercy! I'm sorry I missed it. I can't say I regret not hearing any of the other new songs, but I give the band credit for trying out new material.

The Unforgettable Fire was amazing. I gained a whole new appreciation for Ultraviolet; it immediately became my favorite moment of the show. Finally, I got to hear Bad as my final song of the tour. Couldn't ask for any more than that!

Best show for me was Anaheim 2. Not knowing what was coming next was such a thrill. I'll never forget that show. Pittsburgh was a pretty great ending, too.

In a way, I'm glad I got to experience the Rose Bowl disaster, if only because it gave me perspective on all future GA bullshit. And there was a lot of it. :lol: The positive GA experiences far outweighed the negatives, anyway. I met lots of great people on this tour, and that's what matters most.
 
- ZERO from Pop. The tour ended up being a greatest hits tour. I personally don't mind. I know they plugged No Line as best they could at the start of the tour to barely playing songs from it. The graph just solidified the question, do the boys really hate Pop, the album they created? ZERO SONGS! That's still a shock. I know that doesn't include snippets.
You are actually incorrect about the snippets, Mark. There was a snippet of Mofo before COBL at Tampa during the first leg of the North American tour.

Lookie

U2 Tampa, 2009-10-09, Raymond James Stadium, 360° Tour - U2 on tour
 
U2BROTHR said:
I realize that....

That's why I wrote I know that doesn't include snippets.


In other words, they only did snippets of Pop. Not full songs.....right?

Right. There were rumors that Mofo was rehearsed on the second leg that started cropping up around East Rutherford. It was probably just Sam's drumming in East Rutherford, but rumors persisted a bit through that leg that U2 were rehearsing Mofo and maybe something else (can't remember) away from the stadiums, to be dropped late in the leg. And they basically never soundchecked during that leg, indicating they could have had indoors rehearsals during the leg, so who knows? Mofo might have been rehearsed. But no full songs from Pop were played.
 
Where to begin for the 360??

-I can't believe the ride is over from the prehype of NLOTH till now. I still think NLOTH is a great U2 album. The 1st 4 songs are amazing for any band.

-I'm a POP martian. And seeing Popmart was amazing in itself and thinking U2 would never do anything like it again (stadium show) was disappointing. But then they announced the 360 show.....:ohmy:

-Deciding a month in advance I'll go see U2 for Chicago I (Leave Friday return Sunday morning so I can watch NFL kickoff Weekend!!!) Hearing them open w/ 4 NLOTH songs, UF (1st time, top 3 U2 song for me), and Bad was a awesome stuff!! Those NLOTH songs sounded so good live.

-Houston & Vegas shows were great. Got "Your Blue Room" and a special night in the dessert. Though Bono's voice was a bit rough.

-The cancellation of Miami was disappointing but got a great trip to Miami & Key West out of it. Was just happy they were gonna makeup the dates and Bono was ok.

-Anaheim!!! Nights 1 & 2. Hearing Stay, Zooropa, The Fly, Real Thing, Hold Me Thrill Me, Ultraviolet, One MW UTEOTW early in the set was a magical weekend (went to Disneyland too!!). I'm a big 90's U2 fan so these shows blew me away. And I was doing a Disco dance during my Pop snippet.

And AIWIY full band was very magical. That and Stay brought some tears to my eyes. Thinking how much U2's met to me and my wife. Listening to Zooropa in 1996 was the soundtrack of my admiration for her and now we have a 7 month old together who is the coolest baby ever :) Hearing Stay & Zooropa w/ my wife while our little one was back home brought all kinds of emotions for me.

I love U2 and I love you guys on Interference and for me the 360 Tour was a culmination of that affection.
 
I only saw 1 show on this tour - fortunately, it was a show on the last North American leg (Miami). Best concert I've ever seen. I honestly love greatest hits/nostalgia sets so it was great to see a mix of old and fairly new material (North Star counts as the only new material played that night).

- The Claw - amazing stage. Most spectacular production I've seen to date. Made Sun Life Stadium small.

- The lightshows were spectacular. From the crazy flashing lights of Until The End Of The World, to the colorful explosion of green and red lights with spotlights pointing towards the sky at City of Blinding Lights, to the whole spire simply lighting up during Streets. And let's not forget the mirrorball from the end of HMTMKMKM to With or Without You.

- The Achtung Baby opening quartet that came around towards the middle of the last leg (which I was able to witness) definitely set the energy for the night. EBTTRT has clearly been the best choice of taking a spot as the opening song - it's just powerful, exciting. The Fly was just incredible, Edge's guitar took it to another level.

- I'm glad they decided to play Pride on this leg again, I really wanted to see it live and was really glad to have heard it. To be honest, the crowd reaction was great, a huge singalong.

