Next Album Rumours Thread II - Songs of Ass Scent

[DeVaul]

I saw 3 shows on the original Joshua Tree tour, so the big treat was getting to see RHMT performed live...until of course they fucked it up eight ways to Sunday with Edge on piano, no guitar and canned horns...an abomination.

But Exit still rocked 30 years later.

No idea why they went with those different arrangements for RHMT and ASOH (which they dropped before I saw it) but Streets and Exit were worth the price of admission. The opening set of 4 straight classics *before* Streets was ridiculously strong and showed how an all-hits show from this band would absolutely kill in stadiums.

A Zoo revival with nods to social media, personal disconnection, political extremism, device tracking and freedom of expression could **absolutely** work... they just need someone other than Bono and Gavin Friday to write whatever “dialogue” they’re going to use in the show.

 

[tommycharles]

At the time the rumour was that they shat the bed with their album plans and decided to do that instead?*

They had a contract with LiveNation to tour in 2017. In 2015, it was assumed this would be the SOE tour. Bono’s health event plus dithering over the album meant SOE wouldn’t be ready in time.

They planned a few stadium JT shows to make up for the lack of an arena tour, and demand was way better than expected, so they made a whole year of it.

 

[tommycharles]

they just need someone other than Bono and Gavin Friday to write whatever “dialogue” they’re going to use in the show.

The EI dialogue was more or less perfect by the time of the Berlin show, IMO. It was a rocky ride to get there, but by Berlin, the speeches in DD, EBTTRT, and Acrobat were spot on.

EDIT: Oh no, this was my 666th post! Good thing there was at least a vague MacPhisto conection.

 

[tommycharles]

Watch them do ZoomTV next year, or something else as cringey as it is endearing.

“But you haven’t come all the way out here to go on mute now, have ya?”

 

[DeVaul]

The EI dialogue was more or less perfect by the time of the Berlin show, IMO. It was a rocky ride to get there, but by Berlin, the speeches in DD, EBTTRT, and Acrobat were spot on.

EDIT: Oh no, this was my 666th post! Good thing there was at least a vague MacPhisto conection.

Always glad to help summon the beast.

 

[Headache in a Suitcase]

Who really wants a Zoo TV refresh? .

 

[Headache in a Suitcase]

They had a contract with LiveNation to tour in 2017. In 2015, it was assumed this would be the SOE tour. Bono’s health event plus dithering over the album meant SOE wouldn’t be ready in time.



They planned a few stadium JT shows to make up for the lack of an arena tour, and demand was way better than expected, so they made a whole year of it.

That's not now their Live Nation contract works. There was no contractual obligation to go out.

Now there could have been some pressure to go out on the road based on expectations of a tour, but it wasn't mandated.

Your point that they added more shows after it was more successful than first expected, though, is likely true.

 

[The_acrobat]

I agree that at first the idea was probably to do a minimal amount of Joshua Tree stadium shows, with Bonnaroo factoring into this as well. Then they realized this was a better way to hit the small US markets like Indy, Louisville, KC, etc. Then they realized that the JT idea was a good way to bring a stadium tour to places like South America, Australia and Asia, rather than create some kind of stadium version of the innocence/experience stage.

 

[DeVaul]

Would be cool to have Flanagan-type of insight into the booking for both TJT and e+i where they played Nassau Coliseum for the first time in 26 YEARS

 

[Hollow Island]

Would you prefer:

A restaging of Zoo TV with Achtung played in full

An "inspired by Zoo TV" tour with mostly new material that deals with similar themes: relationships, tech, media

Here's an idea, or fragments of what could be an idea: MacPhisto was the Fly old and playing Vegas...Bono's now old...maybe MacPhisto could be the character for the body of the show, and then another guy could show up for the encore. The album could be written from MacPhisto's perspective...

 

[DeVaul]

Would you prefer:

A restaging of Zoo TV with Achtung played in full

An "inspired by Zoo TV" tour with mostly new material that deals with similar themes: relationships, tech, media

Here's an idea, or fragments of what could be an idea: MacPhisto was the Fly old and playing Vegas...Bono's now old...maybe MacPhisto could be the character for the body of the show, and then another guy could show up for the encore. The album could be written from MacPhisto's perspective...

I don’t trust the U2 of today to stick the landing on that kind of new album, but I don’t need a straight repeat of the ZooTV setlist either. Give me an updated restaging of ZooTV with a slew of all three 90s records and visual/verbal accompaniment that threads the original theme to the present state of technology, news delivery and depersonalization.

