Bono and his incessant/inane chatter during concerts

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the first time i ever heard streets live i got the "africa! africa! equality! africa! freedom! ooooyayyaaayayyyayyy omamama weeeeeaaaaaweeeaaaamaamaamaaa" version of the intro. at the time i was in tears because it was my first time hearing streets live but i remember begging in my mind for him to shut the fuck up so i could hear it properly. between that, the 3 minute intro to miracle drug and the butchered vertigo version of bullet, the bootleg from that show is basically unlistenable to me, which is a shame.

he's better now but during vertigo he seemed incapable of getting the fuck out of the songs' way to an irritating degree.
 
I'd like his discussions to be more focused for sure, and he can blather. WHen I give the "U2 as church" comment, I know I am not inventing the wheel here, but understand I wasn't on a forum with the most intense fans in the world...it is a toss off phrase I use. But given my complete disillusion with religion, and being married to a catholic school teacher and having been raised in a very religious household (kids...if you overburden your children with religion, they will leave the church), I do search for moments of meditation where I can. And U2 shows have always felt like what I imagine others get out of church. I don't nitpick the particulars because I don't listen to 75 bootlegs (yet...I just found the U2Start repository).


I get why it can be annoying...any preaching can get on the last nerve. Music just served as a soundtrack to my progressive leanings, and I want to hear his more clever stuff. Hell...even the Eeny Meeny Miney Moe thing makes more sense now after that RS article. I don't want to get to the point where I hate what he does, I guess. I worked in sports media for a while in a different life, and I love sports, yet I started to hate the players because I knew too much about them. If I had stayed in that field, I would likely be as disgruntled as every sportswriter...when you wonder if they hate the players and the game because they are always negative, they actually do.


I enjoy Bono's blathering. I don't know if there is a right/wrong answer here (well, actually, there isn't. No "don't know"). But I also appreciated his conservation of words during this JT show
 
Sicy said:
Lol he's been a member here for 17 years. You're too new to know this is a perfectly normal post for him.



And actually I agree. At my show these people behind me were like JUST SHUT UP AND PLAY MUSIC!! :lol:
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Nice to see an interesting topic from older Interference members. [emoji16]

When I'm attending a show, I haven't minded the chatter. And Sicy, I find the people around me to be the most annoying. I'm not in GA anymore - my old legs can't stand all day for that. So I'm amazed at people leaving to get beer 3-4x, talking, looking around, doing everything but watch. Then there are others who insist they stay seated during a show and are upset with anyone who stands during a big song.

I will say if I hear the show again via official or boot, the chatter can be too much, but I tolerate that a lot more than when Bono wouldn't let a song end like he did on the Elevation and Vertigo tours. I don't mean a cool extra verse, just him mumbling away long after the band stopped playing. End it and move on.
 
doctorwho said:
Nice to see an interesting topic from older Interference members. [emoji16]

When I'm attending a show, I haven't minded the chatter. And Sicy, I find the people around me to be the most annoying. I'm not in GA anymore - my old legs can't stand all day for that. So I'm amazed at people leaving to get beer 3-4x, talking, looking around, doing everything but watch. Then there are others who insist they stay seated during a show and are upset with anyone who stands during a big song.

I will say if I hear the show again via official or boot, the chatter can be too much, but I tolerate that a lot more than when Bono wouldn't let a song end like he did on the Elevation and Vertigo tours. I don't mean a cool extra verse, just him mumbling away long after the band stopped playing. End it and move on.
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nice to see you, doctorwho. :up:
 
The only thing I don't mind are the repeat lines he loves to pull out repeatedly. Some really need to be retired. For example:

-"Following America into the bathroom with the liner notes, asking questions"
-"There is no end to grief, that's how I know there's no end to love" - there's no cleverness in citing one of your song lyrics in reaction to terrorist events
-"America is more than a country, it's an idea" - even the TV show Designated Survivor is getting in on using this line!
-"Thanks for giving us a great life" - time for a new sign-off line!
 
