European Set Changes

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Setlist is much better in last few weeks.
Delighted they got rid of that Cedarwood Road and Iris section ,it was poor,a real crowd killer.
Great to have more Achtung Baby songs in the mix .
 
Setlist is much better in last few weeks.
Delighted they got rid of that Cedarwood Road and Iris section ,it was poor,a real crowd killer.
Great to have more Achtung Baby songs in the mix .

Iris was actually very good.
If your looking for a crowd killer just look at the encore.
Move LIBTAIIW to finish for a start.
 
With the latest setlist changes & new songs, this is what I’d do if I were writing the setlist based on what they’ve played recently, not including rehearsed songs not yet played. Some moving around to make more lively encore.

And FWIW I cant stand Elevation opening the first break then going into Vertigo. Doesn’t fit darker section of songs. I like them broken up. Too similar Imo.

1)Blackout
2)IWF
3)Gloria
4) Best Thng (full band)
5)RFD
6)Beaut Day
7)Unf Fire
8)Stay
9)Wld Hrses
10)Zoo Statn
-Hold/Thrill me vid-
11)Until End/World (more explosive opening, segue into Vertigo)
12)Vertgo
13)Even Betr
14)Acrobat
15)Summer Love
16)Pride
17)Get Out
18)NYD
19)CoBL
20)Elevtion
-break-
21)One
22)Love is Bigger
23)13
24)Lights Home

If they add The Fly, is drop it in right after the Hold Me Thrill Me vid. Fits the motif- their fall from grace >>love shines like a burning star falling from the sky etc.
 
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It's mind blowing to me that Elevation is still in the set but Red Flag Day can't get played;
there's been some nice changes to Euro setlists but dropping all the SOI songs seems odd as does the heavy focus on AB; and losing SATS is a major loss IMHO
 
It's mind blowing to me that Elevation is still in the set but Red Flag Day can't get played;
there's been some nice changes to Euro setlists but dropping all the SOI songs seems odd as does the heavy focus on AB; and losing SATS is a major loss IMHO

Elevation gets a massive crowd response, whether you like the song or not.

Dropping Innocence was something that should have happened before the tour began.

Starting At The Sun could have worked with a different video... so I have no issue there.

An emphasis on Achtung Baby is only natural if they're going to completely ignore Joshua Tree.
 
Elevation gets a massive crowd response, whether you like the song or not.

Dropping Innocence was something that should have happened before the tour began.

Starting At The Sun could have worked with a different video... so I have no issue there.

An emphasis on Achtung Baby is only natural if they're going to completely ignore Joshua Tree.

Don't really agree on the SOI songs, I think they absolutely could have picked better choices and constructed that part of the set better but I really liked the through line of those songs and it just seems so damn logical!!

And I get Elevation, but like the JT hits, it was performed every night on the JT30 tour so why not give that a rest too?
 
I agree with mofo82. Despite the recent changes in the setlist, some things still puzzle me - like the "Elevation" and "Vertigo" combo introducing a more "politicized" section that brings that Macphisto reissue back, like the lack of narrative after "Beautiful Day" with the new choices, like having a "warm" song like "Lights Of Home" without a real orchestra in second place of the setlist after "The Blackout" that already is an unusual starter for the way the band is "introduced" on stage... Etc.
I still think this tour is a missed opportunity in many ways.
I was never a fan of having a tour of celebrating the old glories as JT30 was. Plus, when I think of "Experience" I think, not only in the personal factor in the lyrics, but also in the show experience. And I think that the JT30 tour should've been instead an Experience Tour on stadiums, not a reuse of a 3 year old arena tour.
Another missing chance for me is the tease we got with the BBC orchestral TV performance. I wish someday U2 would tour with a small orchestra or perform staple songs on tour with local orchestras from the city's venue. That, for me, would be an "experience". And SOE has so many moments that would point in that direction...

Based on that, I made a setlist of an alternate stadium Experience Tour with the band accompanied in certain moments of the show my an orchestra. Probably this is an unachievable and stupid idea (you want orchestral, intimate, but stadiums at the same time?), but anyway, here it goes...