A concert app could deliver supplemental material and turn the entire audience into a screen. If Coldplay can sync wristbands given to locations, U2 could tie the app to seat sections (maybe it links to ticket in Ticketmaster app) and as everyone holds up their phones - for 2 songs max, don’t want to overdo it - you’ve got an extra, massive synchronized screen.

 

[Hollow Island]

The Fly's Zoo TV visual would be perfect for that. Maybe atext message/news alert bombardment.

 

[DeVaul]

Hell, an entire screen you can text in-to during the show.

 

[Hollow Island]

they'd be begging for people to text them dick picks. i pray that this happens!

 

[DeVaul]

Gotta have someone filtering before uploading so it doesn’t turn into ZooVD or Cockmart

 

[lazarus]

inhibition + exhibition tour

 

[DeVaul]

 

[Hewson]

Spoiler

 

[DaveC]

A concert app could deliver supplemental material and turn the entire audience into a screen. If Coldplay can sync wristbands given to locations, U2 could tie the app to seat sections (maybe it links to ticket in Ticketmaster app) and as everyone holds up their phones - for 2 songs max, don’t want to overdo it - you’ve got an extra, massive synchronized screen.

i would honestly hate that. not to sound all "old man yells at cloud" here but i almost never touch my phone during concerts as i find it takes me completely out of the experience. making my phone an integral part of the experience, and encouraging the people in front of me to hold theirs up? that's a hard pass from me dawg. that sounds like the exact opposite of what i want when i pay to go to see a band i love.

 

[DeVaul]

So do it during the opening and intermission. Problem solved dawg

 

[Hollow Island]

Gotta have someone filtering before uploading so it doesn’t turn into ZooVD or Cockmart

 

[JamietheEdgefan]

Hope you guys like 'Stuck'...

"In November 2020, Adam Clayton was interviewed by Forbes Magazine. He spoke about the work on the new album when asked if there were any links from All That You Can't Leave Behind to what they are doing now. Adam answered, "One of the things that I think we absolutely mastered on All That You Can't Leave Behind was a song that was very much close to Edge's heart, which was "Stuck In A Moment You Can't Get Out Of." [It's] essentially a gospel song in a very church tradition. It's a piano, bass song, and he spent many, many hours fiddling with those chords and adjusting notes in them to get them just right. I think that is a sound and an approach that you will hear on the new material, I think there's a direct line from that song to where we're going now."

https://www.u2songs.com/news/upcoming/

 

[pacemaker]

Who knows what we'll end up getting, but if this is actually what they're going for I'd look forward to it. Stuck isn't terribly overproduced, and it has a nice lively, loose feel. There's a lot you can do with a song when you arrange it around piano and bass, so production team might be even more make-or-break than usual. Sounds like a job for Lanois.

What was the Edge's last great piano riff, anyway? So Cruel is coming to mind. I can't think of any stand-outs from then on that aren't just the chord progression played with some stank.

 

[super fly guy]

So a few month ago Adam said they want to get down and dirty for the next album,now this. Confusing as always!

 

[DeVaul]

Sounds like they’re finally getting down to brass tracks.

Synth brass.

 

[lazarus]

Stuck in a pop trap they can’t get out of.

 

[Hollow Island]

The only way an album in the vein of Stuck wont be a treacly slog is if they make it with Eno and/or Lanois. If they make an album like that with Tedder...yikes!

What they should do is outfit Edge with an all-Strymon pedalboard, set up in a room with Lanois and Ol' Sourpuss, write as a band for six months and release whatever they have at the end of it.

 

[the tourist]

The only way an album in the vein of Stuck wont be a treacly slog is if they make it with Eno and/or Lanois. If they make an album like that with Tedder...yikes!

What they should do is outfit Edge with an all-Strymon pedalboard, set up in a room with Lanois and Ol' Sourpuss, write as a band for six months and release whatever they have at the end of it.

Or just a pair of Line6 Helixes with Powercabs and patches made by Alex Strabala.

 

[Hollow Island]

Too many choices for Edge in a line6. He's not responsible enough. Maybe - MAYBE - he could handle one of Boss' 500 series, but I think he might get lost in one of those too.

 

[The John Tree]

If there's one thing this band is terrible at, it's accurately describing their new music.