A suggestion: U2 should do little shows as well as big shows next go round.

[ravin30000]

Hi all,

I think the band should consider doing smaller shows for, say, U2.com members, in addition to big shows for the general population. Here's why...

While I was watching the band in D.C., it became obvious to me why they chose to stick with the hits for the majority of their set. When you're playing to 80,000 people who aren't U2 obsessives, songs like Beautiful Day and I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For pretty much guarantee a good reaction. Truth be told, the crowd's enthusiasm towards these songs had me dancing and singing along, even though normally I'd skip over them on my Ipod.

Contrast that with Your Blue Room, which pretty much had everyone around me baffled. Although I was psyched to hear it, it was a definite down moment for the majority in attendance, even those three rows back from the stage. Given the context, it really is risky for U2 to play such an obscure song, when they could easily substitute it for another tried and true crowd pleaser.

So although I regularly complain about the lack of deep cuts in the setlist, I understand the band's reasoning behind what they choose to play. They simply want to have as many people as possible lose their shit as much as possible without totally alienating their longtime die-hard fans.

That said, for once, I shockingly propose that the band actually FOLLOWS in the Rolling Stones' footsteps. If I remember correctly, the Stones played little club and theatre shows interspersed between big arena shows on their last tour. Although I this might be overtaxing for the band on the current tour, especially on Bono's voice, in the future, it might be cool if they do a small u2.com members-only tour in some select cities. I think this would be especially great if they did it between album cycles, so there wouldn't be any pressure to promote a particular record. That way, they could play whatever they wanted, to an enthusiastic audience that knows their catalogue intimately. In other words, CRAZIER, STRANGER, MORE CHALLENGING AND EXCITING SETLISTS with plenty of lesser known album cuts, b-sides, covers, Pop and Zooropa songs (had to say it).

This way the die-hards finally get what they want. And the band gets what they want, because U2.com memberships would go through the roof!

What say you?

 

[Rob33]

Well, I'm not sure about having an only U2.com members gig, as I think they could broaden their horizons in that regard. In theory, your idea makes a lot of sense, but to me it just seems too good to be true.

On a similar note, I think it is at least a possibility in the future that U2 intersperse arena shows in between bigger stadium gigs, and I think that'd work to some extent...but I really can't imagine theater/club gigs in between stadium gigs. Either way, I think this is very unlike U2 in pretty much every way, and I doubt we'll ever see this happen.

 

[cobl04]

i tell you all, i'm right, these all boil down to the same thing.

 

[KhanadaRhodes]

i don't know how feasible it'd be since anyone could get a ticket to the show (all you'd need to do is buy a u2.com membership). but it'd certainly be neat if they tried.

you know what else would be neat? if they played somewhere in alaska. no, i'm not taking the piss out of the thread, i'm serious. they've never played there and since they've played in hawaii three times now...

 

[digitize]

They should play a gig for only Interference members with over a couple thousand posts.

 

[Axver]

They should play a gig for only Interference members with over a couple thousand posts.

Interferencers with over 100,000 posts get to design the setlist.

What's this you say, there's only one such Interferencer ..? Why, 'twas just an innocent suggestion!

 

[bonoschild2009]

Or maybe a gig for those who have been brought on stage over the years? They could even play a schoolhouse gig for the kiddies who have lapped stages with Bono since the Elevation Tour!!!

 

[bigjohn2441]

nah, not enough money in playing smaller shows. mcguine$$ would never allow that.

 

[digitize]

Interferencers with over 100,000 posts get to design the setlist.

What's this you say, there's only one such Interferencer ..? Why, 'twas just an innocent suggestion!

That can be changed.

 

[ouizy]

In all seriousness - I fully agree.

My ideal tour is a stadium tour with some surprise club gigs in some of the cities.

When they played Irving Plaza in NYC a few years back it was outrageous.

