Top 3 essential live songs

[Gonna Run 2 U]

Gloria should be essential in my opinion.

2,3,4! Bono introducing the band. Should at least be played every opening night in major cities.

Sad note - I never got this live.

 

[LuckyNumber7]

Friends of mine went to the JT Tour absolutely loved it. Went to SOE tour and absolutely hated it. It was new music and Achtung Baby heavy and I feel like there’s a strong camp that does not like U2 at all after Rattle and Hum. So I can see where you’re coming from with old versus new with concert goers who especially want pre ‘90s U2.

Gloria should be essential in my opinion.

2,3,4! Bono introducing the band. Should at least be played every opening night in major cities.

Sad note - I never got this live.

Maybe someone gave you bad advice about seeing SOE then [emoji14]

 

[Bluer White]

1. Streets
2. Uteotw
3. Bad

These are the essential live songs. Thoughts?

Yep. Another three:

The Fly
Mysterious Ways
Walk On to close out the show

 

[Gonna Run 2 U]

Maybe someone gave you bad advice about seeing SOE then [emoji14]

I went to NYC shows but I didn’t get Gloria. I believe they only played it one night.

 

[The John Tree]

Changing my answer as I forgot about Bullet The Blue Sky. That's one that I'm usually "meh" about on Joshua Tree but my God it just lights the place on fire when played live.

 

[Yahweh_OMG]

Hi guys, haven t been here for like 5 years. I see the same people, that s fine. Hope you are all doing good!

To me the 3 essential live songs for casuals are:

Streets
New Year s day
One

As for my taste, it s not the same and it depends which tour also. I will go with 1985:

Gloria
Electric co
Bad

89

Exit
God part 2
Bad

90's

The Fly
Mofo
Mysterious ways (zoo tv with slide solo)

Latest 2 or 3 tours

Streets
Bullet
Gloria

But there are a few performances that are close to perfection i think, SBS era 88 with slow first verse, Bad Popmart, Discothèque Vertigo tour, Kite end of vertigo tour, TUF in 84, I will follow in 85 Dublin, etc....

 

[DeVaul]

In A Little While
Song for Someone
American Soul

 

[MrPryck2U]

I don't think they'll ever perform American Soul again.

 

[Headache in a Suitcase]

#teamiactuallylikeinalittlewhileandwontlettheiroverplayingofthesongliveruinthatforme

 

[LuckyNumber7]

Also Song for Someone is good.

 

[DeVaul]

#teamiactuallylikeinalittlewhileandwontlettheiroverplayingofthesongliveruinthatforme

I like it, just not live

 

[DeVaul]

Also Song for Someone is good.

…and lifeless live

 

[Hewson]

Also Song for Someone is good.

 

[Headache in a Suitcase]

... i agree

 

[The Panther]

I could respect U2 more if they'd retire some of these chestnuts. There's no need whatsoever to play 'Where The Sheep Have No Name' or 'Bad' ever again. After 40 years. let some things go. Shake it up. Mix up the setlist. In short, stop giving the lay-fans what they want.

 

[Headache in a Suitcase]

Umm, respectfully? Hellllllllllllllllllllll no

 

[Hewson]

I could respect U2 more if they'd retire some of these chestnuts. There's no need whatsoever to play 'Where The Sheep Have No Name' or 'Bad' ever again. After 40 years. let some things go. Shake it up. Mix up the setlist. In short, stop giving the lay-fans what they want.

It's a ridiculous notion as most of the folks attending a concert are not diehards following the band around, see them maybe once or a couple times ever in their lives and to have the band say "let's eliminate our best known songs from the live set" would be a disservice to those fans, which are the vast majority of ticket buyers.

 

[Headache in a Suitcase]

getting rid of Streets and Bad would be a disservice to me... fuck the casuals.

and i'm all in favor of U2 adopting a rotating setlist.

some songs should always be on the list.

 

[DeVaul]

getting rid of Streets and Bad would be a disservice to me... fuck the casuals.

and i'm all in favor of U2 adopting a rotating setlist.

some songs should always be on the list.

Co-sign. They got rid of Streets (and all the other JT songs) on E&I and that was enough. Beautiful Day, OTOH…

 

[Hewson]

some songs should always be on the list.

My point as well.

The vast majority of concert goers expect to hear the big hits/popular songs. Doesn't mean the set can't also include some rarer material and hopefully rotate some material, but certain staples belong there.
The Stones will always be expected to play the likes of Satisfaction and Jumpin' Jack Flash but they can mix in Monkey Man and All Down the Line at some shows and folks are fine.

i remember seeing an exchange on Twitter with Wolfgang Van Halen and a supposed die hard VH fan back in 2015 when Wolf was in charge of developing the set list for what would end up unfortunately being VH's final tour. This fan wanted Jump left out of the show (an idea I personally would not be opposed to but understand the reason that it wouldn't happen). The guy got pretty nasty and Wolf basically told him to fuck off (I think may have used that exact phrase or similar) because 98% of folks attending the show expect to hear Jump, it was their biggest commercial hit, and it gets a huge reaction nightly.
Meanwhile the setlist he developed was actually loaded with nuggets for diehards (opening with Light Up The Sky, playing rare stuff like Romeo Delight and extremely rare stuff like Dirty Movies), but this dude couldn't accept Jump in there.

