U2...play one of these songs!

[dal975]

They could easily find a place for acrobat in any number of places and not ruin the purported theme of the show. They effectively transitioned from the euphoria of COBL through the rest of the opening songs into the heart of darkness on the vertigo tour. Look at Bullet on any number of tours. I don't think the Mark David Chapman rant fit into the theme of the elevation tour but in my opinion it was very effective. I also think the transition between acrobat into UTEOTW would work perfectly. And who knows? Maybe acrobat would work perfectly with a song or two on the next album. If U2 wanted to stay away from so-called "dark" material, they would have to throw out most of AB, which would be a travesty.

 

[Lobe]

Acrobat

And I'll be the happiest woman in the world...

 

[The John Tree]

I never said "just play the damn songs", nor did I reference REM. Maybe you should go back and see who made which posts. I never once advocated setlists without cohesion. In fact, I have been one of this forum's biggest advocates of cohesive setlists and have routinely critiqued both the band's setlists and fan custom setlists. Setlists are a passion of mine (or else I wouldn't run U2gigs.com!).

What I have advocated is at least a partial abandonment of grand themes. All four of the last tours have had over-arching themes beyond simply performing U2's music. What I have suggested is a return to Lovetown - celebrating and showcasing U2's music without necessarily striving for a grand theme beyond that. That in no way even implies the song order should lack cohesion, nor that certain segments of the show can't have thematic links.



Frankly, it seems to me as if you have very narrow perceptions of what can be done with setlists, and box in what can or can't be done. In any case, I see Acrobat as not being any darker than UTEOTW or The Fly, and those two tracks have worked perfectly well on the last two tours.

And, if I may, I'd like to take up your challenge. It's been months since I've made a gratuitous setlist on here. So the main set is taking your COBL --> BD --> Streets --> Acrobat -->where? challenge, and feel free to discount the encores as they're just off the top of my head to complete the set.

1. City Of Blinding Lights
2. Beautiful Day
3. Angel Of Harlem
4. Desire
5. Vertigo
6. The Electric Co.
7. 11 O'clock Tick Tock
8. Wire
9. The Unforgettable Fire
10. A Sort Of Homecoming
11. Where The Streets Have No Name
12. One Tree Hill
13. Exit
14. Acrobat
15. Until The End Of The World
16. New Year's Day
17. Pride

18. Bullet The Blue Sky
19. Running To Stand Still
20. With Or Without You

21. Gloria
22. Yahweh
23. Bad/40

So there you have it. From a celebratory opening of COBL/BD, the concert logically proceeds to Streets and then Acrobat, almost entirely using songs played on the last two tours (Wire and UF are the only two exceptions), so you can't tell me the song selections don't fit with U2's recent mood. UTEOTW sounds quite sensible after Acrobat, with the wailing guitar coming in over the top as Acrobat grinds to a close, then I just exploit the traditional UTEOTW --> NYD segue used on all of the last four tours, and return to the eighties to exploit the traditional coupling of NYD/Pride as main set closer that ended almost every main set from 1984 to 1990. The show "comes back" from Acrobat very quickly and effortlessly.

An alternative option I had was Acrobat --> UTEOTW --> The Fly --> Mysterious Ways, drawing on how U2 have used the duo of The Fly and MW to both open encores and close main sets on the last two tours. But I think NYD/Pride brings an even more anthemic mood. So there you have it, dark rockers and the hallmarks of U2's recent tours can easily coexist.

You're right, I misquoted you. I can't tell the difference between "acrobat" and "Axver". Sorry, honest mistake.

That said, I don't have any narrow perceptions of what a setlist can do, quite the opposite. It's just one particular song, my 2nd favorite U2 song ever, Acrobat, that I have problems with. It seems to be the most commonly requested U2 song and I just can't see it fitting in any setlist. Even the proposed setlist you have above. I think The Fly and UTEOTW are as dark thematically, but musically they're much lighter than Acrobat is, in my opinion. I could see either of those leading in to Acrobat, but not following it.

 

[U2girl]

The two tours that were theme heavy were Zoo Tv and Popmart, and even those (thanks to Zooropa and some Pop songs not working mostly, but still) former added now songs in the later legs.

Also consider pre 90's they had, at worst, 6 albums to pick from, next tour will have twice as much material. Inevitably some songs have to go.