Hewson said:
I have said here before, as big an ego as David Lee Roth has, he knows enough to shut his trap when Eddie Van Halen is playing a solo, Bono needs to learn the same.
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THIS. Holy shit, THIS. As a massive massive Edge fan he REALLY needs to STFU sometimes when Edge is soloing. Definitely that "Cate Blanchett - this is for you" pisses me off every time I hear it.

I remember the two times I managed front rail in front of Edge on 360 where I could see his face clearly, and the patience of a saint that man has playing the riff to ISHFWILF over and over and over and overrrrr again while Bono went on about a pile of shit....:D:D:D:wink:
 
Y2K said:
-"America is more than a country, it's an idea" - even the TV show Designated Survivor is getting in on using this line!
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Fuuuuuuuuuck. Don't even talk to me about this... when he does it in Canada. When I go to shows down there I'm sick of it but I can still take it - but UGH. I wanted to throw shit at him in Vancouver on I&E (and in Montreal that line evidently got booed haha).

Also super sick of "The world needs more Canada". Dude. We've heard that a fucking billion times - and I will bet anyone $131.59 (currently $100 USD) that all of Parliament Hill is going to hear that shit on Saturday.... :lol:
 
Y2K said:
The only thing I don't mind are the repeat lines he loves to pull out repeatedly. Some really need to be retired. For example:



-"Following America into the bathroom with the liner notes, asking questions"

-"There is no end to grief, that's how I know there's no end to love" - there's no cleverness in citing one of your song lyrics in reaction to terrorist events

-"America is more than a country, it's an idea" - even the TV show Designated Survivor is getting in on using this line!

-"Thanks for giving us a great life" - time for a new sign-off line!
Click to expand...



I actually have so much appreciation for them on the whole "thanks for giving us a great life" line. Yes it's used a lot but every time I hear it, it sounds sincere. To me it's them acknowledging that they have an amazing life because of their fans. It makes me appreciate them so much more when they say that.

But on all the other quotes....yeah, Bono needs a refresh.
 
"Eighteen million people with HIV are alive because of you AMERICAN TAXPAYERS."

What about the other taxpayers around the world? They don't count or what?
 
EdgeFest said:
Fuuuuuuuuuck. Don't even talk to me about this... when he does it in Canada. When I go to shows down there I'm sick of it but I can still take it - but UGH. I wanted to throw shit at him in Vancouver on I&E (and in Montreal that line evidently got booed haha).

Also super sick of "The world needs more Canada". Dude. We've heard that a fucking billion times - and I will bet anyone $131.59 (currently $100 USD) that all of Parliament Hill is going to hear that shit on Saturday.... :lol:
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Did he say that shit about America in Vancouver? Absolutely sickening, given the state of the States these days. People should have left on the spot
 
Headache in a Suitcase said:
I mean... I get on boner for his boner for America as much as the next guy, but the shows are in the US. What the fuck else do you expect him to say?
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how about nothing? sing the fucking songs and get off the stage. there comes a point when saying less is saying more, but that appears to be utterly lost on bono

... my point is part of the larger narrative of this thread. with regards to your specific point, it's dully noted and certainly fair
 
Didn't even know this was a thread when it happened to me last night. Was watching the Chicago JT show that guy put on Youtube ... and Bono "ha'd" and "woah'd" over half of the iconic new year's day guitar solo. Sigh :)

Many MANY years ago - like late 80s -- I was driving someplace with a friend who was in a struggling local band. I had a bootleg playing on the car's cassette (!!!) player... of an October tour show in Boston. And Bono was chattering on between songs, as he's wont to (still) do. And my friend lamented how impossible it was to find singers who could front a band and riff and connect with an audience like that. I'd never have dreamed there would come a day we'd be wishing he'd just shut up and sing. :lol:
 
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