It'd be like Panther here getting a show with Like a Song, A Celebration and Tomorrow in it and whining because Streets was also played, and he's seen that song played 11 times already.

 

[Headache in a Suitcase]

Pearl Jam plays Even Flow and Alive pretty much every show.

Springsteen plays Badlands and Born To Run at pretty much every show.

almost everything else in the set is up in the air - but you can pretty much count on those two at every show.

sidenote - i went to a PJ show at Barclays where they didn't play Even Flow and i didn't notice until the show was over

 

[MrPryck2U]

I could respect U2 more if they'd retire some of these chestnuts. There's no need whatsoever to play 'Where The Sheep Have No Name' or 'Bad' ever again. After 40 years. let some things go. Shake it up. Mix up the setlist. In short, stop giving the lay-fans what they want.

Where the Sheep Have No Name? Look it you! Your posts never fail to entertain and for that I thank you.


Now let's try to convince Aerosmith to never perform Dream On in concert ever again. Fuck the fans.

 

[Headache in a Suitcase]

Only the casuals like... checks notes... BAD AND WHERE THE STREETS HAVE NO NAME

 

[DeVaul]

Not a problem, they can play Elevation three times

 

[Diemen]

I could respect U2 more if they'd retire some of these chestnuts. There's no need whatsoever to play 'Where The Sheep Have No Name' or 'Bad' ever again. After 40 years. let some things go. Shake it up. Mix up the setlist. In short, stop giving the lay-fans what they want.

Lol. Live music, especially for bands like U2, is about connection between artist and audience. Retiring the songs that always hit hard, always light the place on fire, and are always highlights for most of the audience is just silly. Retire the ones that are sounding tired, sure. Streets and Bad aren’t those.

 

[dan_smee]

U2 could easily satisfy everyone with some trade offs - I agree the balance towards static set lists and greatest hits shows is not quite right. But if they just made a call that they will play Bad, Pride, NYD, Streets, IWF, SBS, One, BD, Vertigo and WOWY every night - casuals would never be disappointed, and there is lots of room to then rotate some more interesting choices in and out.

And not many fans would reject that trade - I’d see those ten at every show if it meant getting 15 other songs that include rarities like Drowning Man, Heartland, Do You Feel Loved, Another Time Another Place or Tomorrow.

 

[DeVaul]

10 hits, 6 new songs (there’s the relevance bit again), 6-8 deeper cuts (but only 2 can be after 1997)

 

[The Panther]

Lol. Live music, especially for bands like U2, is about connection between artist and audience. Retiring the songs that always hit hard, always light the place on fire, and are always highlights for most of the audience is just silly. Retire the ones that are sounding tired, sure. Streets and Bad aren’t those.

I'm not saying they have to garbage them forever (though that would be good, too).

It's not silly. It's energizing to the artist and, in the end, to the audience. In 1979, Bob Dylan garbaged his entire 20-years' worth of the most acclaimed songs ever written to play entirely newly written, fundamentalist gospel tunes, to a mostly disinterested audience. 25 years later he was still hitting #1 on Billboard, which U2 currently cannot do.

 

[The Panther]

Slightly off topic, but my top 3 live U2 performances (of three different songs) would probably be:

1) 'Sunday Bloody Sunday' -- November 1987 at Denver. The filmed one in Rattle & Hum. Angry and passionate! Bring it on!

2) Almost any 'Bad' performance from early in the autumn 1984 tour. Before before Bono started overdoing the ham.

3) 'Where The Streets Have No Name' -- Point Depot, Dublin, Dec. 26th (I think), 1989. When Bono quoted Wordsworth in the intro.

(Nod to the versions of 'All Along The Watchtower' played in Australia in late 1989, too. Edge channeled some Hendrix there. Remember when Edge used to actually play guitar a bit?)

 

[Headache in a Suitcase]

I'm not saying they have to garbage them forever (though that would be good, too).



It's not silly. It's energizing to the artist and, in the end, to the audience. In 1979, Bob Dylan garbaged his entire 20-years' worth of the most acclaimed songs ever written to play entirely newly written, fundamentalist gospel tunes, to a mostly disinterested audience. 25 years later he was still hitting #1 on Billboard, which U2 currently cannot do.

Dylan also went three years without speaking to the audience at one point.

So, uh, I don't think U2 should take their live queues from Bob Dylan.