- One of the highlights of the night was seeing the screen come down and the resurrection of one of my favorite songs ever, Zooropa. The screen doing it's job in the first half of the song, while the lights take over the second half. Although it was shortened, it sounded perfect. I was amazed and it felt great to have heard this rarity.

- For the past year I've been wanting to hear Hold Me, Thrill Me since it was brought back for the first time since Popmart, but not at the expense of Ultraviolet. Though it just blows Ultraviolet out of the water, it did a great job of replacing it - spectacular. Great crowd reaction, too.

- Moment of Surrender was a great closer, though my Dad said it was good but "they ended the show in a down way" which I think you really had to feel that song to appreciate it (not necessarily).

I'm really going to miss U2360, one show (first-ever U2 show by the way) wasn't much but it was enough to be the best concert ever, and I was able to experience it at it's best - hope the band gets plenty of rest and I hope I get to see U2 live again - soon.
 
When I saw them at the Georgia Dome in October 2009, I did not enjoy the show very much. I began to think that U2 were past their prime, that they were never going to be able to top the Vertigo tour. My U2 experience ended on kind of a sour note ... or so I thought.

Then they added some extra shows to the rescheduled North American leg in 2011, and I bought a ticket to Nashville. I still had faith that U2 were capable of putting on a fantastic show if they really put their hearts into it. And going to Nashville turned out to be one of the best decisions I ever made. That show was truly transformational for me, and it renewed my love and admiration for the band.

I think we can all agree that the last leg of the tour was the best. But keep this in mind: It almost didn't happen. If Bono hadn't been able to make a complete, near-miraculous recovery after his surgery, none of these wonderful concerts ever would have taken place. We should appreciate how lucky we are, and be grateful that we got the chance to see those last shows.
 
Right. There were rumors that Mofo was rehearsed on the second leg that started cropping up around East Rutherford. It was probably just Sam's drumming in East Rutherford, but rumors persisted a bit through that leg that U2 were rehearsing Mofo and maybe something else (can't remember) away from the stadiums, to be dropped late in the leg. And they basically never soundchecked during that leg, indicating they could have had indoors rehearsals during the leg, so who knows? Mofo might have been rehearsed. But no full songs from Pop were played.

I heard them doing Desire/She's the One before the 9/23/09 show.. Didn't hear Mofo
 
i loved this tour both first part as the last. the diversity from old and new songs and the highliths in those early shows for me are unknown caller and hearing MOS for the first time live, that song touchmed me deeply from the first note and got under my skin.
for that i had it tattooed right before i made my U2 dream come trough after beiing a fan for 30 years. seeing them in their hometown Dublin.

IMG_1350.jpg


We went to two dublin gigs and that absolutely were the best shows i`ve ever seen of them,also because of the special atmosphere and cause we slept two night in the catacombs of croke park. right there bono sat on his knees on front of us and shared our tears in moment of surrender

U2CrokeparkDublin320.jpg


highlight at both the amsterdam and dublin show was them playing BAD.wow goosebumps all over.

our second european tour brought us to hannover/frankfurt and brussels. at those shows we met a whole lot of lovely people and had a blast with them, slept in front of the stadiums,sang together and had some great guitarplayers among us.
i loved the change in the setlist, but missed some songs like unknown caller, but was glad i could hear the new songs live. only missed every breaking wave,too bad, cause i love that song.
after more then 30 years U2 still touch me deep down, like no one ever could.
 
Last night, U2 ended an absolutely incredible tour in Moncton, New Brunswick. Here's a thread for everyone to share their final reflections.

As for me, 360 was a pretty incredible experience. I only saw two shows, both in 2009: the first Chicago show, and the Houston show. I loved both, but Houston was my favorite, because I got to see a rare performance of Your Blue Room, and a not-so-rare performance of UTEOTW, neither of which was touched at Chicago 1. But Chicago 1 was also extremely special for its performance of Bad, one of two in North America over the course of the entire tour. So, even though I only saw two shows, I feel lucky about what I did see. When the tour started, I had just finished my sophomore year in high school; now, I'm about to be a college freshman. For someone my age, this is a fairly substantial chunk of life to be following a tour, but it was a lot of fun. When I wasn't at shows, I really enjoyed everyone's company on Interference. This is a really great group of diverse people that we have on the forum, and I'm extremely thankful for it. So thank every single one of you.

