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phommel said:
They are not Bruce Springsteen...
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and a shame that is.

frankly i'm less concearned with the lack of setlist rotation now that they've gone back to big multimedia stadium clusterfucks... there was no reason to have it so set in stone for the past two arena tours, but ah, whatever... i enjoyed myself.

but i will be going to just the two shows at giants stadium... if they had rotating setlists i would considering going to more and traveling further, but especially in this economy spending hundreds and thousands of dollars to see the exact same show in a different city just ain't worth it.
 
Headache in a Suitcase said:
and a shame that is.

frankly i'm less concearned with the lack of setlist rotation now that they've gone back to big multimedia stadium clusterfucks... there was no reason to have it so set in stone for the past two arena tours, but ah, whatever... i enjoyed myself.

but i will be going to just the two shows at giants stadium... if they had rotating setlists i would considering going to more and traveling further, but especially in this economy spending hundreds and thousands of dollars to see the exact same show in a different city just ain't worth it.
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When the Tour is designed to be big "multimedia stadium clusterfucks" (awesome phrase btw) do people honestly expect the band to alter their setlist? You have to consider the work in reconciling the visuals/lighting with the music - you can't go screwing w/that stuff......unless this tour has virtually little to no visuals (so far no one has any info on this) we will have static set-lists....at least until the break.
 
Obviously I have way too much time on my hands, but when I heard Edge say that they'd play about "half the new album" I started doing the math. Hmmm, 11 tracks, and the first 6 and Breathe are all must-plays, no? That adds up to 7... what if they have to cut it down to 6 total... what gets cut? Could it... could it possibly be... MOS? Arrgghhh!!!!!! : profound worry: lol
 
subnet said:
absolutely positively true

I was there to witness PopMart and I gotta say, the set was dope and the music was thumpin

what I liked about PopMart was all the phat bass that Adam brought into town
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:up:
 
To everyone getting upset about the variability of the set,

At least U2 are touring your country. The people of Melbourne would be happy to hear any setlist...
 
arzcrack said:
To everyone getting upset about the variability of the set,

At least U2 are touring your country. The people of Melbourne would be happy to hear any setlist...
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QFT dude, QFT :up:


hang in there, i have no faith in god or religion but i hang onto my faith in u2 and that they will come here next year.
 
that said Vertigo tour was fine in the setlist department

phommel said:
They are not Bruce Springsteen...

Furthermore this is only an issue for people attending multiple concerts.
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That never stopped the complaints before, though. :shrug:
 
U2 have never cared much (admittedly) about pleasing the superfans who attend many shows and follow all the bootlegs. It's not even close to a priority for them--they're interested in the first-timers, the casual fans, the people who can only afford to go to 1-2 shows.
 
I personally would take an amazingly choreographed show with transitions and a natural "flow" to it, like an album, or, really, like a musical theatre production, before a spontaneous back-catalog-love-fest. There are ZooTV people and Lovetown people, I guess, and I'm much more of a ZooTV person. The problem is when you come close to having neither, which the Vertigo Tour kind of did at times, although the fifth leg was nice in that it had elements of both and worked very well.
 
bram said:
U2 have never cared much (admittedly) about pleasing the superfans who attend many shows and follow all the bootlegs. It's not even close to a priority for them--they're interested in the first-timers, the casual fans, the people who can only afford to go to 1-2 shows.
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as it is with most bands- at least 70% of the audience will be casual fans and they're going to be more interested in the hits than obscure album tracks-

it's not just U2, almost all older bands do the same thing- REM have inflicted Everybody Hurts on me everytime I've seen them- I'd happily never hear that song again- but the casual fans would rather hear that than Swan Swan Hummingbird or whatever- Joe Bloggs going to his first U2 show will be more excited about Pride or Beautiful Day than hearing old album tracks or b-sides

I'm going 7 times this tour and it doesn't bother me if I see more or less the same show each night, I haven't seen U2 so many times in the past (about 8 or 9 times since 1993) that I'm fed up with the usual suspects- and everyone knows what U2 are like with set lists so why go 20 times and then moan about it??
 
i would love for them to retire some of the hits, but in reality i never, ever listen to those songs apart from an actual concert. i won't mind hearing pride, i will follow, nyd, etc. since i haven't listened to any of them more than a handful of times in the last couple of years. they are songs i wouldn't miss if they retired, but they sound pretty good to me live since i never listen to them.
 
