My friend hates ZOO TV Sydney

[Aygo]

Sunday Bloody Sunday was played forty times on ZooTV - on the third and fourth legs, it rotated with Bad before Bullet. In fact, only one ZooTV show did not open with Zoo Station - the 7 August 1992 public rehearsal in Hershey was opened by Sunday Bloody Sunday.

I want to make it clear that I am not complaining about the setlist being static (you didn't say that but the point swirled around a bit in other posts). Arguments about static sets have been had before and while I do have that quarrel with ZooTV, I don't want to bring it up here. The quarrel I am bringing up is the songs that were chosen and the way U2 structured the order. I don't like the way they only played hits from the past - either material from JT (their biggest hit album) or hits from initially only two other albums. When I go to see any band, I'd like to think that they'll play some more obscure past material from the vault, for a bit of spice. Stuff I wouldn't hear if I flicked on the radio. If I want to hear hits and new material, I'll just listen to the radio and not bother buying a concert ticket.

Necessary? Somehow, I don't think ZooTV was remotely that pivotal. Music history would have continued just fine without ZooTV.

Mirrorball Man and MacPhisto were excellent and employed satire incredibly well. I hated the way Bono acted at the start of the shows too, the whole sleazy rockstar act. I preferred Bono of the eighties where he actually stood for something important. I realise he was acting on ZooTV but I think it was a poor act and pointless. We all know what a stereotypical rockstar is, Bono. I think he proved nothing, while Mirrorball Man and MacPhisto made very serious points.

About the SBS thing in the setlist you're right... I thought about something like that but I was not secure about it... thankx

About the rest of the post... remember that most of the people that attends to the concerts are not hardcore fans like us, so they don't know less known songs. And I repeat, it was a re-breakthrough tour, they had a main theme and something to break with. The setlist choice (AB + hits + AB/hits) is right and fits in the tour concept. I don't like bashing about playing old hits (it's frequent here): we are hardcore, but most people are not, and they go there to hear the old hits...

And yes, ZooTv was necessary... If you didn't get what I meant, read the last paragraphs of dosctowho's post, you'll get there faster...

ZOO TV was needed. Another JT-ish tour wouldn't have driven home the point of AB and I don't think U2 would have "survived" it. R&H, despite being half-live, was almost a JT-Part 2. Had U2 done another JT style album or tour, I doubt U2 would be around today. That major transformation brought U2 into the 90's. It revolutionized U2's image, concerts and touring. No, U2 were not the first to incorporate video into their concerts or make fun, yet significant rock songs, but it's this combination that worked - and more importantly, this contrast from their 80's image that really sold it. U2 still very much so had a message - often it was the same message. But now, U2 were seen smiling. Now they were "fun". And that made their message easier to accept. The weight of the world was gone - U2 proved that one can have fun while still making a difference.

The U2 we see today, IMO, is about the most "real" we are going to get. These are guys that are joking and having fun, but still preaching. But there's no condescension. Furthermore, instead of just preaching, there's action - and that's infinitely more important. Protesting a nuclear plant off the Irish Sea is great, but what does it really do? Talking about apartheid is fantastic, but did it solve anything? Getting rid of debt for African nations is far more powerful than any words in a concert or any protests. And I think it's the current U2 exists because of the transformation they made in ZOO TV.

About the characters, the objective was not turn Bono in an Hollywood actor, but take them to leave a message that would be hard to leave without them. It was very intelligent to include this element in the whole concept.

 

[dazzledbylight]

interesting comments!!!

esp 4 me from.........Zoocoustic and Drwho's...
[btw a very funny sig, dw! did you create the shot-up/falling red-x pic after you found the smiles, or what? ]

Been a u2 fan since IWF/OOC. ANd i have caught them , briefly at rehersal for a summer '83 show {SBS]., and then live from 84 onward..except for Pop.

I can very much see how you pov, dw, would be.

I loved AB as an album and the OutdoorZooTV tour-- wow! Heck I didn't know what a Trabant was ...as per where it was manufactured. But since that was -- wasn't some what close to after the Berlin Wall came down... it would have made sense. ANd poking fun at the ultra consumerism etc.

...tho very unfortuanalely i only got to see it once [and my friends lent me the $$] at Giants Stadium {nj/near nyc} because of my underemployed situation at the time. So i didn't really know about the ?? super-'repetitivness' of the performances. I sure wish i could have been at at least 2 more shows where i was at least one half-way to the stage ,and then CLOSE to the stage!

the vid of UTEOFW....when they do the practically top of the Stadium at least 3/4 or more of the way back??!!
THAT's where me and my friends were. At least we did get to see/hear them live!

