Suppose U2 did a Escape From The Studio Tour....

[LemonMelon]

Would take balls though, they collectively lost those after Pop

Have you ever seen Some Kind Of Monster?



Metallica lost their balls somewhere around 1990.

 

[Ifeelnumb84]

Why Bono shouldn't play the guitar during these songs:
These songs were written for one guitar, and that guitar is played by the Edge. I think they are all (with the exception of ABOY) among U2's great songs and I'd be thrilled to see them performed live on any sort of tour, but they are perfect with the Edge and the Edge alone on guitar. Why mess with a perfect thing, especially when you're asking for some of their rare songs, when Bono isn't as skilled of a guitar player or jammer?

Umm, many of those songs DO feature 2 (or 3!) guitars in their original recordings, and often the additional guitar was played by Bono. ABOY and The Fly pretty much need a 2nd guitar, whether it's played by Bono or is a pre-recorded guitar. I personally would prefer the real thing.

 

[U2girl]

Get ready for a) setlist complaints and b) complaints about album delays.

And when was the last time U2 played a festival ?

 

[popacrobat]

with or without you sounds much better with a second guitar. bono USED to play guitar on that and did as late as elevation tour on at least one occasion. it is a nice touch to that song. bono playing LNOE is necessary. on the fly, it sounds much better as well. dirty day it's necessary. all because of you would have sounded much better should he have played guitar instead of tambourine. gone, a pair of guitars.

so no, those songs were not written for one guitar. bono's guitar playing, when he did play guitar on V tour, was actually much improved from his years past. playing half a set or 8-9 songs would increase the sound quality and performance quality. you're telling me he didn't belt out some awesome vocals during any gone performances? or with or without you from the joshua tree tour? or the fly from zootv or vertigo? the guy is capable of it and i would prefer to see more guitar playing by bono.

 

[popacrobat]

additionally, when he doesn't play the second guitar properly the second guitar is used as a backing track and is barely audible to anybody in the crowd except for the band members who have it piped into their ears. it is very dimly put into the feed that plays over the PA and thus the sound quality of the song suffers. that is not true for ALL songs, but for at least one of them on that list it is. i would much rather hear a song played properly than 80%.

 

[ultraviolet92]

I honestly wonder why Bono should play the guitar for most/all of these songs. I have a few reasons why I think this is a really bad idea, so I was wondering why the poster thought it was a good idea.

Why Bono shouldn't play the guitar during these songs:
These songs were written for one guitar, and that guitar is played by the Edge. I think they are all (with the exception of ABOY) among U2's great songs and I'd be thrilled to see them performed live on any sort of tour, but they are perfect with the Edge and the Edge alone on guitar. Why mess with a perfect thing, especially when you're asking for some of their rare songs, when Bono isn't as skilled of a guitar player or jammer? You just throw off the songs we know and love, throw off the Edge's masterful playing, AND reason number two is that you also distract Bono from singing when a number of these songs have particularly difficult vocals (especially Exit, Gone, and Desire). Plus Bono has enough trouble remembering lyrics without having to remember tabs and put it all together! And you want him to be able to run around with a microphone and get the crowd hyped, that's a key part of the live U2 experience.

So far as I can tell you gain nothing with Bono on guitar but quite possibly lose a lot. If it ain't broke don't fix it.

That said, it's one thing to let Bono whip out his green guitar and play along for a small and frequently-played part of the set, as they did on Vertigo, but there's a reason they are a 1-guitar band, and 10 songs is waaaaaaaay too much Bono guitar. 1-2 songs = novelty, 10 = taking away from the quality of the performance of Edge's guitar, Bono's vocals, Bono's energy and freedom as a frontman, and the band's sound overall.

calm down i was just emphazizng the fact that it was a jam session and it wouldnt be a huge concert and they wouldn't have a b stage and also bono can sing just as good with a guitar and he doesnt even sing exit while playing guitar only at the instrumental heavy part

and btw

gone
when love comes to town
desire
all i want is you
with or without you
were all recorded with bono playing guitar


and also he plays guitar all the time to the fly, last night on earth, exit and dirty day i cant picture them doing any of those songs without a guitar

and lastly all because of you was recorded with 2 guitars and bono actually needs to play guitar on this coz it lacked density live compared to recording version

just dont take it too seriously next time i agree he needs to be frontman at concerts but this is a escape from studio concert it wont be a big production and i agree tp whoever said u2 need to jam more

 

[ultraviolet92]

with or without you sounds much better with a second guitar. bono USED to play guitar on that and did as late as elevation tour on at least one occasion. it is a nice touch to that song. bono playing LNOE is necessary. on the fly, it sounds much better as well. dirty day it's necessary. all because of you would have sounded much better should he have played guitar instead of tambourine. gone, a pair of guitars.

so no, those songs were not written for one guitar. bono's guitar playing, when he did play guitar on V tour, was actually much improved from his years past. playing half a set or 8-9 songs would increase the sound quality and performance quality. you're telling me he didn't belt out some awesome vocals during any gone performances? or with or without you from the joshua tree tour? or the fly from zootv or vertigo? the guy is capable of it and i would prefer to see more guitar playing by bono.