- intro: Love Is All We Have Left [pre-recorded] -
The Blackout
Lights Of Home [w/ orchestra]
You're The Best Thing About Me [w/ orchestra, original arrangement]
Beautiful Day [w/ orchestra, extended intro]
I Will Follow [a]
Iris
Raised By Wolves
Who's Gonna Ride Your Wild Horses
Stay (Faraway, So Close!)
The Little Things That Give You Away
The Troubles [w/ orchestra] [c]
- interlude: Goldeneye [orchestral] -
Hold Me Thrill Me Kiss Me Kill Me [w/ orchestra and 'real' Macphisto back]
Acrobat [Macphisto still]
Staring At The Sun [acoustic driven, full band, Larry on djembe]
Summer Of Love [w/ orchestra, full band, Larry on djambe]
Miss Sarajevo [w/ orchestra]
One [w/ orchestra]
Get Out Of Your Own Way [w/ orchestra / outro leading into...]
Zooropa [with 'The Great Dictator' mashed up into the intro]
The Unforgettable Fire [d]
Pride (In The Name Of Love)
Where The Streets Have No Name

City Of Blinding Lights
Love Is Bigger Than Anything In Its Way [w/ orchestra]
13 (There Is A Light) [w/ orchestra]

[a] "I Will Follow" switchable by "Gloria"
"Who's Gonna Ride Your Wild Horses", "Stay (Faraway, So Close!)" and "The Little Things That Give You Away" switchable by "Red Flag Day", "Until The End Of The World" and "Sunday Bloody Sunday" [w/ orchestra]
[c] "The Troubles" switchable by "All I Want Is You"
[d] "The Unforgettable Fire" switchable by "New Year's Day"
 
Do tell me the TIGHT NARRATIVE behind Bullet The Blue Sky (a song about American intervention) into Running To Stand Still (a song about heroin) into Streets (a song about Africa) into Pride (a song about MLK).

Obviously they've had static setlists, and they've had segments in the past that have common themes, but i/e was the first time they tried to tell a story with their set. It was phenomenal, but there was zero reason to carry it over to this tour, and it's totally unnecessary to try and recreate another narrative for this tour.
 
Do tell me the TIGHT NARRATIVE behind Bullet The Blue Sky (a song about American intervention) into Running To Stand Still (a song about heroin) into Streets (a song about Africa) into Pride (a song about MLK).

Obviously they've had static setlists, and they've had segments in the past that have common themes, but i/e was the first time they tried to tell a story with their set. It was phenomenal, but there was zero reason to carry it over to this tour, and it's totally unnecessary to try and recreate another narrative for this tour.
Good point
 
Do tell me the TIGHT NARRATIVE behind Bullet The Blue Sky (a song about American intervention) into Running To Stand Still (a song about heroin) into Streets (a song about Africa) into Pride (a song about MLK).

Obviously they've had static setlists, and they've had segments in the past that have common themes, but i/e was the first time they tried to tell a story with their set. It was phenomenal, but there was zero reason to carry it over to this tour, and it's totally unnecessary to try and recreate another narrative for this tour.


You could've bring other examples. No one's saying that U2's past tours have a tight narrative from the intro to the last encore, nor that's what this current tour needs. No one's saying that a U2 show is a Broadway music. But there's a strong guideline and some theatrical aspects (not only scenic) in all U2 shows and tours over the past 30 years that most rock shows from the past and from the present (again, I said most, not all) do not have. That's part, among other things, of what distinguishes a U2 show from someone else's.
Though not as explicit as the way they did in the Innocence Tour, there's a connection and a purpose in terms of 'story' in the opening "Mofo" > "I Will Follow" > "Gone" sequence, as well as in the opening tracks from Zoo Tv, as well as in the second half of Vertigo Tour's mainset, as well playing Boy and October songs right after "City Of Blinding Lights" and/or "Vertigo" in that same tour... Etc. There's no denying in that.
 
You could've bring other examples. No one's saying that U2's past tours have a tight narrative from the intro to the last encore, nor that's what this current tour needs. No one's saying that a U2 show is a Broadway music. But there's a strong guideline and some theatrical aspects (not only scenic) in all U2 shows and tours over the past 30 years that most rock shows from the past and from the present (again, I said most, not all) do not have. That's part, among other things, of what distinguishes a U2 show from someone else's.
Though not as explicit as the way they did in the Innocence Tour, there's a connection and a purpose in terms of 'story' in the opening "Mofo" > "I Will Follow" > "Gone" sequence, as well as in the opening tracks from Zoo Tv, as well as in the second half of Vertigo Tour's mainset, as well playing Boy and October songs right after "City Of Blinding Lights" and/or "Vertigo" in that same tour... Etc. There's no denying in that.

