Anybody else with evidence?
I got an email from Willie Williams that said nothing about stadiums or any other venues. All he said was that production design for the tour has not started yet, but he did hint that yes, they will be touring in 2004.
Now here is what I think:
Yes, of course the demand is there.
U2 has never, and I repeat never repeated themselves or followed the norm when it comes to touring. After hugely successful stadium tours, the band came back with a hugely successful arena tour (Elevation/greatest hits.)
I think the next tour will be a surprise for everybody.
Gone will be the Streets/Bad/Pride standards. Supposedly the band is recording an all-out guitar record.
Seeing how the Stones were able to pull off their S,M,L tour (clubs, arenas, stadiums), U2 will look to do the same (same proiduction team etc...) but tweak it a bit.
I think the Stones tried to pull off all three sizes in each major US market, but U2 may not.
My prediction:
I think the band will play arenas and stadiums in the summer with some club shows thrown in in the major markets. They will probably only play arenas in some cities where they think they will not sell out show, and play all three in major cities. What I would find amazing is if they relly broke it up and instead of playing 3 nights in lets say Boston, then 3 nights in New York, then 3 nights in DC, I think if they were able to play shows in between, like a club show in NY while they play a stadium in Boston and vice versa it woul dbe cool.
The problem is logistics always rule and it is easier to play a block of shows in a city versus one-offs.
in any event I think we should gear ourselves up for club shows (they did it before the Stones did (Irving Plaza, Manray, Astoria)), as well as stadiums as they seem to be the appropriate venues for guitar-driven songs.