 

[dal975]

The two tours that were theme heavy were Zoo Tv and Popmart, and even those (thanks to Zooropa and some Pop songs not working mostly, but still) former added now songs in the later legs.

Also consider pre 90's they had, at worst, 6 albums to pick from, next tour will have twice as much material. Inevitably some songs have to go.

or the shows will have to be twice as long

 

[patske]

Hawkmoon 269
Exit
The unforgettable fire
Wire
Acrobat
Please
That would be

 

[U2387]

I like Axver's suggestion.

I would like to see red screen streets back JT style, so how about the final encore opened by streets:

Streets >One Tree Hill>Love is Blindness and good night? or alternate nights, replace One Tree Hill with Please. I really think love is blindness worked incredibly well as a closer, nothing against 40, Bad or AIWIY, just that those dominated the Vertigo tour for closers. If people are worried about closing on a dark note, the guitar solo kind of lifts one spirits despite the overall mood of the song(almost like WOWY outro) and that could be rectified by adding a little bit of cant help falling in love or never tear us apart or AIWIY after it ends. Besides, 40 and Bad are not exactly optimistic, celebratory songs and they closed most Vertigo shows!

 

[Blue Room]

There is a reason why Lovetown is the band's greatest tour: it was, setlist-wise, simply a celebration of the band's entire eighties catalogue. We need something like that again. If it must be ascribed a theme, then here you go: rocking the fuck out of as much of U2's catalogue as humanly possible. Everybody goes home happy.

Debatable, I like Lovetown like most U2 fans. But I think it gets put in some mythical category much like some people put Zoo TV in. U2's tours are about their live energy. The rest is just window dressing to me. Sure, there are certain songs I would love for them to play and some of the staging/themes have been cool. But the bottom line is the bands performance, energy and connection with the crowd. Its one of the reasons the setlist bitchers bug me sometimes. Its not about sitting at a computer seeing they played "X" song again and bitching about it or seeing your 5th show on the same tour and bitching you have seen the same setlist already. The people at the actual concert that are seeing their first U2 show or only show of that tour are what matter because they are a majority of the crowd. U2 develop their show by coming up with the setlist they feel works the best that they like and will deliver consistantly to the typical concert goer that goes to just 1 show.

Lovetown appeared to have a lot of energy by the bootlegs. By the bootlegs I think Vertigo, Joshua Tree, War, etc... had just as much energy. But its so subjective and it really is hard to get a feel for a particular tour unless you experienced it first hand. I remember one of my U2 friends back in 89/90 that started seeing the setlists from Lovetown when the bootlegs started to surface. Other than the new Rattle And Hum songs he thought it was a disappointment setlist wise because it looked like all greatest hits. Sound familiar? It really is true. The difference on that tour was mixing up the order of those songs IMO. The only reason they did that was because the band were bored and miserable on Lovetown. But looking back now a lot of people are nostalgic for Lovetown. I think there will be a day people look back at Vertigo and wish they would bring back "X" Bomb song or go back to a concept that was done at that time. Why don't they do that again?? Its sort of a cycle.

 

[TheBrazilianFly]

I think Two Hearts Beat As One and The Unforgettable Fire deserve to comeback and it would be very cool and refreshing to have them back on the set. Even though they have a strong 80's sound that is the sound of the moment once again and U2 could always put a spin on them as they do on every tour. Plus if this tour is going to have a little dance flavour than Thwo hearts would be a great choice!

I think it's about time to have Acrobat debuted. The best thing they could do on this tour is to get rid of the old warhorses and substitute them by songs that people have been wanting them to play for a long time, like Acrobat, and old stuf that still sounds good and can entertain any audience.

 

[bayou12780]

That said, I don't have any narrow perceptions of what a setlist can do, quite the opposite. It's just one particular song, my 2nd favorite U2 song ever, Acrobat, that I have problems with. It seems to be the most commonly requested U2 song and I just can't see it fitting in any setlist. Even the proposed setlist you have above. I think The Fly and UTEOTW are as dark thematically, but musically they're much lighter than Acrobat is, in my opinion. I could see either of those leading in to Acrobat, but not following it.

I think the segue is Acrobat into Zoo Station. I don't know where the heck I heard it (demo?) but it's perfect.

The other best segue is Please into Streets (as on Hasta). Still gives me chills down the spine -- will never get tired of that one.