Have you ever stood outside for a soundcheck?

[europop2005]

I know when people line up outside the outdoor stadiums they sometimes are lucky enough to catch a soundcheck coming from inside...have you ever had that? What song did they play?

 

[Zooropean103]

I heard technicians playing Vertigo, Love and Peace and Bullet. As being only technicians, they did it pretty well!

 

[BrownEyedBoy]

I bet they´ve had a lot of practice time.

 

[Chrisedge]

Outside of one of the Vertigo Fall Los Angeles shows I heard the screaming opening guitar of Mofo over and over again...no other parts were really played (that I heard)

 

[Liesje]

Yeah, not on purpose, but in St Louis I was in the box office line all day and heard the soundchecks. I got in line when it opened and everyone before me got a GA in a morning drop. I was first in line until about 4:30pm when there was another drop. The box office is inside the arena, so we could hear soundchecks. It didn't really sound like U2 were playing songs together; it was bits and pieces and then some of Kanye's people.

 

[Earnie Shavers]

A few hours before Popmart Sydney I was in a bar a couple of blocks away from the stadium, and suddenly heard Even Better than the Real Thing screaming over the top of the traffic outside. Gave me goosebumps. About 10 minutes later walking down to the stadium, heard the distinct bass line from With or Without You. It was quite nice walking across the park to the stadium, sun going down, seeing the top of that arch poking out above the roof, hearing that bass part. One of my 3 or 4 highlights of the concert, wasn't even part of the concert.

 

[bono_man]

I havent but I certainly will be in Brisbane in LESS THAN ONE MONTH!!

I think they will do a fair bit of soundchecking/rehearsal here in Brisbane before the show. Maybe 2 days or so of getting to know the songs, stage, etc.

 

[Axver]

I haven't heard any soundchecks myself, but like bono_man, I imagine U2 will do a bit of rehearsing here in Brisbane and I'll go listen.

Also, if anyone has heard U2 soundcheck at any concert on any tour, I'd really love to know the details so that I can add them to the sets over at U2-Vertigo-Tour.com. I've been trying to build up an archive of soundchecks but I don't have all too many details. If anyone can tell me what U2 soundchecked on what date, I'd love to know. Surely I'm not the only person out there who's fascinated by what gets played at soundchecks (that's the logic behind why the soundcheck details were added on U2VT in the first place - I had a few bits of soundcheck info and figured SOMEONE else out there would want it).

 

[MacHat]

Me and my mates are gonna be at Mt Smart Stadium pretty early, so hopefully we can hear something

 

[pepokiss]

on the Santiago show, while the golden circle was wating (me included), we heard at least 4 songs, including COBL, LAPOE, SYCMIOYO and Mothers Of The Dissapeared, but the real version.. with the synths and all... all the people were in awe and listening carefully... it was great...

of course, we never knew about the charango until later in the evening



and on the line for the Buenos Aires concerts, I think that for both I heard COBL, LAPOE, Streets and maybe another one...


If it was Dallas and the other boys, I don't know... if it were the real U2... no one knows

 

[Mofo]

I've heard a couple of soundchecks walking through Hyde Park before Live8 we heard U2 doing Beautiful Day

and for the Monterrey concert they did all the setlist

01. Larry´s warm up [0:37]
02. Wake Up [3:39]
03. Vertigo [4:14]
04. I will follow [3:47]
05. Electric Co. [4:51]
06. Elevation [4:17]
07. New Year's Day [4:56] (instrumental)
08. Beautiful Day [4:28]
09. I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For [4:39]
10. City Of Blinding Lights [7:02]
11. Original Of The Species [4:56]
12. Sometimes You Can't Make It On Your Own [5:12]
13. Bad/Walk on the wild side [7:44]
14. Love And Peace Or Else [5:03]
15. Sunday Bloody Sunday [5:27]
16. Bullet The Blue Sky [4:46]
01. Miss Sarajevo [5:55]
02. Pride (In the name of love) [3:43] (instrumental)
03. Where The Streets Have No Name [6:19] (instrumental)
04. Intro [1:15]
05. One [6:16]
06. Until The End Of The World [6:12]
07. Mysterious Ways [6:02] (instrumental)
08. With Or Without You [5:42] (instrumental)
09. All Because Of You [3:43] (instrumental)
10. Yahweh [3:34]
11. Vertigo [3:45] (instrumental)

hearing Bono do the snippet of walk on the wild side was really something

 

[Axver]

Me and my mates are gonna be at Mt Smart Stadium pretty early, so hopefully we can hear something

Yeah, I'm going to try to listen in at Mt Smart too. U2 don't tend to soundcheck until the afternoon, so I won't even need to turn up early!