Pushing even further - let those club gigs be raw. Have the Upstaging rigs take all the crap to the next city, and let the band stay for a one off, random setlist, no lights, screens, neon mics - just a great rarity set. NO hits. B-sides, things they ahve not rehearsed in years. etc.

I would much rather see them screw up every song in a club than see a polished sparkling stadium gig where Bono does the same thing night in and night out.

 

[chels82]

Pushing even further - let those club gigs be raw. Have the Upstaging rigs take all the crap to the next city, and let the band stay for a one off, random setlist, no lights, screens, neon mics - just a great rarity set. NO hits. B-sides, things they ahve not rehearsed in years. etc.

Just the mere idea of it makes me giddy.

There are a lot of large bands who have done fan club gigs with great results. Blur did a B-sides only fanclub gig in a small venue 1998 which was a HUGE hit. I know they're not quite the caliber that U2 is, but still...

 

[cleazer]

just a great rarity set. NO hits. B-sides, things they ahve not rehearsed in years. etc.

I would much rather see them screw up every song in a club than see a polished sparkling stadium gig where Bono does the same thing night in and night out.

You all know darn well that U2 would never play a setlist full of songs they haven't rehearsed in years. They sit down and rehearse songs over and over and over until they feel they're ready to play onstage.

 

[muh2o]

You all know darn well that U2 would never play a setlist full of songs they haven't rehearsed in years. They sit down and rehearse songs over and over and over until they feel they're ready to play onstage.

And Bono still forgets half the lyrics

 

[blueeyedgirl]

REM did the 5 rehearsal shows in Dublin. Springsteen does solo theatre shows. It can be done, if the will is there

 

[U2387]

In between album cycles, I think this would work very well. Just take a couple of months, don't do a gig every night, take your time, go at your own pace and have fun. Play small clubs and theatres(Paradise Boston, House of Blues Boston, etc) and have a fan club lottery or make tickets available to fan club members in the area only, etc.

Of course, there would be logistical issues with the venue capacities versus the number of fan club members. However, I am sure some system, random or otherwise would work out in a reasonable equitable way if people who have alot more experience than us with this put some intelligent thought into it.

Even have the fans attending the show weigh in on some of the songs they would like to hear in advance, that way the band could get them ready.

I like this idea alot, and think that it is not as unfeasible as some would like to think.

 

[digitize]

An issue with this is that the band seem to hate small venues, having fought to get out of them until TUF.

 

[dal975]

The concept of U2 doing small club shows mid-world tour, while a dream of mine and seemingly so logical and easily executed, is so very much the opposite on so many levels of everything U2 has become that if it were to happen i would be absolutely speechless. Overjoyed, but speechless. That's one of the things about U2, at least to me, is that my fanship endures at a high level despite the unbelievable and often stagnant predictability of the group.

The staggering part to me is that aside from the recent promo tours, U2 hasn't done a proper club show mid-tour in 25 years or so, give or take. (Yes, I am aware of Irving Plaza, Astoria and Somerville, among others. It's hard for me to include those, as those were carefully crafted events for select audiences designed speecifically to coincide with and promote the new album releases and to test new material. And while Irving Plaza and Astoria were absolutely incredible, Somerville was way too short and weak IMO).

There are so many things I'd like to see them do, but I know they won't. I'd like them to mix in club shows mid-tour with so-called deeper cuts. I'd like them to play songs other than Stuck in a Moment, Stay, Angel of Harlem and Desire acoustically (think WOWY, Streets, Kite, among others). I'd like them to mix up their setlists more than they do, rather than accept the fact that because they play Magnificent 2nd as opposed to 4th and eliminate NLOTH its considered a major setlist shakeup. I'd like them to make me think there is a small chance that they'll fool everyone just once and play Bad or 40 or Love is Blindness after Moment of Surrender. But they rarely, if ever, do any of those things which might be considered hard-core fan friendly.

To be fair, a good exception I can recall is the fantastic (surprise?) Manray Club performance in Paris from October, 2000. Now THAT is would I would like more of from my favorite band.