I didn't [re: $$] get to see the Zooropa part of that tour, either. Maybe you had to be a gal/woman {or a gay guy} to 'appreciate' the slinky, sexy 'Rock Star' personna Bono took on........... and Thank Goodness in Real Life he is in person with the fans a usually really nice guy. I haven't really met him yet {met Edge, Adam & larry ], but i've been close enough to see him {and the others}also interacting with fans/treating fans very nicely, so i know.

But oh, the songs off of AB!!! Superb!!!!!!Zoo/UTHEOFTW /FLy/EBTTRT/UV/Acrobat- {one of the *Holy Grail* of live songs }/One......

War was The Album that totally made me a real serious fan, because to me of the amount of consistanly very good to oustanding songs on it! Loved JT. IGC/Exit/Streets/RHM/TTYW
Never listened to R&H till early '00's- because i had a small but genuine chance of possibly being involved with designing the R&H cover{I was a profesional Graphic Desigher/Artist}. It was a 4% of separation thing that suddenly dropped in "outa no-where'. I was way too upset to listen to the album or go see the Movie {which my friends raved about} when they were completed. I finally bought the DVD last year.

ATYCLB had some superb songs....BD/Walk On -ESP Live with the Halle, Halle's version!/NY- that suddendynamic range change/Elevation.

But I think Bomb is very close, sometimes Equal to AB! i know some would vehemently disagree
V/MD/COBL {incredible opener and song, period!}LAPOE/Crumbs/Yaweh.....omg!
Those are my faves and usually enjoy almost all of ther others most of the time ...except OSCTK...don't dislike it.I do agree totally with someone who once said it remnded them of a certain type of Velevet Underground song.... and i like the UV.

I think the Vertigo Tour has been their best since AB tour and as good, in their live playing. Great interactions with each other andthe crowds. And even if Bono can't always hit every note all the time....what he IS doing with his voice and the way there is several styles of music one the album, not just for him in his singing-- but for the whole band is just too exciting for words...so I'll use a smilie instead

 

[Reggie Thee Dog]

U2 toured Zoo TV and Ax was only 5 years old, so I'm not putting a lot into his view of "Zoo TV was the worst tour". In fact being 26 at the time, and having followed U2 for the previous 9 years, Zoo TV was the most exciting tour they had ever done. Regardless of Bono's voice, song selection, live translation of the songs and whatnot.

Zoo TV was complete a 180 from everything they had done in the past. I saw them tour the Unforgettable Fire and Joshua Tree, both great shows, but Zoo TV was a slap in the face. A shock to the system. Who was this band? Where did they come from and what did this have to do with a U2 concert. Well it had nothing to do with the past and yet everything do with the future.

U2 learned to laugh, and make their audience laugh, and yet displayed the same passion they always had, albeit subtly. I can't tell you how stunned I was the first time I saw the show, but by the 3rd time I saw it (and yes the setlist was static, but never stagnant) I was amazed and was a true believer that U2 could do anything they wanted.

I do, however, agree that I prefer Bono when he stands for something, but without the Zoo TV Tour U2 would have faced the same fate most "older" bands do 10 - 15 years into their career. A steady decline.

 

[BVS]

I do, however, agree that I prefer Bono when he stands for something, but without the Zoo TV Tour U2 would have faced the same fate most "older" bands do 10 - 15 years into their career. A steady decline.

See, I think I may be a minority here, but I think Bono was standing for something during Zoo TV.

It just wasn't so "heart on the sleeve".

But he was definately standing very tall for many things.

 

[amerrydeath]

Whenever I listen to Lovetown or JT boots, U2 feels like this dead end to me (especially Lovetown), like they're burning themselves out. The shows are fantastic for the sheer amount of passion that went into him, but I can hear Bono destroying his own voice and very little of it sounds fresh. They do sound like a U2 jukebox, yes, even during Lovetown--they're playing songs in fantastic new ways, but they're still playing the same songs. ZooTV, as many have said, was a complete 180 degree turnaround. The U2 of ZooTV feels like it has a future, that it's not rehashing the same ideas it has been. The band sounds like they're having fun, they're performing amazing new songs and they're doing this under a massive stage filled with video screens that try to drag your attention away from the band--but I rarely find my attention straying from Bono. They still stand for the same things, but they've found a new way of getting that across, and it doesn't feel so much like the old, tired U2 that was playing its own farewell concerts just two years ago. ZooTV proved that U2 had another ten years left in them, that they wouldn't and couldn't stay on the same track they had. Plus it was a shitload of fun for the band and the audience.