I didn't deny that. I actually acknowledged just that.

But that isn't a narrative - which is what this was about. A narrative is, by definition, a story.

Playing songs that have similar themes is not a story. A theme to a section is not a narrative. It may be semantics but there's a distinct difference.
 
A manager
Says the sheets don’t wanna be cleaned...for...free
The blacklight
Is this an ejaculation event we see?


Blacklight
It’s clear
All old stains will appear
Blacklight
Oh dear
Some bodily fluids were spilled here
Here!
 
will U2 have the balls to not play any songs that they played in 2015 for the final show? Off the top of my head it would be missing:



Pride
Sunday Bloody Sunday
I Will Follow
Beautiful Day
Vertigo
Elevtation
City of Blinding Lights
One
Real Thing
Bad
Mysterious Ways

everything from the Joshua Tree


They've said that playing City of Blinding Lights fills the hole left by Streets so what do they fill that hole with now? I think Zooropa could work, but they played half of it in 2015 and it would a be a bit weird to play the same song that's used in the intro to the show.


If they follow through with this idea they'll have to drop eight songs that they played last show. What do you think they'll replace the songs with?
 
I read that Willie comment as not being literally every tune played in 2015, but all 'bits' of the 2015 show. Meaning like the innocence suite. Every other repeated song is at least used/presented in a diff context from the 2015 show. Like COBL now used as the Streets song. Or Vertigo moved from opening to mid set. Or Pride used in a 'current Times' narrative now. Or One to open the encore instead of close. Or Beautiful day in early set as opposed of end of set. It keeps what they consider as essential songs, but uses them different than 2015 show, so that if you were watching g the 2015 and 2018 live DVD back to back, they wouldn't be carbon copies.
But that said, IWF and Real Thing are almost used exactly the same way. Really hoping IWF would get switched out for Out of control/Electric co/ 11 o'clock but no sign of that (I think they like the warm recognition it receives from the casual fan, after the 2 new songs that might not get recognized)
 
I read that Willie comment as not being literally every tune played in 2015, but all 'bits' of the 2015 show. Meaning like the innocence suite. Every other repeated song is at least used/presented in a diff context from the 2015 show. Like COBL now used as the Streets song. Or Vertigo moved from opening to mid set. Or Pride used in a 'current Times' narrative now. Or One to open the encore instead of close. Or Beautiful day in early set as opposed of end of set. It keeps what they consider as essential songs, but uses them different than 2015 show, so that if you were watching g the 2015 and 2018 live DVD back to back, they wouldn't be carbon copies.
But that said, IWF and Real Thing are almost used exactly the same way. Really hoping IWF would get switched out for Out of control/Electric co/ 11 o'clock but no sign of that (I think they like the warm recognition it receives from the casual fan, after the 2 new songs that might not get recognized)
That's how I read it as well.

We're going to film, so we don't want people who see the film to see the same show segment they saw in the last film.

Makes you wonder why they thought that people going to the show wanted to see the same show segment...

Alas
 
Yes. Can we not entertain the idiotic notion that he meant no songs from the i+e tour as opposed to no SOI songs?

Can we please not entertain the idiotic assholery of criticizing taking a man at his word? This is what Willie said:

As we intend to film the last show in Berlin [13 November 2018], we don't want anything that was in the 2015 show, so the band have been shaping up alternative numbers while we're programming."

You can interpret that to meam set pieces but there's nothing idiotic at all about inferring that to mean they'd be replacing some numbers with others. In fact, it makes more sense to take him literally rather than translate "numbers" to mean "set pieces." Numbers are songs. But what Headache suggests is probably more likely than the literal meaning if Williams' words.
 
Sometimes people don't say exactly what they mean. Sometimes people mishear something and reprint it inaccurately.

I'll repeat what I said: if you think they're actually going to drop every warhorse from i+e and replace them with others, especially considering what we know of this band and what the setlists currently look like, yes, you're a gullible idiot.

I'd be really happy to be wrong, but all we've seen so far supporting these Williams comments are the replacing of the SOI suite in the first half with AB/Zooropa material. Which fits the interpretation of the sane people on this forum. If their goal is to actually jettison 9 more tracks within the next 12 shows and replace them with something else, I'd think we'd be seeing a lot more experimentation and shuffling around by now.
 
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