Streets vs. Streets vs. Streets vs. Streets vs. Streets vs. Streets vs. Streets

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TheEdge25

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Where The Streets Have No Name is one of the best, if not THE best live song in U2's catalog in my opinion. Which version is your favorite: Joshua Tree, Love Town, ZooTV, PopMart, Elevation, Vertigo, or 360°?

My favorite would have to be 360. Bono's vocal delivery, combined with Edge's amazing masterpiece of a guitar riff was just incredible. Playing it under the Claw though, with all the lights and video effects (especially towards the end of the tour with the JT-era footage) though? It was emotionally overwhelming for me. The love I have for this band was confirmed every single time I saw Streets live on 360.

But after 360, my list would go like this:

2 - PopMart
3 - LoveTown
4 - ZooTV
5 - Elevation
6 - Joshua Tree
7 - Vertigo
 
:doh:

to me there is no one Streets version better than the other, all live versions are fantastic because the song is very stable and amazingly delivered no matter what.

but if ur gonna ask then, hmmmmmmmmm for now Elevation because of how Bono really sings at the start with the finish of All I Want Is You.

yea maybe you mean song merge-intro on top of full delivery
 
Great topic. Almost all the listening to U2 I do these days is live recordings...DVD rips and HQ bootlegs.

So these are my favourite versions of Streets from the officially released concert DVD's only, and I'm only talking about the audio, not visuals, since I hardly ever watch these, just listen to FLAC rips of the audio.

1) Elevation/Boston. Perfect. The single greatest version of Streets I've ever heard. The rest of the show is OK...but this version of streets is sublime. I get chills when I hear Bono's intro.
2) R&H/Tempe....Classic with classic intro. Gets the edge over 360 b/c it's the original, the long intro, and the strength of Bono's voice.
3) 360/Rose Bowl...Expansive, eye opening and beautiful. Bono's voice really soars and fills the space around it. A real revelation and rebirth for the song...they're rediscovered it after the cruise control on the Vertigo tour. Technically this may be the finest performance of this song, and this arrangement is perfect for this particular tour. Almost put this at #2.
4) ZOOTV/Sydney...Electric & punchy. But the band still hasn't discovered just how good this song can be quite yet, and there's not as much "there" there as the Achtung Baby songs.
5) Vertigo/Chicago...Pretty by the numbers, but perfectly solid. Nice intro, though the band is sounding a bit weary of the song.Doesn't come anywhere near the Elevation version despite a similar arrangement, and the passion seems a bit forced.
6) Popmart/Mexico City...Meh. Doesn't work for me.

Elevation/Slane is great as well, but almost identical to Boston and Boston get the edge (thought the Slane show on a whole is much better). Same goes for that amazing SuperBowl performance.
 
I think looking at Streets purely from its musical standpoint (I'm not a musician, just off listening musically with my ear) and presentation live they seem to be all very similair arrangements. The two exceptions are probably The Lovetown tour when Bono would emphasize some of the versus with his vocals more at times and the Popmart version that had the Playboy Mansion/Born Slippy outtro. Otherwise the major differences for each tour have really seem to have been more about the lighting/video and the placement of the songs leading in and out of it in the setlist as far as its impact. The worst version from that perspective would be the Vertigo tour IMO. Pride into Streets was meh at best and the flags instead of the red background gave the song less impact than it should have had (Vertigo is one of my favorite tours, but this was the major flaw in most of its setlists). Still was not bad, but probably the weakest placement. During rehearsals Bono did not even want to play Streets on the Vertigo tour. So maybe that is why it came off more flat than usual and seemed to be sort of wedged into the setlist. :shrug:

Otherwise they have pretty much nailed the song as far as placement for most tours to varying degrees.
 
Popmart as well. The techno reworking really works, as does the extended ending.
 
Elevation is when they totally nailed it, for whatever reason it found a new lease of life. The Boston performance has to be one of the best ever.
Vertigo is the worst imo, just felt forced and bored (and Bono bellowing "Africa, Africa!!" didn't help. Nope).
ZooTV, JT tour, and Lovetown are all very good.
The techno makeover they gave it during PopMart didn't really work. Although the transition from Please to Streets is absolutely spine-tingling and was one of the highlights on that tour.
 
