Opening act?

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Discovered lots of favorites over the years as openers for U2. BoDeans on Joshua Tree tour have been a long time favorite. Didn't care much for Kings of Leon at the time, but have come to enjoy them as they have refined their sound. Thought Snow Patrol was awesome and have seen them since on their own. Enjoyed Black Eyed Peas in Vegas. Not necessarily my cup of tea...but the Peas were fun. Arcade Fire in Montreal was memorable...I remember coming in with GA tickets thinking why the hell is the floor so packed almost immediately after the gates opened. Public Enemy was a strange fit, but they actually somehow worked at Camp Randall Stadium in Madison as that had to be one of wildest U2 shows I can remember.
 
popacrobat said:
I'm not exactly timing the shows when I go to them, but I'd say that U2 play between 2 and 2.5 hours at the shows I've been to.
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On Vertigo, U2 would hit the stage normally between 8:50 and 9pm and play till 11:15ish.

Opener would start exactly at 8 and play for half an hour. Would be 20-30 minutes between the opener and the band.
 
One show I saw on the Vertigo tour:

- 8:57 PM - "Wake Up" played
- 9:00 PM - "City of Blinding Lights
- ~11:20 PM - Show ends

Now, to be fair, that show was Chicago 9/20/05 and that one was kinda weird.

One show I saw on 360 Tour:

- 8:45 - "Space Oddity" plays
- According to the setlist party thread, 8:56 - "Even Better Than the Real Thing", but I Think there may have been some delay.
- ~11:18 - Show Ends

Again, that was a weird Chicago show (the one with One Tree Hill)

But, both shows were the same length, or thereabouts, 2 Hours, 20 Minutes.
 
Dallas 360, just so we have a less popular city to look at:

9:01 - Space Oddity
9:09 - Breathe
~11:00 - Show Ends

So, there you go. 2 Hours.
 
Certain cities used to penalize acts for going past 11PM. I bet different curfews for each venue. But all the shows I saw in NYC/ Boston seems to be 2 hours and 20 minutes on average... I never saw a shorter show and I recall 22-24 songs were played.

Anyway -- fuck the opening act. I'm old. I prefer if the show was 8-10. I just want to see U2. Am I alone?

The worst was watching Patti Smith like 12 times... I think that was her...

The best was when at Boston, I thought there were playing a CD of BUSH, but it turned out to be Gavin's new band playing LIVE... that was exciting.
 
Maybe that explains it indeed. Both Amsterdam and Dublin have curfews, Dublin was 11pm I think and Amsterdam something similar.
Don't really recall how long the Brussels or German shows were.
 
clerks said:
Anyway -- fuck the opening act. I'm old. I prefer if the show was 8-10. I just want to see U2. Am I alone?
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I like having an opening act, knowing the band could kick ass but there's absolutely nothing they can do to stop the inevitable train of awesomeness that is U2 on right after them.:hyper::hyper::D
 
clerks said:
The worst was watching Patti Smith like 12 times... I think that was her...

The best was when at Boston, I thought there were playing a CD of BUSH, but it turned out to be Gavin's new band playing LIVE... that was exciting.
Click to expand...

This is the worst opinion I've seen on here in ages.
 
clerks said:
Certain cities used to penalize acts for going past 11PM. I bet different curfews for each venue. But all the shows I saw in NYC/ Boston seems to be 2 hours and 20 minutes on average... I never saw a shorter show and I recall 22-24 songs were played.
Click to expand...

I'd say just about every venue has a curfew. Some are enforced due to city rules, some due to union rules, some both. But there's always a curfew.

In the case of Madison Square Garden, it's the unions, and they are very, very expensive. Like $10,000 per minute expensive.

Many acts will negotiate a later curfew prior to the shows specifically to avoid the obscene OT rates.
 
The Boxer Rebellion (great band loved by a lot of U2-fans and... they deserve it!), Editors, Interpol and Kasabian (once again!), White lies, Joy Formidable (mentioned earlier) , Grimes, + special guests Simple Minds, Big Country w. MIke Peters, Clannad.

The Boxer Rebellion:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HKTAXkpGceQ
 
bono_212 said:
One show I saw on the Vertigo tour:

- 8:57 PM - "Wake Up" played
- 9:00 PM - "City of Blinding Lights
- ~11:20 PM - Show ends

Now, to be fair, that show was Chicago 9/20/05 and that one was kinda weird.

One show I saw on 360 Tour:

- 8:45 - "Space Oddity" plays
- According to the setlist party thread, 8:56 - "Even Better Than the Real Thing", but I Think there may have been some delay.
- ~11:18 - Show Ends

Again, that was a weird Chicago show (the one with One Tree Hill)

But, both shows were the same length, or thereabouts, 2 Hours, 20 Minutes.
Click to expand...


You got Discotheque on the 1st show and One Tree Hill as a closer on the 2nd show. Nice.


Sent from my iPhone using U2 Interference
 
Only opener I've ever enjoyed enough to even consider buying their record was Keane. And maybe Stereophonics. Everything else has been garbage, IMO.
 
Of all the openers for u2 i have seen.
Great- Pixies, Rage Against the Machine, Primus
Good- Kings of Leon, Muse
Eh- The Corrs, Nelly Furtado, PJ Harvey, Snow Patrol
Terrible- Institute, 3rd Eye Blind, Smashmouth,

Wishlist for E+I
Manchester Orchestra
Explosions In the Sky
Frightened Rabbit
Glen Hansard
 
Seen them five times:

Elevation - PJ Harvey (had a friend at the time who was a big PJ Harvey fan - when I told her PJH opened, my friend was very jealous.. but I thought the performance was pretty awful)

Three times on Vertigo - First was Kings of Leon (well before they had any popularity and their sound didn't really work in the arena), second and third was Institute (I was a big Bush fan and into the Institute cd at the time, so that was cool - although admittedly the crowd only reacted to the Bush songs)

360 - Snow Patrol - was a huge Snow Patrol fan at the time so I enjoyed it immensely - ( they played Open Your Eyes which was a song that meant a lot to me at one point in my life), and it being after Run and Chasing Cars were big hits the crowd were into it - sang along to Shut Your Eyes as well, to which Gary Lightbody was taken aback lol.

For this tour (May 23 in Phoenix) I second Interpol - really like El Pintor. Modest Mouse maybe? They'll have a new album out around the time. Also a wild card would be Jimmy Eat World seeing as their local to here.
 
jphelmet said:
Of all the openers for u2 i have seen.
Great- Pixies, Rage Against the Machine, Primus
Good- Kings of Leon, Muse
Eh- The Corrs, Nelly Furtado, PJ Harvey, Snow Patrol
Terrible- Institute, 3rd Eye Blind, Smashmouth,

Wishlist for E+I
Manchester Orchestra
Explosions In the Sky
Frightened Rabbit
Glen Hansard
Click to expand...

They are from your backyard! Nice to see some hometown support! :)

I'd vote for Phantogram, Metric, New Politics, Black Rebel Motorcycle Club, Thirty Seconds to Mars.
 
I'd like to see a good Canadian band opening for them in Toronto. I would flip for it to be somebody like the Rheostatics (unlikely since they broke up a couple years ago), The Tragically Hip or Big Sugar. Not a chance on any of those bands though.

Matt Mays & El Torpedo or the Joel Plaskett Emergency opening for U2 would probably kill me out of sheer awesomeness.

That being said, they'd probably get Magic! or something :|
 
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