Enough about me - the tour itself was pretty amazing. Last night, after the Moncton show, I threw together a little statistical pie chart showing, out of the total 2625 plays of songs on the tour, what proportion each album had. Here you go:

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Of course, No Line On The Horizon wins this race, with about 21% of song plays. It was an interesting journey for NLOTH - U2 started by promoting No Line very heavily with the tour, at first doing a solid block of four No Line songs at the beginning of every show, and then playing three later. The first leg of the tour seemed to be centered around the NLOTH songs, with surprises being thrown in along the way, and a vaguely defined space theme taking shape. In the second leg, the NLOTH songs stayed around for the most part, but setlists grew more static and a space theme was more heavily emphasized, especially with Frank DeWinne's presence on Your Blue Room and later In A Little While. NLOTH's presence started at the first's leg's seven, then dropped to six and then five for one show, before rebounding back to six and then eventually seven with the re-introduction of Unknown Caller. This leg also had the large (some would say absurdly large) presence of ATYCLB that so many people complained about, essentially propelling ATYCLB into second place in the song-plays chart. U2 would play five ATYCLB songs in one night on many dates in the fall of 2009.

2010 came quite interestingly. As Interference watched the claw under construction in Salt Leg City for what would be the third leg of the tour, once again in North America, news came that Bono had broken his back. The third leg was postponed, along with U2's long-awaited first performance at the Glastonbury festival. But, by August, Bono was back and ready to perform, as evidenced by his swing on the microphone during HMTMKMKM; he obviously wanted to prove that he was back, and, as an added bonus, his voice sounded great, too. This leg featured a sharp reduction of both NLOTH songs and the space theme, now opening with Return Of The Stingray Guitar, an unreleased instrumental song from the TUF era, with its notoriously awkward segue into Beautiful Day. Along the way, U2 debuted several new songs, all of which have yet to be released: Glastonbury, North Star, Every Breaking Wave, an updated version of Mercy, Boy Falls From The Sky, and Stingray. The fourth leg, in Australia and New Zealand, was largely a continuation of the European leg (with One Tree Hill thrown in, of course), as was the fifth leg, in South Africa.

Then came the sixth and seventh legs. No Line's presence was often reduced to three songs per night, and, for better or for worse, U2 seemed to promote the ZooTV era pretty heavily. By re-introducing Even Better Than The Real Thing (as an opener!) and The Fly, and playing as much AB on some nights as they did ATYCLB in 2009, propelled AB into third place on the chart, quite easily. Zooropa also managed to get two songs per night throughout most of the North American leg. Ultraviolet, however, was very rarely played on this leg, showing up just on second nights and at the Baltimore show, with HMTMKMKM being heavily favored (sadly, in my opinion). And that led us to the end: the tour ending with a surprise performance of "40".

This tour changed a lot over the course of two years. It kept a very basic skeleton throughout, but evolved heavily throughout the years. Here's a list of surprises that came through the tour:

- An astounding stage.
- Fighting through weather: from the pouring rain of the 2010 European leg with its gazillion Rain snippets to the practical desertification of the United States this summer.
- Rehearsals in Barcelona featuring, among more normal songs, TUF, Drowning Man, In A Little While, and Ultraviolet.
- A U2.com video indicating rehearsals of Electrical Storm later.
- More rehearsal reports indicating If God Will Send His Angels, Crazy Tonight and EBTTRT remixes, and an acoustic version of Mysterious Ways (thank God that never happened)
- A first night show with TUF, In A Little While, and Ultraviolet.
- A second night show featuring Electrical Storm
- The occasional introduction of favorites like Bad and UTEOTW through the first leg
- Rumors of rehearsals of Your Blue Room late in the first leg.
- A performance of Your Blue Room in Chicago.
- A new segue between One and Streets.
- Streaming and filming of the Rose Bowl show.
- HMTMKMKM and all of the new songs in Europe last year.
- Love Rescue Me in Australia last year.
- One Tree Hill in New Zealand last year.
- Mothers Of The Disappeared in South America (are this and the last really surprises?)
- Even Better Than The Real Thing displacing Beautiful Day as the opener in South America.
- Zooropa being played for the first time since 1993 in São Paulo, and sticking around.
- The Fly being rehearsed and eventually showing up in Anaheim.
- A bunch of little treats through the seventh leg, such as the occasional Bad and OTH.
- A very Zoo-heavy Glastonbury performance.
- And ending the tour with OOC and "40".

I'm sure I missed some - feel free to add.

So it really was an incredible. Thanks again to everyone here. Thanks also to everyone who kept us informed, from the good ol' folks at U2EastLink (remember them?) to Axver, Matthias, and Matkin at U2Gigs for, as usual, doing an incredible job keeping us informed throughout the way. Thanks to everyone who streamed and tweeted about and bootlegged and video taped shows for us along the way. And, of course, thanks to U2 and their crew for putting on an amazing tour that I'm sure none of us will ever forget.

I can't wait for the next tour. :wave: Now it's time for us to all furiously watch Where The Album Has No Name for nonexistent reports of a new album until then. :wink:

Thanks for doing all of this!!

The chart helps a lot.