 

[Liesje]

Also, if anyone has heard U2 soundcheck at any concert on any tour, I'd really love to know the details so that I can add them to the sets over at U2-Vertigo-Tour.com. I've been trying to build up an archive of soundchecks but I don't have all too many details. If anyone can tell me what U2 soundchecked on what date, I'd love to know. Surely I'm not the only person out there who's fascinated by what gets played at soundchecks (that's the logic behind why the soundcheck details were added on U2VT in the first place - I had a few bits of soundcheck info and figured SOMEONE else out there would want it).

Well, Ax, I'm not sure if this helps, but for St Louis third leg of this tour, I could hear the soundcheck but did not make out one recognizable song. I mean, I heard bits and pieces that I knew, just like what the crew does after the opening act, but no full songs. It seemed like Kanye's crew had more time, but I'm not as familiar with his songs so I couldn't say which ones were played. I thought it was odd myself, but I was in the arena from 9am-4:30pm and that's what I heard. Maybe they did it the day before.

 

[zoopop]

A few hours before Popmart Sydney I was in a bar a couple of blocks away from the stadium, and suddenly heard Even Better than the Real Thing screaming over the top of the traffic outside. Gave me goosebumps. About 10 minutes later walking down to the stadium, heard the distinct bass line from With or Without You. It was quite nice walking across the park to the stadium, sun going down, seeing the top of that arch poking out above the roof, hearing that bass part. One of my 3 or 4 highlights of the concert, wasn't even part of the concert.

Sounds a cool moment. I would have spitted my beer out if I heard the intro to EBTTRT from a few blocks away knowing I was going to the Popmart.

 

[u2hype]

I was standing outside of the Bradley Center in Milwaukee (9-25-05), when I could hear the band through metal doors soundchecking Crumbs!

I was very excited thinking they were going to play this, but they decided not too

 

[Shawn Bonneau]

In Montreal, 10-12-01, I could hear The Edge playing the piano part to New Year's Day over and over again, and then playing random riffs on the guitar. I could also hear Bono say some stuff into the mic

SMB

 

[Catlady]

I was standing outside of the Bradley Center in Milwaukee (9-25-05), when I could hear the band through metal doors soundchecking Crumbs!

I was very excited thinking they were going to play this, but they decided not too

I was there too. Especially since they'd played it in Minneapolis a few nights before, I thought we'd hear it for sure after they soundchecked it.

 

[Blue Room]

Here you go Axver, these are the ones I remember off hand that I attended:

March 27th 1992 Detroit

The Fly
The Fly
Even Better Than The Real thing
Zoo Station
Angel Of Harlem (acoustic)

September 9, 1992 Detroit

Even Better Than The Real Thing
Even Better Than The Real Thing
Even Better Than The Real Thing
Even Better Than The Real Thing
The Fly
Zoo Station
Angel Of Harlem/When Love Comes To Town (acoustic) bits of both

September 11, 1992 Ames Iowa

Mysterious Ways
Where The Streets Have No Name
The Fly
Zoo Station
Zoo Station
Angel Of Harlem (acoustic)
When Love Comes To town (acoustic)

May 14th 1997 Memphis

Staring At The Sun
Last Night On Earth
Staring At The Sun
Last Night On Earth
Hold Me, Thrill Me, Kiss Me, Kill Me
Hold Me, Thrill Me, Kiss Me, Kill Me
Mofo
Discotheque
If You Wear That Velvet Dress
With Or Without You

May 16th, 1997 Clemson

Last Night On Earth
Staring At The Sun
Staring At The Sun
Mofo
Discotheque
If You Wear That Velvet Dress
With Or Without You

There are a few off hand. My order may be slightly off on a couple but those are the songs they played. I would have to pull out the tapes for the rest of Popmart I was at to remember.

 

[Jim]

there is nothing quite like overhearing a soundcheck to ramp up the excitment levels and get the goosebumps going!

One of the most memorable was trecking over to the Wembley stadium concert in 1993 and hearing the guitar intro to Zoo Station echo across the sky.

 

[Axver]

Blue Room: that was awesome, thank you!

