War horses

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Brian Louwers

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U2 is not the Grateful Dead or Phish -- thankfully, with all due respect -- and so we must apparently live with the war horses and static set lists interspersed very rarely with rarities. Most fans will happily accept that. Love it or hate it, it's just the way it is. We'll get our nightly doses of Pride, Streets and Sunday, Bloody Sunday. But I'd be remiss if I don't ask, why play SBS 37 times and not play, say, New Year's Day? I mean, that is also a war horse. What gives? Where's the love for New Year's Day, arguably one of their biggest songs ever? Did I miss something?
 
Car bombs as background for New Years Day? I'm not feeling it. It's as much about what is going on on the video screens as it is about the music. Not a whole lot of flexibility there


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I want rotated sets as much as the next guy.

After seeing the show 4 times... Iris through Invisible just plain works. It just works. It's incredible. They shouldn't change one bit of it.

Bullet into Pride? That really fucking works, too. I don't know how it would work in Europe as it's very US centric a transition, and Hands would be just strange... alas. It works.

It's the other, non themed slots where we should see the changes. There's no reason to play Vertigo and I Will Follow every night.

No reason why Even Better Than The Real Thing can't rotate, or why the E stage songs can't have an even wider variety to them.

And for fucks sake get a better transition into Streets.

But the themed parts of the show are absolutely phenomenal in a live setting and should not change until everyone has had a chance to see them.
 
BVS said:
Yeah, seeing the same songs over and over written on your screen can be boring.
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This needs to be someone's signature or a mandatory response from now on in the set list threads. :applaud:

Headache in a Suitcase said:
There's no reason to play Vertigo and I Will Follow every night.
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If it's a song everyone knows, that's always going to be a reason and a leg up, no matter how we look at it.
 
I love NYD as much as anyone (top 5 U2 song for me) and I wish they'd play it every show. But it wouldn't fit well in the SBS spot, it would fit better late in the 2nd set. It would be great if paired in a trio with October and Every Breaking Wave. You get everything in that trio: A new track, a rarity, and a classic warhorse; it's a win for everyone.
Please, on the other hand, would be a great fit for SBS's spot and it would be a great rotational spot. Obviously, North and South Of The River would be the absolute most perfect fit in that spot for many reasons, but it will never happen. Hey, but who knows, they tried Your Blue Room last go around, I guess anything is possible (besides Acrobat and Red Hill Mining Town).


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trevgreg said:
If it's a song everyone knows, that's always going to be a reason and a leg up, no matter how we look at it.
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I'm not saying eliminate them completely... I'm just saying there are songs that can be rotated with OTHER songs that everyone knows.

There are a shit load of U2 songs that everybody knows.

You have your songs that are themed, yes, almost like a Broadway show (hardly the first time they've done it, hardly the first act to have done it)... and those sections are spectacular live.

You have your must plays... Streets, The Miracle as the lead single, Every Breaking Wave even.

Aside from that there are a ton of U2 songs that are well known that can be rotated in and out with ease that wouldn't effect the scope of what they're going for.
 
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My biggest complaint would be that songs like Who's Gonna Ride Your Wild Horses don't get played. It's a song that the crowd knows and loves (watch some Vertigo shows for evidence). It's perfect for a theme of experience and it is a pretty great frikin song. You can throw some more songs like SATS, Kite, Please, Tryin To Throw Your Arms, Love Is Blindness, Discotheque, etc into that category as well.


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You could easily include Verigo and I Will Follow into the rotation section that opens and include other uptempo songs like Wire, The Fly, In God's Country, Exit, New Year's Day, A Sort of Homecoming, etc

Discotheque, Crystal Ballroom, Zoo Station could easily rotate with Even Better Than The Real Thing.

The e stage is open to anything.

That's the only thing that would make this tour better. I get keeping the early Dublin section together through the opening after the intermission with Invisible. It fucking works.

I get Bullet into Pride. It also works.

But if you're going for multiple gigs, it would be great if there was a bit more rotation in some of the other slots.

That's my only criticism of this tour. Generally speaking it's phenomenal.
 
cobl04 said:
Does Iris>Cedarwood>SFS work?


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yes, i would say it does. it fits the theme of what they're going for, and the flow from "don't let it go out..." into the more dark, violent portion of the first set... SBS - Raised By Wolves - Until The End Of The World works quite well.

i know a lot of people don't like Song For Someone, and i can't blame them for that... but yea, i think thematically it works quite well.
 
The only part I think is clunky - and I'm being realllllly picky - is at the end of the "free yourself to be yourself" when it's only Bono...he shouldn't say anything there..just have Edge fire up the opening notes of Cedarwood. If he really feels the need to say something, he could do it during that intro.

"...only you could see yourself...." (Guitar intro)


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Headache in a Suitcase said:
yes, i would say it does. it fits the theme of what they're going for, and the flow from "don't let it go out..." into the more dark, violent portion of the first set... SBS - Raised By Wolves - Until The End Of The World works quite well.

i know a lot of people don't like Song For Someone, and i can't blame them for that... but yea, i think thematically it works quite well.
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Cool. It just doesn't seem right on paper, to go from slow modern U2 ballad to an uptempo rocker back to slow modern U2 ballad before going into the intense SBS/RBW/UTEOTW section. Seems like you'd swap SFS and Cedarwood. But it works live?


