PopFly
War Child
So this idea is based around the idea that U2 will release Songs Of Experience after their scheduled 2015 dates are completed. It would actually be awesome if, during the last show in Dublin on November 28, Bono announced that the new record was now available on iTunes or whatever or the band had a physical release ready for the Xmas market.
ANYWAY, I was thinking about what an "Experience" show might look like. The current setlist is very well put together thematically going from U2's young days to today, whereas having a show fully centered around just 'experience' is somewhat more difficult to pull off.
But, my basic idea is this. They start the show with four straight new songs from SOE. Then they go through 13 straight older songs, picking one from each of their previous 13 albums before finally ending with one more SOE track. So essentially you're getting a through-line of U2's entire history in one show. Then you get a 4-5 song encore of a few more hits and maybe one more new track, assuming that U2 actually has something on the new record that's a good show closer rather than falling back on One, Bad or ISHWILF.
The 13-song rotation allows for quite a bit of variety as obviously U2 could swap out one album's representative song for another on any given night. One night Boy's representative can be 'I Will Follow,' the next night it can be 'Electric Co,' etc.
There's also no real rule that says U2 has to follow their actual album chronology. So they could go ATYCLB song-Unforgettable Fire song-Rattle & Hum song-NLOTH song and so forth rather than Boy-October-War-UF, etc. This allows for more flexibility with shaping the 13 songs into a "musical journey" as U2 like doing with their setlists or telling a story a la the 10-song Innocence set.
You might argue that U2 would be limiting themselves from not being able to fully sample their best-known albums and songs, though this isn't really the case. Consider their Amsterdam show from last September 13....the band played songs from 10 of their 13 current albums, so already a lot of variety. The I+E tour has already showcased tracks from 12 of the 13 albums, save anything from Pop. The encore also allows U2 to fit in any "extra" songs --- so for instance, Streets/WOWY will both still always get played, just with one in the main set and one in the encore.
Sample setlist...
1. NEW SONG
2. NEW SONG
3. NEW SONG
4. NEW SONG (which hopefully has a great natural intro into...)
5. Where The Streets Have No Name
6. I Will Follow
7. Mysterious Ways
8. Gloria
9. Angel Of Harlem (acoustic)
10. Stay (acoustic)
11. Magnificent
12. City Of Blinding Lights
13. New Year's Day
14. Beautiful Day
15. Staring At The Sun
16. Raised By Wolves
17. Bad
18. NEW SONG
----encore break
19. One
20. Vertigo
21. Pride
22. NEW SONG
23. With Or Without You
Whaddya think?
ANYWAY, I was thinking about what an "Experience" show might look like. The current setlist is very well put together thematically going from U2's young days to today, whereas having a show fully centered around just 'experience' is somewhat more difficult to pull off.
But, my basic idea is this. They start the show with four straight new songs from SOE. Then they go through 13 straight older songs, picking one from each of their previous 13 albums before finally ending with one more SOE track. So essentially you're getting a through-line of U2's entire history in one show. Then you get a 4-5 song encore of a few more hits and maybe one more new track, assuming that U2 actually has something on the new record that's a good show closer rather than falling back on One, Bad or ISHWILF.
The 13-song rotation allows for quite a bit of variety as obviously U2 could swap out one album's representative song for another on any given night. One night Boy's representative can be 'I Will Follow,' the next night it can be 'Electric Co,' etc.
There's also no real rule that says U2 has to follow their actual album chronology. So they could go ATYCLB song-Unforgettable Fire song-Rattle & Hum song-NLOTH song and so forth rather than Boy-October-War-UF, etc. This allows for more flexibility with shaping the 13 songs into a "musical journey" as U2 like doing with their setlists or telling a story a la the 10-song Innocence set.
You might argue that U2 would be limiting themselves from not being able to fully sample their best-known albums and songs, though this isn't really the case. Consider their Amsterdam show from last September 13....the band played songs from 10 of their 13 current albums, so already a lot of variety. The I+E tour has already showcased tracks from 12 of the 13 albums, save anything from Pop. The encore also allows U2 to fit in any "extra" songs --- so for instance, Streets/WOWY will both still always get played, just with one in the main set and one in the encore.
Sample setlist...
1. NEW SONG
2. NEW SONG
3. NEW SONG
4. NEW SONG (which hopefully has a great natural intro into...)
5. Where The Streets Have No Name
6. I Will Follow
7. Mysterious Ways
8. Gloria
9. Angel Of Harlem (acoustic)
10. Stay (acoustic)
11. Magnificent
12. City Of Blinding Lights
13. New Year's Day
14. Beautiful Day
15. Staring At The Sun
16. Raised By Wolves
17. Bad
18. NEW SONG
----encore break
19. One
20. Vertigo
21. Pride
22. NEW SONG
23. With Or Without You
Whaddya think?