Someday, U2 should dedicated a show of two for diehard fans. Or, if they are gonna do 4-5 shows in a city, dedicated the last show to diehards and advertise it as that, so only diehards or people who wanna hear the out there stuff, buy tickets. It would be a cool idea. Hawaii was kinda like that where a lot of diehards were there. Only casual fans were really locals and celebs

SMB
 
Shawn Bonneau said:
Someday, U2 should dedicated a show of two for diehard fans. Or, if they are gonna do 4-5 shows in a city, dedicated the last show to diehards and advertise it as that, so only diehards or people who wanna hear the out there stuff, buy tickets. It would be a cool idea. Hawaii was kinda like that where a lot of diehards were there. Only casual fans were really locals and celebs

SMB
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That would be awesome.
 
i agree its stupid because the hardcore fans were with them when the casual fans dropped them during Pop some other albums. they should throw some rarites into the setlist.
 
I don't know. It's been a long career; trying to figure out "real" fans from "casual" ones would drive them insane.

They sell a lot of tickets. They generally get favorable critical reception. They put on a great show - one that I think is a good band for the buck. That's probably what they shoot for.
 
Perhaps a one-off show in Dublin, London or NYC... Or maybe one in all 3 including LA and Sydney, just for diehard fans. No hits, just rare stuff... The can call it "U2: For the Fans"

SMB
 
if U2 would play 3 rarities chances are they would butcher at least 2, probably all 3 of them
this is not exactly a band that can bang out every song they ever recorded after 5 minutes of practise

at Vertigo someone near us went completely (and I do mean completely) nuts when she heard the New Year's Day intro
yes, people like that do still exist!
maybe next time that happens I should go to the person and tell them to reduce their reaction to maybe an appreciative nod until they play something along the lines of Pete the Chop
 
Shawn Bonneau said:
Perhaps a one-off show in Dublin, London or NYC... Or maybe one in all 3 including LA and Sydney, just for diehard fans. No hits, just rare stuff... The can call it "U2: For the Fans"

SMB
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just think, they would have to rehearse for about a year to be able to play a show of entirely rarities. either that or ever song would be terrible, 2.5 min versions of just edge on acoustic guitar and bono reading the lyrics from a sheet the whole time.
 
ahittle said:
Tonight Only: Snobs, Elitists, & Geeks :drool:
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I'm all three... :drool:

jphelmet said:
just think, they would have to rehearse for about a year to be able to play a show of entirely rarities. either that or ever song would be terrible, 2.5 min versions of just edge on acoustic guitar and bono reading the lyrics from a sheet the whole time.
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A rare acoustic version of Discothèque!
 
I just saw in the NY Times that Steely Dan (not a fan) are playing a run of four shows in New York somewhere. The first three are dedicated to playing classic (again, not a fan) albums in their entirety. The fourth show is a "fans' request" show. I think people are supposed to submit song suggestions online.

Anyway, that's a much different scope. U2 are still working the biggest band in the world angle and they don't want the average fan leaving confused or anything less than ebullient.

Maybe when U2 are relegated to playing smaller venues, they can court the weirdo obsessives like all of us. But, they'll probably quit before playing the fun fair circuit. :D
 
Maybe they will devote some time in the future to older songs- I remember recently reading that the Edge and/or Bono had mentioned reworking older songs or albums or something to that effect...I've thought it would be cool to have like "U2 Unplugged" or something like that....hmmmm- how to incorporate a Trabant into an unplugged set? :hmm: I guess you could fill it with candles or something!
 
The only problem with these "fan request" shows is that inevitably the most popular requests will be the hits that everyone knows - and for the most part, that they already play. Sure, it might get you a couple of deep cuts, but anybody hoping for a setlist of rarities is going to be disappointed.
 
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