ouizy
Rock n' Roll Doggie
KUEFC09U2 said:
I won't flame you, as I find that immature, I will answer this as succinctly as possible.
I started going to concerts when I was about 6 years old, my parents took me to some Beach Boys concerts during which I realized 1. - the guy standing next to me was smoking pot with his hippie girlfriend during Good Vibrations, and 2. - I had a fascination for staging, lighting, and sound. That was 25 years ago.
I always imagined myself being a stage designer on the scale of the Live Aid shows in '85, and I spent hundreds of hours in my basement playing the drums, and constructing various huge stage sets out of legos, and any other things I could get my hands on. My life went a different direction, I studied civil engineering, and now I am an architect. I deal with design every day of my life and am used to critiques and reviews, both positive and negative. I read about stage design, have written about stage design and have followed the careers of both Mark Fisher and Peter “Willie” Williams since the days of the original Pink Floyd tours (= way back.)
In design, critique is a very very important element for success. If you were to simply go out and design something without taking critique in mind, you would not only fail, but be a laughingstock in the community. No one is talented enough to simply go out and do whatever it is they desire – it does not work that way. There are so many different multiple levels of critique in architecture that it is actually amazing anything gets built. Forget about public review and opinion. That is a whole different story.
How is this relevant? Mark Fisher dubbed the term ‘Guerilla Architecture’ during the days of the Stones Steel Wheels tour. This was the tour that was considered the first roving architectural production. Since then, almost all outdoor stadium shows have fallen under this category due to the amount of equipment, staff, and transportation being moved around at any given time. Touring shows on the scale of Vertigo can be considered pieces of moving architecture, and thus place themselves in the public realm. They can be admired, loved, hated, and criticized. Very much like the buildings people look at, these constructs have structural systems, electrical systems, mechanical systems, vertical transportation systems, and sometimes even plumbing and fire protection systems. To a certain extent they can be considered more complicated that a stand alone building because they have to be broken down and fit into a 45 foot tractor trailer (articulated truck to the Europeans) and moved around almost on a nightly basis.
As these things are so complicated, and because so many people get to see these constructs, they are open to criticism. Because the band U2 and more importantly their production team has set such a high standard in their tours, they are open to compliments, and criticism, and that is what I do, and intend to do until either they drop dead or I do. This does not detract from my enjoyment of the show, but you have to always remember – I choose to purchase tickets to a show that the band and management choose to set the price for. By doing this, I have the choice, of showing up or not, loving the show or not, and pretty much having any opinion I want. This website, has always been (and I hope always will be) a place where fans of the band state their opinions, debate their opinions, and have the right to basically say anything they want aside from hateful speech. If I do not like the model of microphone Joe O’Herlihy decides to mic Larry’s second floor tom with, that is fine, if I love the color of the pants Adam is wearing, that is also fine, but what is more important is that if your opinions differ from mine, you know what – that is also fine.
If you do not like what I have to say, you have a couple of options, you can write in the thread your differing opinion, which you often do, you can say you agree with me, or you can simply not read what I write if you truly do not like it that much. The latter is the easiest option for you because as I said before, I will continue to write my opinions here, and I will not stop under any circumstances (aside from the circumstances that violate the rules of this hosted site.) Really, it is your choice.
I hope you start to see my side of some of the arguments I present here, because they are not off the cuff statements, but rather (in my mind at least) opinions that have been backed up by 20+ years of history of this band, history of other bands, and more importantly history of stage architecture, lighting design, and sound design, of which I have done extensive research and can say I have the back-up for a lot of the things I say here.
I can understand your frustration with people saying ‘negative’ things about the band you love, and the tour that you did quite enjoy, but you have to be open to other people’s opinions. If you are not, you might as well simply not read them. As I am starting to see here, people are becoming less annoyed by ‘negative’ comments, and more frustrated with the fact that you cannot be open to someone else’s opinion. I wish this was not the case.
Cool out man – we all love this band, some of us just think they currently are not operating on all cylinders. You never know – the next tour could absolutely blow my mind. I have the faith in the band and the production team to do so. And I will tell you, no matter what they put in front of me, whether it is the band launching into outer space every night, or if it is them standing on cardboard boxes, I will definitely be there, but I will be writing my opinions here the very next day.
I hope you are cool with this, because no matter what I am cool with your reply…
Ever yours,
Ouizy
You're not able to keep anything to yourself on this forum. 
