One of the reasons why I love U2 so much is because of their signature sound. Being a musician, I'm attracted to anything that sounds unique, and lets face it, there's a lot of "generic" music out there that sounds the same. No other band sounds like U2. The reason for this, is because of the way they play their instruments. While not flashy like Van Halen or some classic rock, U2 makes up for it in their sound.
Larry for example, has admitted many times that he doesn't do drum solos or flashy stuff because he can't. Drummers often find this a weakness, because often they're too darn cocky and full of themselves to not be right up in the mix showing off. (I know because I am one) They just can't stand to do a simple 1 and 3 rock beat. However, from experience, I can say that the most important thing for a drummer to do is to keep time like a metronome, and thats EXACTLY what Larry does. Have you ever listened to Green Day? Even on their studio albums their tempos are up, down, up down and live its even worse. Listen to Larry live and what do you find? Solid as a rock, a breathing metronome. Why is that? Well for one thing U2 has backing synth tracks to many of their songs, which require Larry to play to a "click" track that he hears in his monitors. This is what 90% of other bands don't, and cannot do. It is very difficult, and Larry has to be given major props for it. For another thing, Larry keeps things relatively simple, so he doesn't distract from this mix. If you know drummers, than you know that the time they drop the beat is usually in the process of a drum fill. Its better to do a simple solid drum fill and stay in tempo than to to a flashy one and speed up.
Larry also has incredible instinct and dynamics and is great at accenting. He also has great finness. Take "Blinding lights" for example. During the verses larry is playing 16th note single strokes on his snare drum, but accenting on the 2 and 4 of each measure. Most people just hear the 2 and 4, but if you listen closely you can hear each 16th note in between, being played at precise volume so as not to distract from the beat. It has a wonderful filling effect on the song. Larry also does this on Streets and tons of other songs, sometimes accenting other notes as well.
Having said that, he is sometimes too predictable in my opinion. Also, he often lets his pinky fingers dangle off the drumstick, which is not a correct technique. But once again, he is mostly self taught and he still pulls some sweet grooves. Take "please" for example. It showcases both larry and adam, and the groove they pull off is nothing like any other song I have ever heard. Larry plays triplets in between each measure with a RLL sticking, which is more of a jazz sticking and is less common in rock drummers. For those of you who are interested, Larry plays Paiste Cymbals (which are by far the most expensive), specially designed Pro-mark drumsticks that are comparable to a normal 5a model (smaller than most) and he plays a yamaha kit with an australian made Brady snare drum. He uses Remo Pin stripe drum heads on his rack tom and 2 floor toms and has 2 auxilary cowbells.
As far as Edge goes, some people say he is amazing, and others say he is not. I agree with the former. Edge is somewhat of a "anti" rocker - read his interviews in guitar player magazine and you'll get a good idea of what he likes. He doesn't care for noizy and "self-gratifying" guitar playing, aka Eddie VanHalen and a lot of classic rock. This is one of the reasons why he usually keeps his solos more melodic instead of fast.
What he really enjoys is the specific tones that can be made from a guitar. This is of course what he is amazing at. The Edge can play one chord and you know its him just by the way it sounds. And I'm not talking about Delay here - I'm talking about tone. All of his guitars, and amps are vintage instruments and most of his effects are as well. This is one of the reasons why his tone is so good, he only uses the best equipment. For those of you who are interested here is what I've found out about what he uses:
Guitars:
A lot of vintage strats, telecasters, les pauls, a rickenbacher, and taylor/gibson/breedlove acoustics.
Stomp boxes:
Ibanez TS9 Vintage Tube Screamer
Digitech Whammy
Boss floor tuner (in case he needs it)
Dunlop Cry baby vintage wah
Boss Vintage power driver
Boss vintage compressor sustainer
(non-vintage) line 6 tonecore tap tremolo
Big Muff USA Made
Vintage Dopelganger
And a few others that I haven't been able to identify.
Rack effects:
-Custom made dual line6 distortion modelers (non vintage)
-4 Delay units, 2 used for a long delay, usually a dotted-quarter note and the other 2 used for a short delay, usually a 16th note
-and a butt load of compressors and stuff that i can't identify.
However, all of this equipment won't make you sound like edge. Edge is an extremely rythmically precise guitar player. A lot of guitarists can't pull off all the delay and effects edge uses because they don't play as rythmical as he does. A lot of his playing is kind of "half lead-Half rythm" which is another part of his signature sound.
He uses Herdim picks backwards to have a "grating" effect which partly gives him his chimy sound.
However, all of this isn't to say that edge can't bust out a screaming solo - listen to Bullet on their different tours, especially on the latest tour where he's transformed it into a blues solo, almost with a completely clean tone (ie, no distortion). Edge can be fast when he wants to.
The thing I love most about edge is that he plays music on his guitar, not notes. Thats what he's good at. I would rather listen to the guitar solo in miracle drug 1000 times over instead of Eruption by Van Halen. As short and simple as it may be it still gives me goosebumps every time I hear it. Edge also has a perfect backing voice, and in fact could be a better lead singer than many bands already have. I definitely don't think Edge would struggle in another band.
A lot of people underestimate the importance Adams playing in the band. Most bands have riffs by the guitar with base chords from the bass guitar, but in many songs, like "mysterious ways," "please", "kite" and countless others Adam is actually playing the riff, with edge on the chords. It gives the song such a unique feel. Adam is a "groove" factory, not a speed or slap factory like flea. He's great at what he does.
As for Bono, he is the greatest front man of all time. He has an incredible range - most people pay attention to how high he sings, but don't forget how low he can sing! what about the first verse to "velvet dress?" ever tried to sing that? Bono is able to sing notes as low as E and even D - equivilent to the lowest string on a Drop-D tuned guitar. Thats Bass territory, not tenor! When Daniel Lanois was receiving a musical award (i forget which) Edge and Bono sang "danny row your boat to shore" (or something like that) that was so low I didn't think it was them until I heard them talk afterwards. As far as Bono's guitar playing goes, the band and their producers joke about trying to not let him play guitar (see HTDAAB DVD) but he really is a very good rythm guitar player. I wish he would play on more songs!
So if you're still reading this I'm impressed because I've written a freaking novel. I apologize, but this is my favorite subject.
Never underestimate how talented U2 really are - music performance is about the music, not the riffs or speed. How do you think U2 has become the greatest band ever? Its their song writing and musicianship thats got them there.
If you're interested, you can check my bands web site out which has 5 songs that I play guitar and drums on (the drummer was out of town.) Edge heavily influence the solo in our song "once again". You might enjoy it. And I don't mean to advertise, I only want to share some U2 influenced music.
doubleudoubleudoubleu-dot-cityofashburn-dot-com
or
cityofashburn on myspace.
Thanks, interesting read.
