the tourist
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Calling any of their post OK Computer records “rock” is an incredible stretch. Saying they’re filled with hooks is also an incredible stretch.
Here's my $0.02:
After 32 years as a U2 fan, I feel like I have a sense of how their PR machine works. Rolling Stone magazine is their unofficial press release/puff piece dumpster. The Zoo TV revisit was mentioned in the subheader. The article was pushed to my phone today via Google News. The idea had already been pronounced dead in this forum and others, and U2 must have known that.
The only way they can top the energy level of the JT30 opening is Zoo Station with a nostalgic video intro. They will tweak it with subtle state-of-the-art touches (VR? Holograms?) to make it up-to-date and not lame. As consummate showmen they are going to try to jump over the high bar and pull this off. It will be part of the megatrend of GenX stepping into the senior role in society and U2 has always craved being a part of those key moments (Super Bowl, anyone?) Again, this is me extrapolating from the last 32 years. They have now put themselves in a position where they have to throw cold water on the idea if they can't or decide not to.
Larry is 60 and his body is the band's most precious resource at this point. I believe they have a 5- to 7-year window of Larry at full rock drumming power. After that, they will have to make accommodations somehow. They need to maximize this time. Do the acoustic stuff afterwards. I wouldn't be surprised if they are looking at ways to get back into US stadiums in 2022, before a new album cycle, even if more towards the fall.
The timing of the news drop for the Thanksgiving week holiday rollout portends, to me, the beginning of a cycle of activity--if only the start of a "timer" in the audience's mind counting down to forthcoming escalation.
That describes In Rainbows pretty well, actually.Calling any of their post OK Computer records “rock” is an incredible stretch. Saying they’re filled with hooks is also an incredible stretch.
Exactly, and you can add Coldplay to that list as well.I would like them to not be like Bon Jovi, but I sure as shit wouldn't want them to be like Radiohead, either.
Calling any of their post OK Computer records “rock” is an incredible stretch. Saying they’re filled with hooks is also an incredible stretch.
You mean you don't want them to once again make brilliant, highly original, hook filled rock music that makes no effort to fit in with the pop charts?
I agree that something is starting. However, I think the 2022 calendar may be full.
For arenas? Yes - it's tight. U2 will always be box office so if they really want to hit the road and do arenas? People will make room for them.
But stadium shows - there's only a handful of acts that full stadiums, and a U2 Zoo TV show is one of them.
By my count right now it's RHCP, the Motley Crew/Def Leppord/80s rock shitfest, Kenny Chesney and Rammstein, Coldplay, Elton John.
T-Swizzle can fill stadiums but the talk now is that she'll do arenas. Outside of that - who is left that can fill a stadium? BTS, Beyonce, Garth Brooks, Metallica, U2. That's about the list.
The Crue/Lep is a package tour, so I wouldn’t even count it. I was surprised by the sales in RHCP bc the pricing is ridiculous. Good for them I guess?
Two more acts to note: Springsteen stadium tour feels inevitable. Macca probably has one more go ‘round left in him.
A 30th anniversary Zoo TV tour just wouldn't work.
It wouldn’t be sincere or convincing. I just can’t reconcile the band who did that with the bollocks housewife music or cringe dad rock they release these days.
It’s fine not to go back to that daring style at this stage in their career anyway, but surely it’s not too much to ask for something mature, grown up and reflective from them?
They’ve gone from a band with interesting musical palette to something downright immature and pathetic. But not surprising from a band whose members hire Madonna’s manager, get pretty boy industry songwriters to help them write songs, all the while losing their sense of soul, spirit and imagination by getting sucked into the material world, whether it be Edge’s money grabbing, environmentally destructive property plans in a plastic soulless Malibu estate or Bono’s attempts to befriend every celebrity known to earth.
For a band that were so ethereal and spiritual with limitless imagination, it’s not difficult to find out the reasons why these immaterial qualities have been sucked from them.
They should be like Radiohead, still creating great artsy records. Instead they’re prancing about and making shite music like that joker Bon Jovi.