 

[toscano]

Have you ever seen Some Kind Of Monster?



Metallica lost their balls somewhere around 1990.

Yeah but from what I just saw this weekend, they found them again.

I'm hoping (but not hopeful) that U2 can do likewise.

 

[toscano]

Umm, many of those songs DO feature 2 (or 3!) guitars in their original recordings, and often the additional guitar was played by Bono. ABOY and The Fly pretty much need a 2nd guitar, whether it's played by Bono or is a pre-recorded guitar. I personally would prefer the real thing.

ABOY has 3 guitars, 2 electric, one acoustic. You are however correct in that most of those songs DO have 2 (or more) guitar parts, clearly you have a functioning pair of ears, something missing from some people.

 

[kingofsorrow]

drowning man....................please play it.

 

[Varitek]

Well I got owned.

I maintain the following.
1) If they did this type of tour, I'd want new stuff - isn't that the point? see how it develops live before you finalize it on the album?
2) I want Bono to know the lyrics to the songs before he has to worry about remembering guitar tabs.
3) I am perfectly happy to have backing tracks live if it means that the vocals and overall sound will be better.
4) ABOY is
5) I love Bono, and I tease Bono out of this love, but I am honestly skeptical that at this point that he could do half a show or more on guitar and nail everything versus the accuracy and energy of only using the guitar a few times.
6) One show might be interesting to see as a rough cut, but the sad truth about U2's tours at this point is that they fall into the comfort of familiarity (and see 5, I think in some ways they need to) and do nearly the same routine every night. I'd love to see them experiment with a number of things including venue and setlist variety and speeches (instead of a word-for-word repeat every night, the passion and spontaneity of earlier Bono pontificating would be great...and the relative brevity) but they seem to always settle down.

That said,

 

[ultraviolet92]

Well I got owned.

I maintain the following.
1) If they did this type of tour, I'd want new stuff - isn't that the point? see how it develops live before you finalize it on the album?
2) I want Bono to know the lyrics to the songs before he has to worry about remembering guitar tabs.
3) I am perfectly happy to have backing tracks live if it means that the vocals and overall sound will be better.
4) ABOY is
5) I love Bono, and I tease Bono out of this love, but I am honestly skeptical that at this point that he could do half a show or more on guitar and nail everything versus the accuracy and energy of only using the guitar a few times.
6) One show might be interesting to see as a rough cut, but the sad truth about U2's tours at this point is that they fall into the comfort of familiarity (and see 5, I think in some ways they need to) and do nearly the same routine every night. I'd love to see them experiment with a number of things including venue and setlist variety and speeches (instead of a word-for-word repeat every night, the passion and spontaneity of earlier Bono pontificating would be great...and the relative brevity) but they seem to always settle down.

That said,

yes i agree with you that they would do new stuff i forgot to put that they need to new songs and yeah bono need to remember lyrcis lol but dont be put off by the popmart desire id just like to see a bit more of 2 guitars in the band

all because you isnt that band i reckon they need to get ridd of the high sounding intro and just have that verse riff at the start with 2 guitars it needs more depth and could go well live a good moshpit song

i was only saying for him to play guitar on the tracks that needed an extra guitar and they would probably never play some of those songs again i just whish they would experiment a bit more and have a bit more improv

 

[Varitek]

yes i agree with you that they would do new stuff i forgot to put that they need to new songs and yeah bono need to remember lyrcis lol but dont be put off by the popmart desire id just like to see a bit more of 2 guitars in the band

all because you isnt that band i reckon they need to get ridd of the high sounding intro and just have that verse riff at the start with 2 guitars it needs more depth and could go well live a good moshpit song

i was only saying for him to play guitar on the tracks that needed an extra guitar and they would probably never play some of those songs again i just whish they would experiment a bit more and have a bit more improv

That's why it's nice when Bruce Springsteen shows up at a U2 show!

ABOY kind of bores me and I find the rhythm to be kind of grating. If U2 are going to rock I'd much prefer they play 11OTT or OOC or TEC or IWF.

Yeah they probably won't play a lot of those songs again, and as someone who's only seen Vertigo it breaks my heart because I'd love to hear tons of them. I'd love experimentation and I'd love improv. But I don't really expect it, sadly.