How will 360 be topped?

[Achtung11]

Hi everyone, I was recently at the Montreal show and like many of you, I was euphoric afterwards for 2 days. It was absolutely amazing, not only because of the bands performance, but because of the phenomenal stage design/screen/lights.

Now I can't help but wonder:

1) How will 360 be topped (by U2 or anyone else), or will it even be topped?
2) Will U2 even try to top it, or will they do the stripped down Elevation type shows for the rest of their career to take a safer route?
3) If/when they play stadiums, will 360 viewing be standard, or will they resort back to the norm of not selling seats behind the stage?

Obviously there are no hard answers on this, even U2 doesn't know. But I want to see what fellow U2 fans think about this. Prior to seeing the 360 tour, in my mind I always thought that intimate shows in arenas > giant stadium shows, and was even disappointed when they announced a stadium tour. But all of that has changed now, and I feel that 360 was even better than Elevation/Vertigo.

I can't imagine in my mind how they would be able to top "the Claw", but then again, I never imagined that happening to ZOOTV.

Now this is silly, but what about other bands? Will the Rolling Stones, Green Day, or anyone else even attempt at doing something as spectacular? IMO 360 blew the Stones' Bigger Bang tour out of the water, and given that the Stones are the only other band besides U2 who spend so much time and money on stage design, I'm curious to see how their next tour will be (it is rumored to happen next year), although I'm not expecting much.

 

[Streets613]

U2720

 

[LemonMelon]

As long as they supply novelty mullets, plaid shirts and Britney Spears posters for their different generations of nostalgic fans, and then play LOTS OF HITS, I'm happy.

They should consider touring the moon next time though.

"The GA list started in Ft. Lauderdale. I thought you knew? Relax, keep your helmet on, you're still #11,578."

 

[nirniva]

With a mirrorball.

Spoiler

Serious answer: It won't be, but I doubt they'll go as minimal as Elevation/Vertigo. My money's on an arena tour with either a Popmart-ish screen or a mini-Claw setup.

Oh, and maybe they could finally use that "sound spotlight" tech they've been talking about for ages.

 

[nickoslo]

next tour:3d projectors and holograms

 

[U2BROTHR]

Dare I say....may it possibly be the last tour ever? I dunno. I think this Moncton gig might have a huge reveal. A symbolic passing of the instruments to Arcade Fire.....just like The Police did to U2 many years ago? I hope not. But after watching 6 shows on this leg, I'm starting to think the writing might be on the wall.

 

[mrnathan15]

Dare I say....may it possibly be the last tour ever? I dunno. I think this Moncton gig might have a huge reveal. A symbolic passing of the instruments to Arcade Fire.....just like The Police did to U2 many years ago? I hope not. But after watching 6 shows on this leg, I'm starting to think the writing might be on the wall.

You're not the only one worried about this possibility

 

[mikal]

by the time they actually release a new album again, they may parade around the stage with mirrorball walkers and wheelchairs.

 

[nickoslo]

Dare I say....may it possibly be the last tour ever? I dunno. I think this Moncton gig might have a huge reveal. A symbolic passing of the instruments to Arcade Fire.....just like The Police did to U2 many years ago? I hope not. But after watching 6 shows on this leg, I'm starting to think the writing might be on the wall.

if they would be passing instrumetns to someone they should be to muse and no other...

 

[digitize]

The U2 Are Cashing In On Their Pensions Tour.

 

[cobl04]

if they would be passing instrumetns to someone they should be to muse and no other...

That is my vision of hell.

 

[Achtung11]

I read an article recently with Adam and the Edge in which they talk about touring possibly in 2013. I'm trying to find the link, but I definitely read it. Adam went as far to say that there is sure to be a debate between an arena and stadium tour. While an arena tour is much more simpler, a stadium tour is a lot shorter, and that will be the debate within the band. I'll post the link as soon as I find it.

 

[Tinwal]

"Popropa Town"

....sorry...

 

[superglen]

I read an article recently with Adam and the Edge in which they talk about touring possibly in 2013. I'm trying to find the link, but I definitely read it. Adam went as far to say that there is sure to be a debate between an arena and stadium tour. While an arena tour is much more simpler, a stadium tour is a lot shorter, and that will be the debate within the band. I'll post the link as soon as I find it.

"shorter" in terms of number of shows.
actually, 360 was the LONGEST u2tour in terms of duration (25 months), but had as little as 110 shows. elevation had 113 shows in only 8 moths and a week; Vertigo was scheduled to have about 130 shows over 12 months.

bottom line: u2 prefer doing stadium tours because they make shitloads of money. more "customers", more gross, less shows, less work, less fatigue, less travel. the V tour had $389 million from an audience of 4,619,021 over 131 shows; the 360 will end having more than 7 million spectators, in only 110 shows, and has arleady grossed $676,157,831 in the 101 shows up to Chicago.

 

[zoopop]

No way this is the last tour. They signed a 10 or 12 year deal w/ Live Nation before the 360 Tour?

But U2 is on top of their touring game right now. 2009 was a rehearsal for the band and claw, while in 2010-11 they have gotten more comfortable with the claw.

I don't know what U2 should do from here. If anything, it would be cool to put a emphasis on musicianship and do a bunch of rarities. Rarities for U2 still rock a stadium.

One of the coolest tours was Stones in 2003. Touring clubs, stadiums, & arenas. U2 could do something like this. Play a stadium w/ a U2 production, big hits, etc. Then do an arena show w/ lesser known songs, lesser production.

The band seems to be at a crossroads on the next record and I think they really want a U2 hit again (BD, Vertigo).

 

[Galeongirl]

Guys, trust me on this one. It's definitely NOT the last tour. And the next one may happen faster than you expect..