 

[The John Tree]

I don't like U2 in a club for the same reason I don't like U2 on SNL or Letterman...too small a stage, not enough room for Bono to really set the stage on fire (though he does well on SNL with running into the audience).

What I do think would be cool is an arena version of the 360 tour. Just scale everything down a bit. I know that the whole point of 360 is "look how fucking big this is!" but I still think a mini-claw would look awesome in an arena.

 

[Shawn Bonneau]

They should do a night at Madison Square Garden and advertize it as DieHard fans only with no hits. Then do a Greatest Hits night for casuals later

SMB

 

[Blue Room]

I don't like U2 in a club for the same reason I don't like U2 on SNL or Letterman...too small a stage, not enough room for Bono to really set the stage on fire (though he does well on SNL with running into the audience).

What I do think would be cool is an arena version of the 360 tour. Just scale everything down a bit. I know that the whole point of 360 is "look how fucking big this is!" but I still think a mini-claw would look awesome in an arena.

Well, to be fair, in an arena there is no need for a claw. The whole concept of the claw is so they can put an arena type stage in a stadium as obviously most stadiums dont have a roof to hang the lighting truss from.

An arena version of 360 would basically be the Vertigo arena stage for the most part. Essentially thats what the 360 stage is, just more in the round and twice as big. I wouldn't mind some arena shows. But there is no need this time out. U2 are selling well in stadiums even in N. America so arenas are out this tour. Maybe next tour.......

 

[SethVincent]

I think the band should consider doing smaller shows for, say, U2.com members

Other than Larry Mullen Jr.'s Posting on a School Bulletin Board this is the best idea I have ever heard in 40 years on this planet
















From a Marketing aspect ie; $$$$$ as already noted U2 dot com membership's would explode

 

[powerhour24]

As cool as some of these ideas are, I do have one problem, and that's the throwing the hits under the bus as if you wouldn't love them if they were more obscure, you're letting their popularity and the fact that they've been done some many times distract from how well written these are, or at the very least the history you can feel in the crowd surge when they come up, (or in the case of One, and Elevation, just how much they mean to the band or how much they like playing them), as much as I'd love to see some of my other favorites, I think the fair and realistic thing is to look for when they intersperse songs into their lineup, like the Boy/AB tracks on Vertigo, and TUF on 360, its great fun to imagine shows like this, but its not going to happen in the middle of the biggest stadium tour in history. You can say Elevation is just a straight-up rocker sure, or that some of the older material needs some new arrangement or love, but come on, its not like you wouldn't like to see them do WOWY/ISHFWILF as a show-stopper again, right?

I think we'll be getting a few more albums and tours out of the band before they wrap things up, I think they'll pare down the spectacle ala Vertigo/Elevation for awhile before closing out with their biggest shebang yet, and it'd be cool to see them do something along these lines prior to that huge finale.

 

[The John Tree]

powerhour24, I agree with just about everything you said.

I never listen to ISHFWILF when I'm listening to the Joshua Tree. I skip over it and go to something more obscure, like "Exit". But when I hear it live? I go crazy. And there's no doubt in my mind that hearing Still Haven't Found live would be better than hearing Exit. Of course it'd be nice to hear both, but I'd take "Still..." any day of the week.

While I think songs should be chosen according to the theme of the show (which is why I'm thrilled about the Ultraviolet/WOWY "heartbreak and infidelity" portion of the current show), I think you have to take into account the general vibe of the crowd.

I loved hearing Your Blue Room live in DC a few nights ago. But I think I liked watching it on YouTube more, because when I was watching it from Soldier Field on my laptop, I didn't have to witness the life being sucked out of the audience as they sat down or went for beers.

I know that there's a large portion of the fanbase that could care less about what the rest of the crowd thinks, but to me, and I am as hardcore as they get, I still like the watch the crowd go wild for Streets. I still jump up and down to Vertigo and Boots. And it still makes me sad when something like YBR gets no love.