I'd say that the Joshua Tree/Lovetown version was the best. POPMART with Please leading up to it was pretty amazing. Vertigo was a great tour, but smooshing the song against Pride and One made for the only boring section of a U2 set I've ever seen.
 
1. ZooTV (the intro makes the song, plus I LOVED :heart: how Bono sang it)
2. Elevation
3. Lovetown
4. Joshua Tree
5. 360
6. PopMart
7. AFRICA!!!! AFRICA!!!!
 
lemonfly said:
Elevation is when they totally nailed it, for whatever reason it found a new lease of life. The Boston performance has to be one of the best ever.
Vertigo is the worst imo, just felt forced and bored (and Bono bellowing "Africa, Africa!!" didn't help. Nope).
ZooTV, JT tour, and Lovetown are all very good.
The techno makeover they gave it during PopMart didn't really work.
Click to expand...

+1

:up:
 
1. Joshua Tree
2. Rattle & Hum
3. 360
4. Elevation
5. Zoo TV
6. Popmart
7. Vertigo

Vertigo is just so anti-climatic... musically it's great, but the lack of the house lights at the beginning just ruin the experience for me. 360 is pretty awesome, it's kind of paying homage to Joshua Tree... Joshua Tree is just perfect, Bono's vocals can't be matched :heart:
 
No streets performance tops Slane Castle (elevation tour), when they go from All I want is you from streets, it's amazing.
 
The performance Silkensky posted above is my favorite. Basically, I love the 1987 and 1989 live performances, and not really any of the subsequent ones.

I personally found this most iconic of U2 songs ill-matched with the 1991-1997 material, including in concert. And since 2000, it's come off as a retro piece that they've kind of beaten to death by endlessly playing it at every possible appearance (even when they failed to show up at Glastonbury, Edge still managed to air it for the one billionth time).

Don't get me wrong, it's one of the great U2 songs and one of the great rock recordings of all time. But for some reason I don't really enjoy it outside of an 80s' context.
 
1) Slane - even though it isn't the best musically, everything about the moment just amazes me every time I watch it (plus Bono really kicks it in another level during the intro)
2) Lovetown - favorite musically/vocally, someone already posted the ultimate version
3) 360 - the snippets/transitions alone gave you goosebumps
4) Joshua - Epic red screen of power
5) Zoo TV - "Hey YOU!!" :wave:
6) Vertigo - Fail green screen of poverty
v
v
v
v
v
7) Cher's Version
v
8) Popmart - the Please segue couldn't even save it for me
 
I love the funky Popmart version. Especially when Bono added lyrics from The Playboy Mansion at the end.

Gotta mention one specific version. Lovetown tour, Dec 26th 1989. Maybe the best version of Streets ever. If you haven't heard it, find it and listen. Oh my lord. Bono's voice when he hits the "the city's a flood ..." verse is amazing.
 
:heart:LOVETOWN:heart:

that performance dedicated to Beckett with the Wordsworth poem at the start is one of my favourites as well :up:

my all time favourite performance of Streets is probably this one (penultimate gig of Lovetown in Rotterdam):

U2 - Where The Streets Have No Name (BEST performance EVER!) [AUDIO ONLY] - YouTube

the energy of this entire performance......from Bono's mindblowingly awesome vocals to Larry's ferocious drumming to the insanely fervent clapping & jumping around of the crowd.......is just absolutely unbelievable :drool:
 
Been listening to a lot of Lovetown shows, specifically the Four shows at the Point Depot, which were arguably some of the best shows of the band's career.

Streets is incredible. Bono's voice is just better than ever and Larry is smashing those drums harder than I've ever heard before.
 
TheEdge25 said:
Been listening to a lot of Lovetown shows, specifically the Four shows at the Point Depot, which were arguably some of the best shows of the band's career.

Streets is incredible. Bono's voice is just better than ever and Larry is smashing those drums harder than I've ever heard before.
Click to expand...

Yeah, that particular voice and those hard hitting drums really take the song to another level.
 
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