Really drives home the point many make about ATYCLB on the 1st and 2nd legs. The whole last leg was devoted to AB pretty much and it didn't catch ATYCLB in terms of plays.

Overall, what a ride! To think of all the different songs that were played, how the tour evolved, the excitement of the new songs and Bono back in form in 2010, the digging through the back catalog, the list goes on. Though I am usually very critical of the 2009 gigs, I will never forget the feeling I had when I came home and saw that they'd played TUF and Ultraviolet! I'll never forget how awesome the band was playing, at the end of the tour but at the peak of their performance, tearing through those AB songs in Montreal and Philly. I'll always remember how the skies opened up at the end of MOS at Montreal 1, and how everyone didn't mind being wet(like, thrown in a pool soaked in 35 seconds) because of how great of a show they just saw. 2009 in Boston felt off, 2011 felt right again!


I basically share your sentiments, and I really wish you'd seen them on this leg! They were absolutely on fire......everything about 360 finally clicked at once!

What especially strikes a chord with me is your mentioning of how time in life passes while these tours are in progress. To look at it your way, I was just finishing up college when NLOTH was released and at the time also dealing with the loss of my father to cancer. Those first shows, and the lead up to them in Barcelona, will always have a special place in my heart as they helped get my mind back and lifted my spirits in some small way during the most agonizing days of my life. To think back to that time now, I've been out of college for 2 plus years and dealt with the same uncertainty of these times that we all are faced with. Throughout that time, 360, and all of you here, have been a constant....a loyal friend so to speak. It's amazing how people that you mentioned...here, U2 gigs, etc come together and experience so much of life together. It takes the kind of reflecting you've done here to even notice that, and I think it's a really cool thing.

On a related note, we all owe a debt of gratitude to each other and the people you've mentioned who help us get information, discuss U2 with us as friends, and help us share in our love for this incredible band!

As is true for all of us with every single tour, we all complain about songs that we don't welcome or we think over stay their welcome. We all think(sometimes validly) that if only one of us were writing the set lists, things would be perfect. Sometimes it's easier than others to criticize. However, at the end of the day, we're all here on this blue screen because we know that when they get it right, words fail to describe U2 and even when they miss a little, they're still better than anyone else out there! I think U2 really showed us, at a time when many had some doubt creeping in(did the relative failure of NLOTH get to them?, have they lost touch with this big claw contraption?, etc), what they were truly made of.

Bono especially is to be given credit here. I can't think of a time when the U2 backlash in general and the Bono backlash specifically was stronger than in 2009.(I know I'm young, all of you 1988 and 1998 folks!) At 50 years old, with the stakes higher than ever, he breaks his back, the tour is delayed and U2 are out of commission. That could have easily been the end. Instead, Bono comes back with more fire and in better vocal form than ever. He rants when he has to about political stuff, but the focus is on putting on a killer rock and roll show above all else.

In many ways, 360 parallels the uncertain times we are in now. We weren't sure what it was at first, it had trouble getting started, struggled a lot and had setbacks along the way, and ended up in a place much different that what was envisioned when it started out.

Hard to believe it's been more than 2 years, I am sure we can all remember rushing to our computers to see the 1st set list of the brand new U2 360 tour just as we did for one final time Saturday for the Moncton show!

Let us all remember:

This:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LPrPPMsB-kQ
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9T8oTYhil-Y

And this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XSZNquyeHCI
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BA9y9_zls9I

And everything in between!

U2 did it again! And try as they might to lift off into space, I think we'll all be happy knowing that U2 are still the biggest and more importantly the best band on Earth!
 
I don't have anything coherent to add right now, but I agree with much of what's being said in this thread.

I'm so fortunate to have been able to see them 4 times in 2009 and 4 times this summer. And so fortunate to have been able to meet and hang out with some really wonderful people.
 
Sadly I only got to go to one 360 show over the course of the whole tour - Tampa.
And in my opinion, no other show could have topped it.
I was in college during that time and obviously did not have money to go to other shows, and my 1 year anniversary with my fiancee was on June 29th (date of Miami) so I decided not to go

But in Tampa, I got to see Adam Clayton, who is my favorite bass player and the inspiration for why I play bass. I got in line at 5 am and waited, and waited, until we got into the stadium and I got my spot right on the front rail in front of where he would be, and I know it is his side, but armed with the various signs I had with me that he saw, he played directly in front of me for most of the time he was on his side, and I felt like he was playing to me. He would acknowledge me a lot by smiling, winking, and nodding his head to me and it made me feel very happy, knowing that the person I looked up to saw me and knew I was there. It was a cool feeling. He even pointed and gave a thumbs up and a smile after MOS :p

Not to mention Stuart saw my sign after they had left the stage and gave me one of the on stage setlists (I think from Larry's drum kit or from Edge's piano), so that made for a nice souvenir
 
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