The best thing to do is find those middle ground songs. Unforgettable Fire is recognizable enough to the average fan that they can get into it, even if they don't exactly know it.

And Ultraviolet, while being one of the less "popular" tunes in the major canon, is just so fucking good it's undeniable, regardless of how many people know it. Especially live.

 

[ravin30000]

powerhour24, I agree with just about everything you said.

I never listen to ISHFWILF when I'm listening to the Joshua Tree. I skip over it and go to something more obscure, like "Exit". But when I hear it live? I go crazy. And there's no doubt in my mind that hearing Still Haven't Found live would be better than hearing Exit. Of course it'd be nice to hear both, but I'd take "Still..." any day of the week.

While I think songs should be chosen according to the theme of the show (which is why I'm thrilled about the Ultraviolet/WOWY "heartbreak and infidelity" portion of the current show), I think you have to take into account the general vibe of the crowd.

I loved hearing Your Blue Room live in DC a few nights ago. But I think I liked watching it on YouTube more, because when I was watching it from Soldier Field on my laptop, I didn't have to witness the life being sucked out of the audience as they sat down or went for beers.

I know that there's a large portion of the fanbase that could care less about what the rest of the crowd thinks, but to me, and I am as hardcore as they get, I still like the watch the crowd go wild for Streets. I still jump up and down to Vertigo and Boots. And it still makes me sad when something like YBR gets no love.

The best thing to do is find those middle ground songs. Unforgettable Fire is recognizable enough to the average fan that they can get into it, even if they don't exactly know it.

And Ultraviolet, while being one of the less "popular" tunes in the major canon, is just so fucking good it's undeniable, regardless of how many people know it. Especially live.

That's precisely my point. Do all the crowd pleasers at the big shows for the casual fans, then do some really cool small shows for the diehards who want more obscure stuff. Just because a show is small, doesn't mean it can't be extraordinary. 500 diehard fans losing their minds can, in ways, be more exciting than a stadium of half-interested folks. Plus, I think by doing smaller shows, they can actually do a Your Blue Room better, because it's the type of song suited for a smaller environment.

 

[Rob33]

That's precisely my point. Do all the crowd pleasers at the big shows for the casual fans, then do some really cool small shows for the diehards who want more obscure stuff. Just because a show is small, doesn't mean it can't be extraordinary. 500 diehard fans losing their minds can, in ways, be more exciting than a stadium of half-interested folks. Plus, I think by doing smaller shows, they can actually do a Your Blue Room better, because it's the type of song suited for a smaller environment.

but this is so unlike U2...I can't imagine them ever thinking about it like this

 

[ZooMacPhisto800]

I think it might really suck to attend such a show. Dude next to you screaming for "Night and Day (Steel String Remix)", we might come off as a bunch of losers.

 

[kramwest1]

I think it might really suck to attend such a show. Dude next to you screaming for "Night and Day (Steel String Remix)", we might come off as a bunch of losers.

I'll be yelling Lady With The Spinning Head, thank you very much.




The fact that I don't see U2 doing this means that they probably will. I don't think it will be next summer that they play small venues, but maybe sometime before whatever follows 360. I'm surprised to read things from the band that they still seem interested in touring past 360. I really thought this tour might be the end for a while.


Mark

 

[david]

It would be great if they did a small ampetheatre. The acoustics would work so well with Bono's voice. We saw that last year when they did that small performance and the clips found their way on the internet.

 

[bonoschild2009]

what about an acoustic set/show a la Unplugged? I think several of their songs would work well in that kind of setting... HA! I could imagine I Threw A Brick unplugged.....banging on the bongos........right into A Day Without Me (yeah, right)

 

[ZooMacPhisto800]

I'm surprised to read things from the band that they still seem interested in touring past 360. I really thought this tour might be the end for a while.

They need to recupe lost momentum...