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I think the Dublin section all the way to Invisible works, but SFS doesn't have to be there. I get that Bono wants to tell that story, but I don't think it works as well live. But it's one of my least favorite U2 songs overall, so I'm probably not the right person to judge.

Absolutely agreed on Vertigo. It doesn't have to be there and doesn't even fit thematically. And from the crowd reactions, I think everyone would be fine with another up-tempo song (I think the crowd is into it because it's a rocker, not because it's Vertigo). I Will Follow has the connection to Iris, so that's probably why they don't want to change it. I don't know why they can't extend this opening sequence to 5 rockers before Iris, for example. But even if they keep it to 4, they could do something like this:

Miracle
Electric Co./ Gloria
11 O'Clock / Two Hears
I Will Follow / OOC
Iris

I think the show loses cohesiveness starting with EBTTRT. They could do EBTTRT/Mysterious Ways one night and, say ZooStation/The Fly another night (Discotheque/Mofo if you are being ambitious).

The end of the main set and encore has too many of the hits packed in, but the crowd seems to love it. Bad or The Troubles after WOWY solves some of these problems. They could probably replace One/ISHFWILF for Bad-40 and the show would be awesome. I feel COBL could also rotate, but not with Miracle Drug.
 
cobl04 said:
Cool. It just doesn't seem right on paper, to go from slow modern U2 ballad to an uptempo rocker back to slow modern U2 ballad before going into the intense SBS/RBW/UTEOTW section. Seems like you'd swap SFS and Cedarwood. But it works live?


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I feel it does.

Could another song replace it? Maybe. But what song? Perhaps Running To Stand Still, as it's a Dublin song, but chronologically speaking that song comes AFTER Raised By Wolves.

The light bulb as an idea... The spark behind the band, behind love, and the representation of innocence is huge in the first set... from The Miracle through the end of Until The End Of The World.

Song For Someone is the glue that holds that theme together... and the "if there is a light, don't let it go out" ending as a lead in to the haunting, stripped down version of Sunday Bloody Sunday, the explosion that is Raised By Wolves, and the epic culmination and conclusion that is Until The End Of The World... as far as showmanship and storytelling goes, it just works.

They're clearly telling a story at the beginning. Some have mocked it as a Broadway play... but that's exactly what they're aiming for, and they're hardly the first act to do it. Call it their Pink Floyd moment if you want... it's visually stunning, and if you see it for the story they're trying to tell and not just for the songs themselves I absolutely feel it works at an incredibly high level.
 
They should definitely swap Cedarwood Road and SFS. I think having an Iris and SFS combo (plus IWF) is great because those two songs are about the two most important women in Bono's life and it makes sense to have them together. Then move to the part that's about where they grew up and what it was like, which is the Cedarwood Road, SBS, RBW, and UTEOTW section.

So:
1. The Miracle
2. Rotational spot (early stuff)
3. Rotational spot (rockier stuff that fits in with the theme or early stuff)
4. IWF
5. Iris
6. SFS
7. Cedarwood Road
8. SBS
9. RBW
10. UTEOTW

There's plenty I would do with the second set but for the first set this would work a bit better than what they're doing.


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Is everyone overlooking that SBS has been rearranged and is completely different in character? This is the best that song has been since the late 80s. Never thought I'd say this, but they should play it every night. The Iris - Invisible section of the show is U2 at their best, and they haven't been at their best for over 20 years. Everything works: the songs, the theme, the visuals. I hope that in the future they embrace their artistic inclinations more, because they're great conceptualists and usually execute them well. I don't know why they often want to be more ordinary. And yeah, 360 was ordinary. An ordinary bloated stadium rock show. I&E is great arena art rock. What U2 is meant to do.
 
Hollow Island said:
UTEOTW could be rotated with Please though.
Add Mofo before Iris.
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No. No. No. UTEOTW should be played every show. Please should rotate with SBS, rotating with UTEOTW would make no sense thematically.
But I agree about Mofo. I had some hope early in the tour that they would try it, but it's looking much more grim, especially since they stopped snippeting it.


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thavidesco said:
Sunday should have been retired for good after Lovetown
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debbie-downer.jpg
 
bobsaget77 said:
Those Lovetown performances of SBS really set the standard. :up:


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U2 at their best, as far as playing. Obviously they later became much better at the visual aspect and putting on a "show", but those live bootlegs are extremely powerful.


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The_acrobat said:
U2 at their best, as far as playing. Obviously they later became much better at the visual aspect and putting on a "show", but those live bootlegs are extremely powerful.


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I wish they actually played it during Lovetown, though. :) :lol: I'm sure they would've been great performances. The JT versions, IMO, are truly untouchable. Lovetown was full of amazing performances, especially of Bad, Streets, Running To Stand Still, Hawkmoon, etc. Those are some of my favorite bootlegs for sure.
Elevation was a great comeback for the song, Vertigo was awful, 360 was okay and I/E versions have been pretty good.


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I was calling for an end to Bullet after Vertigo tour. And they must have heard my pleas and retired it for 360. Now it's cool that its back. Just needed a rest.

Happy to see no Walk On on I+E

UTETOW is amazing live.
 
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