Roland of Gilead
Gunslinger
I never got to see Kite on the last two tours. I'm hoping it gets a big presense on the N.A. 1st leg. I really think it is their best work from this decade to date.
Go REM.
so i saw REM last wednesday, and it was a great show, and i enjoyed it and all, and it was great to hear weird stuff -- an acoustic "let me in" from Monster was weird and wonderful -- but so few people get it. REM is also a show where they play arenas with lawns, and a lawn seat is a much different experience. it's more casual, more of a party, more room to dance, to walk, to talk, to make out, to smoke up, to drink, to sit, to talk, to lose interest, and then to get interested again. it's loose and fun and surprising, but a U2 show in a basketball or football/soccer stadium is quite a different thing. it grabs you from the beginning and it's goal is to spellbind you for a good 2 hours to the point where, if you get up to pee or get another beer, then they aren't doing their job. there's a clear beginning, middle, and end, a narrative that's at play, and that's why the set lists have much less room to mess around.
they are two different shows from two different bands. whichever style you prefer is totally up to you.
but, for me, as much as i adore REM and have every one of their albums and no matter how much my life is better for the existence of "find the river," "electrolyte" and all of Automatic for the People, when it comes to concerts,
there's U2 and Springsteen,
and then there's everyone else.
I would love to hear: Lemon-good to very good chance; Exit and Dirty Day-moderately good chance of one of them returning; In God's Country(full band)- I have more than a good hunch that this one is coming back; EBTRRT-this is coming back, for sure, at least for rotational purposes like UTTEOTW; Another time, another place-not a good chance, but I was kind of dissapointed the Boy lovefest that was Vertigo passed over this one; Heartland and Electrical storm-hoping they become to this tour what the First Time was to Vertigo-rarely played encore songs that we hear for the first time ever live. Would love both; A Sort of homecoming and Unforgettable fire-one of the two is coming for sure; and I would most like to have Last Night on Earth brought back- imagine Bono's voice now as compared to Popmart doing this song with that incredible outro again- then start right into I will follow. That would really liven up the early setlist- I would like something along the lines of: New song, New song, Vertigo, LNOE, I will follow to start us off. Chances of LNOE- honestly have no idea.
no idea on lnoe, but you why would you say that lemon, ebttrt (one of my least favorite u2 songs of all time), exit/dirty day, and uf/a sort of homecoming are coming back for sure? i would not be suprised if none of these songs are ever played live again. i really like all of them (with the exception of ebttrt) and would love to see them all, but see no reason why any of them except possibly uf or a sort of homecoming (in dublin- as a one off) will be played.
i hope i'm wrong, but u2's track record doesn't back up your very confident assertions about these songs.
Bono could simply not do Lemon anymore. His falsetto is nearly non-existant anymore. You've heard him try to do the WOWY bit at the end and fail miserably time after time. Imagine an entire song of him doing that.... that's what you'd get. Not gonna happen.
I would have to disagree. Some of his best falsettos have been hit on the Vertigo tour- MW child, highway to hell snippet in Vertigo, go to Peterr's Bono's voice website and he has a bunch of clips on this very topic. Bono's voice has only gotten stronger since end of elevation and he has learned the technical skills and how to control them and has been perfecting them since Zoo TV. Plus, Edge sings alot of that song. WOWY is simply not a made for falsetto song, thats why he tries and it does not sound too good. When he sings that song straight, they pull out some pretty good performances of it, even today.(Argentina 3-02-06, U23D, Melbourne, Sydney 2006) Bono is a better singer now than ever. Lemon is primed for a comeback, and I say 70% chance.
Please, for the Love of God, PLEASE stop playing PRIDE..... Whew! I got that off of my chest!!!
A few I'd like to see get back in the Sets:
Seconds (would kinda be cool)
TUF - I hope they "revisit" Unforgettable Fire Disc - great material there
Wire
ASOH
PROMANADE!!! - Someone above mentioned this song but I guess that would be a huge stretch for them to play this one.
Exit
OTH
Heartland - wouldn't that one put everyone's knickers in a twist
Hawkmoon 269
UltraViolet - this probably won't see the light of day again but I'd like to see it and I know Axver would hate it
Acrobat - never will happen
Dirty day
Last Night On Earth
HMKMTMKM
Walk On
You know what was quite ironic about the band after pop though? I watched a youtube vid yesterday of an interview of the band in 97 at the start of their tour and bono was talking about the next album. I can't remember his exact words but he really said that it is not in them to just go and make a soft record after pop and that he really wanted to hit it hard next time.
Funny thing is they went through 2 straight mediocre records...
Great picks- I agree with every one, and would add "Velvet Dress", "MLK", "Babyface" (yeah right), and a definitive, refreshed, live rendition of "All I Want Is You"- I think that could be an epic set-ender they haven't crushed in a while. Best recent performance I saw was at Slane.
EDIT: and LEMON. Man I love that one. And they killed it (in a good way) during ZooTV.
I never really understood these types of threads, but to each it's own...
But what does this have to do with setlists?
In fact what does this have to do with anything?
Mediocre is an opinion, I'm fine with that. But what does "mediocre" have to do with "hard"? "Hit it hard" can mean a lot of different things to different people, it can be hard sounding, it can be hard emotionally, it can mean several different things...
And how can we stay on topic about something we all are just guessing at anyway?
Nobody knows setlists, and frankly i don't know why everybody cares so much about setlists, there fun to speculate and to wish u2 played that one song... but we will only know when they actually do play the shows.
- Never play The Saints Are Coming ever again
lets just all together pretend that didn't happen.
I only want them to:
- Never play The Saints Are Coming ever again
I have a feeling that Ultra Violet will return on the next tour.
Then I will need to attend every show...
And Ultraviolet? Keep dreaming.
I don't think they consider Ultraviolet a good enough song to put back in the setlist
or, actually, that they have better songs they can play
and I wouldn't disagree