 

[Christie]

Guys, trust me on this one. It's definitely NOT the last tour. And the next one may happen faster than you expect..

Yeah everyones trying to play the last big hurrah tour card... No I don't buy it! The contract with Livenation negates that! Music is a tough business right now! Touring is where the money is at! I don't think stage wise U2 will top it! But with technology advances who knows what we might see?
And the next tour happening quicker than we think! Yeah I buy that cuz like I said touring brings $$$
I'd be happy with a scaled back show i'm a simple girl as long as the band shows i'm happy!

 

[subnet]

the end is the beginning is the end tour

 

[brooklynmike]

I think about all this stuff- how they're gonna top it, etc... after each tour since ZooTV. I think really hard about how they can do it different, better. How are they gonna do something that hasn't been done before. How are they gonna do it without resorting to being cheesy like the other pop acts? I get stressed out for a minute.

Then I realize I'm not in the band and this is Willie's problem, not mine

But tour after tour I'm blown away by what they've come up with (except maybe a little less blown away by the Vertigo stage which at first seemed like Elevation II, but more spectacular)

 

[hand0lotion]

As diehard fans, we hope they'll be willing to return to doing arenas next so we can get more intimate with them. But will they? As mentioned earlier, less work on their part, less shows, less fatigue, less travel, more money quicker and also more prestige for them (news headlines screaming "U2 sold out Invesco Field!" sounds better than "U2 sold out ___ arena!", no?)

But seeing that they were willing to scale back from Popmart stadiums to Elevation arenas, there's hope for arenas next!

They have a few albums worth of songs in the pipeline now, why would they wanna stop touring now?

 

[The Moska]

It's hard to forsee this but I'm pretty sure next tour may be the last one and it's going to be intimate. By intimate I mean, U2's intimate, which may be arenas in North America and stadiums in Europe/Latin America/Oceania. Similar to what they did on VT. I also think they're gonna play rarer songs on the next tour, The Edge mentioned that in an interview lately.

 

[IanIinTheSky]

Dare I say....may it possibly be the last tour ever? I dunno. I think this Moncton gig might have a huge reveal. A symbolic passing of the instruments to Arcade Fire.....just like The Police did to U2 many years ago? I hope not. But after watching 6 shows on this leg, I'm starting to think the writing might be on the wall.

That is just absurd.

 

[hand0lotion]

This is very depressive. I have some optimist thoughts:

If we judge solely by who's at the top of their touring game (quantified by what percentage of the audience leaves a show feeling like, "WOAH! Some concert!"), and not on their age, Britney Spears should stop touring before U2 does.

A friend saw Britney at Summerfest in Milwaukee, and said friend was disappointed. I think she echoed quite a few members of the audience in her review to us: lip-synching her songs, only an hour-long performance, 90s dance routine (walking quickly to one side, doing the fisty powpowpow thing), clunky dance moves (with fisty powpowpow thing), sprayed-on abs (as it appeared from the second row). Let's not forget part of Britney's schtick is dancing and looking fit. Our boys know that they can't dance, at least they know.

Ok, back to U2 and ack to pessimism. I just watched a fan meet-n-greet id of Bono in Salt Lake 2011. Someone was making convo with Bono while he signed, "Do you plan to come back to SLC lots?" Bono goes something like (and you can practically hear the "nah...") "We love performing for all of you who have given us a great life, but it takes a lot of energy to do this. We have families to think about..."

I'm sure you all've heard Bono say this before

 

[corianderstem]

A friend saw Britney at Summerfest in Milwaukee, and said friend was disappointed. I think she echoed quite a few members of the audience: lip-synching her songs, only an hour-long performance, 90s dance routine (walking quickly to one side, doing the fisty powpowpow thing), clunky dance moves (with fisty powpowpow thing), sprayed-on abs (as it appeared from front row). She said Nikki Menarge (?!) was much better at Summerfest.

Was she actually expecting Britney to sing????

(and it's Nicki Minaj )

 

[hand0lotion]

whoops, sorry I edited the Britney reiew while you were posting. No, my friend wasn't surprised at all, although I was shaking my head *silently* and secretly being elitist thinking, thank heavens I have a higher music group to worship

 

[corianderstem]

I have major love for some Britney songs, but yeah, I certainly don't feel the need to go see her in concert.

 

[Rachel D.]

I think this could be the last huge U2 stadium tour. They seemed to be trying to cover all the bases and visit places they'd never been before or hadn't been to for a long time. And this has been a really long tour. I'm guessing that they'll do arenas next time and it will probably be a lot shorter, maybe like Elevation. They've had the biggest tour in history, played to 7 million people, and broken all the records; been there, done that, and now they can relax.

I've always gotten the impression that Larry really doesn't want to tour that much; I can see him being the one putting the brakes on and wanting to stay home with his kids, while Bono seems to really enjoy it. Listening to the live feed from U2.com the other night, it sounded like Bono was crying a few times, and he usually doesn't seem to do that until the very end of the tour. I thought it was a little strange that he was losing it when there were still six or seven more shows to go.

 

[hand0lotion]

^no, Larry still wants to "schlepp" his ass around the world because he believes in touring.

I need to get out of this thread. /melancholy & depression

 

[Galeongirl]

Larry is actually the one that wants to stop this tour lol. Bono wants to keep going.


But yeah, I doubt they'll try to top 360, it'll be either similar or downscaled. But PLEASE continue to play stadiums, at least in Europe. I don't want to have arena's here, they're WAY too frickin' small so it'd be a horror getting tickets.

 

[Headache in a Suitcase]

Anytime you have a band that's getting up there in age, you can never be completely sure if it's the last tour or not. We already came very close to the end with bono's back surgery. Just take it all in, savor the moment, and hope for a few more.