LivLuv: thanks for the info, any is better than none!

I'm honestly surprised that there's no sort of soundcheck archive or anything online already. I guess because the information is hard to come by. Conveniently enough, it fits in nicely with the U2VT format, so I just add it straight to the relevant concert's page and hopefully it will be of interest to someone other than me.

 

[U2FanPeter]

I heard about 8 hours of 3/2005 vancouver rehearsals over a 3 day period.

 

[Blue Room]

Yeah, not on purpose, but in St Louis I was in the box office line all day and heard the soundchecks. I got in line when it opened and everyone before me got a GA in a morning drop. I was first in line until about 4:30pm when there was another drop. The box office is inside the arena, so we could hear soundchecks. It didn't really sound like U2 were playing songs together; it was bits and pieces and then some of Kanye's people.

You probably heard U2's tech's. I dont think U2 did soundcheck for most of the last 2 weeks of the third leg. They were getting to the venues really late during that time frame. Sometimes after doors had already opened.

 

[arw]

I listened in on 5-7-05 and 5-10-05. I can't even remember what I heard for the first one. For the second one we heard Party Girl a few times. They also did part of the Achtung Baby songs for the show but I don't remember hearing anything complete. I think it was for Zoo Station. There were just way too many people in the doorway that had VIP tickets that wanted to get into the arena for their box seats or whatever. So there was a lot of activity and it was hard to hear.

 

[LuvandPeace1980]

Yep I heard Who's Gonna Ride Your Wild Horses and Vertigo outside Croke Park on The 24th of June 2005

Got chills when I heard WGRYWH's such a good live song

 

[Clawgrabber]

Outside of Dublin in the queue, (vertigo Dublin 23rd june 2005) they played:

vertigo
who's gonna ride your wild horses (full band electric)
COBL

and then EDGE played an awesome barrage of guitar parts, jumping around from everything from COBL to MIRACLE DRUG, THE ELECTRIC CO, WILD HORSES (A BUNCH OF TIMES)

it was awesome. the huge crowd outside went nuts when they played HORSES, because we knew it meant we would be treated to it that night, and we were...

that song should ALWAYS be played full band electric.

 

[U2FanPeter]

I heard a story from a reporter that during the Zootv tour Edge once spent a full hour onstage by himself working on the exact sound of the opening riff to Zoo Station.

I wonder if that's how long it would take to get through all the combinations of fuzz tones that Mr. Edge has at his feet?

u2fp

 

[neilm]

I heard a story from a reporter that during the Zootv tour Edge once spent a full hour onstage by himself working on the exact sound of the opening riff to Zoo Station.

I wonder if that's how long it would take to get through all the combinations of fuzz tones that Mr. Edge has at his feet?

u2fp

According to album producers, techs, band members etc, that is exactly how Edge works. He will spend as long as it takes to get the sound he wants to use! Bono calls him the scientist of the band with good reason!!

 

[Blue Room]

I heard a story from a reporter that during the Zootv tour Edge once spent a full hour onstage by himself working on the exact sound of the opening riff to Zoo Station.

I wonder if that's how long it would take to get through all the combinations of fuzz tones that Mr. Edge has at his feet?

u2fp

It was during the Zooropa rehearsals in Rotterdam. It was actually Bono that mentioned it because he was being interviewed and apparantly they could hear Edge doing the Zoo Station intro and that was the comment Bono made.

 

[lisa2004]

Hi Axver,

Outside Manchester on the 14th June I heard -

Vertigo
I Will Follow

This was mainly instrumental but with Bono singing the "walk away, walk away" parts on I Will Follow.

Edge also played Vertigo into I Will Follow (just the intro)

It was amazing hearing I Will Follow as this was the first gig it had been played on this tour!!! Bono could hear us all singing Vertigo as before he left the stage he said - "And we'll see you guys outside later!"

Lisa

 

[mackemlad]

Manchester 1 14/06/05

I am not sure how much of it was U2 (as opposed to dallas schoo and ther other techs) however.

They played in part

I Will follow
Love & Peace
miracle drug

Miracle Drug at least definately had Bono singing. I remember because they were continually going over the middle portion of the song. I was thinking thats different to the record.That is why that sticks in my memory.

As for the others I cant remember if there were vocals or not so I can't testify if it were actually U2.

If it wasnt

Dallas sure sounded like Edge to me.
As for the bass well anyone can play Adams parts (joke!!)