For arenas? Yes - it's tight. U2 will always be box office so if they really want to hit the road and do arenas? People will make room for them.
But stadium shows - there's only a handful of acts that full stadiums, and a U2 Zoo TV show is one of them.
By my count right now it's RHCP, the Motley Crew/Def Leppord/80s rock shitfest, Kenny Chesney and Rammstein, Coldplay, Elton John.
T-Swizzle can fill stadiums but the talk now is that she'll do arenas. Outside of that - who is left that can fill a stadium? BTS, Beyonce, Garth Brooks, Metallica, U2. That's about the list.
yea i forgot about Bruce. typically he goes arenas first and then stadiums on his tours - arenas to warmup with a more static-ish set, and then the guns come out when the stadium shows begin - alas, it's not a typical year so maybe he'll jump right into stadiums.
mccartney is on the list for sure. and the stones. i can see the stones doing a handful of shows like they did this year just to keep things rolling. i don't get a sense that macca is touring in 2022 but it's not impossible.
still a short list - 10-12 acts maybe?
By my count right now it's RHCP, the Motley Crew/Def Leppord/80s rock shitfest, Kenny Chesney and Rammstein, Coldplay, Elton John.
Rammstein fills stadiums...in the US??
As for Radiohead, I've always liked them. The Bends is in my top 10 albums ever. But never thought they were as brilliant as many do. I respect them for the path they chose I guess. It's just hasn't been my sort of thing for probably 15 years or so.
U2 have always wanted to be big. So they strive for that every time, with mixed results. I think Radiohead saw the gushing indie hipster crowd love and they just tried to out-Radiohead themselves to be adored by the Pitchfork crowd. I love U2's 90's stuff more than any other period, but glad they didn't go down the road of trying to cater to people that think Animal Collective is the greatest music ever made.
Gushing indie hipster love? You mean when OK Computer was (laughably) voted the best album of all time by the readers of Q Magazine in 1998? They were a mainstream success from 1993 onward, and their weirdest albums were also immensely popular. I was in a crowd of 30,000 to see them on the Amnesiac tour.
Radiohead also strive to be big - you don't become and remain one of the biggest bands in the world by accident. You don't really think they gave a fuck about what a small indie website thought when the made Kid A, do you? After Amnesiac their music's been pretty accessible. And popular. They have mass appeal. I really don't know where this idea that they're some weirdo "hipster" band with niche appeal came from. They play arenas and headline festivals around the world, and everything they do is an event..
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Seems to me that the top tier of stadium acts, or “multiple nights in a stadium” is probably just U2, Stones, Springsteen … and maybe Garth? Taylor? Beyoncé? And who could do so on both sides of the Atlantic?
Just curious if there’s a kind of power ranking of acts.
Rammstein fills stadiums...in the US??
They’re booking ‘em, they ain’t selling ‘em. They’ve got another 9 months before the start of the tour but I expect some discount offers. Too many open seats across the tour right now.
Don’t forget that ginger troll.
Their albums are all based around bass-drums-guitar, there are always multiple uptempo, riff based songs (even Kid A!) and nearly every song they've ever done adheres to the verse-chorus-verse formula. They're a rock band who make rock albums. The songs are all based on hooks, too.
They're not a meat & potatoes rock band but they're definitely a rock band. Always have been.
They're doing a stadium tour.Rammstein fills stadiums...in the US??
Gushing indie hipster love? You mean when OK Computer was (laughably) voted the best album of all time by the readers of Q Magazine in 1998? They were a mainstream success from 1993 onward, and their weirdest albums were also immensely popular. I was in a crowd of 30,000 to see them on the Amnesiac tour.
All of these descriptions could be applied to Taylor Swift, Simon and Garfunkel, Fleet Foxes, and a million other artists who aren’t considered rock. I would never in a million years consider anything Radiohead has done post OK Computer to be “rock”.
Radiohead is Arena Pop with a fan base that has deluded themselves into thinking they’re some hidden, sophisticated art rock gem.