The static setlist arguement.

[U2girl]

i think you hit on something that i dislike the most... it's not neccesarily that they play the same songs with only minor variation. i can deal with that... but the "improvised jokes" and speeches that are exactly the same night in and night out irk me a bit.

example... at my first vertigo show i thought the whole "my name is paul but people call my bono" thing was a great, touching moment in the show... until i saw it 4 times in a week, at which point it became quite lame.

See less shows, then.
You think someone like Stones or Madonna or McCartney don't have repeated speeches and jokes ?

I mean, they did the jokes and speeches on lots of tours before. Why is it an issue now ?
The "we discovered the blues, we're on the cover of Time magazine etc" talk in front of I still haven't found... on JT tour ? Having a fan play guitar on People get ready on JT and Lovetown ? Dancing with a fan on WOWY for the last 3 tours ? Dancing with a fan during LiB on Zoo TV, doing the champagne dance every night on that tour ? Climbing the stage construction during Electric co on early tours ? Waving the white flag during SBS ?

The problem now is also that all the secrets are gone with the internet. You can read setlists each night and reviews of the show immediately after the concert so you will inevitabley also read something like "Bono does this and this after this song."

 

[last unicorn]

A comedian has the same jokes every night, people aren't complaining.

I am sure that most people going to only one U2 concert enjoy the jokes and speeches.

Maybe some fans need to reduce the amount of shows they are going to in order to keep the magic alive. It's a shame that some people here have lost the sense of what a U2 concert should be about. Instead, it's all about numbers, analysis and statistics. Sad.

 

[gareth brown]

apologies in advance for the length of this response

I agree it's a shame that people seem to be shooting themselves in the foot by going to so many gigs then complaining they saw the same thing every night and not enough variation, thus ruining the experience a U2 concert should be I daresay!

That said, i can see where they're coming from. If they're played [for example] Wembley 5 nights in a row and some ["elitist"/"hardcore"?] fan went to every single show and got the dreaded "best of" setlist with maybe a Beatles cover and one surprise rarity thrown in I can see why they'd walk away disappointed after shelling out around £400 for five nights of the same songs. But that's not to say I think they're right to complain.

I've seen U2 ONCE in my whole life two years ago in Cardiff. It felt like my whole life from when I first heard The Joshua Tree seven years ago was leading to that concert and I left feeling ecstatic that I'd got to see the four musicians that pretty much changed my life in the flesh, playing the songs I knew inside out and loved.

Of course I knew which songs were most likely going to be played and even said to my Dad [who thought the gig had finished] "No no we can't leave yet they've still got another encore left!" thanks to all the setlist parties and gig reviews I'd read in the months leading up to it. That's how well a lot of us here who hadn't seen them before will know of the gig in advance. But I really don't see it as a problem!

To be fair people going to see them for a number of nights in a row can't REALLY complain. Yes, most of us would love to see them chuck out Pride and One (for me it's simply because they lack what they used to live, especially Pride. I watched them on The Simpsons yesterday and whatever recording of Pride the show used sounded incredible! Hear it now and it's just dull and sluggish! it's quite upsetting if anything...)
But when U2 [hypothetically] have just had lunch before soundcheck and are sitting down and discussing a setlist I hardly think they say "Oh, you know what? Better chuck Pride tonight, there's bound to be 20-30 people who have been coming to see us for the last four nights? Ultraviolet perhaps?"

If anything it seems like a small minority are becoming quite deluded and imagining that they're the only people who know of all the underplayed album tracks that made albums like Achtung Baby so great or some B-side.
Where the former's concerned, millions of people bought that album and a majority of them will know most of the songs and I like to think some (SO-CALLED) "casual" or as some people are making out "UNWORTHY" fan would say "Oh, wow! I like this one!" if they suddenly recognised Acrobat being played if they don't spend a great deal of time at U2 forums and checking out an extended history/moan on what songs U2 rarely/never play like some of us!

It would be lovely if U2 popped onto Interference every now and again [and we all know the fuss THAT can cause ] or any other U2 fan message board for that matter, and checked out what we all thought of the sets directly and in some amazing turn changed the sets to include a couple of rarities and so on but realistically that's not going to happen is it?

At the end of the day, I'm sure most of us would love to hear about [or better yet attend] a gig with a really "shaken up" setlist and hear all the 'gems' we rarely get to hear [or NEVER if you're like me and were 5/6 years old when Ultraviolet was last played] but some people are taking this issue too far as if U2 are obliged to cater for an excruciatingly small minority going to four-five concerts in a row.
If you don't like it, don't go to a whole heap of concerts as you'll just be hearing the same thing [possibly] and as a result diluting what is undeniably one of the best live experiences on earth! Just be thankful you got a ticket to ONE show that sells like hot cakes instead of moaning you got SEVERAL tickets and heard the same thing every night!

i'm going to stop writing now because A last time i wrote a really long post it was ignored as far as i know and B i just got a little carried away and am not sure whether i want to read it all again and edit it i'm sure i've made my point so far...

 

[gareth brown]

ps..

I am sure that most people going to only one U2 concert enjoy the jokes and speeches.

if this was the only thing some non u2 fan read of this thread, I'd love to know what impression they'd be getting of a U2 concet

 

[last unicorn]

gareth brown, great post, I like the way to see things.

I just thought the other day of some people I know who would LOVE to see a U2 show and haven't been able to see one so far, because they weren't able to get tickets or because of other circumstances, and it's just great to think of people going to their first - and maybe only - U2 concert ever.

On the other hand you have people going to so many shows and complaining about things they don't agree with.

Personally, I would rather be a U2 show "newbie", celebrating the magic of this experience, instead of robbing myself by constantly critisizing, analysing or complaining about things I don't agree with.

Life itself is cynical enough, I want to escape that by enjoying a live concert by such a great band.

 

[coolian2]

gareth brown, great post, I like the way to see things.

I just thought the other day of some people I know who would LOVE to see a U2 show and haven't been able to see one so far, because they weren't able to get tickets or because of other circumstances, and it's just great to think of people going to their first - and maybe only - U2 concert ever.

On the other hand you have people going to so many shows and complaining about things they don't agree with.

Personally, I would rather be a U2 show "newbie", celebrating the magic of this experience, instead of robbing myself by constantly critisizing, analysing or complaining about things I don't agree with.

Life itself is cynical enough, I want to escape that by enjoying a live concert by such a great band.

I take back my win call earlier to whoever said something about self important fans, and award the win to this post and gareth brown.

I've only been to two shows, i basically knew everything that was coming (although it has to be said i freaked out more than i already was when something i didn't expect got played), right down to when SBS cut into Bullet. And if i had a choice between going to shows with the same setlist night after night vs no shows, i'd go with the shows.

Fucken enjoy it.

 

[ramblin rose]

Well, the funny thing is, I don't think it's the people that actually went to 20-30 shows that are complaining. It's more the people who went to 20-30 setlist parties that complain most about the setlist. Which is even funnier if you ask me.

 

[gareth brown]

haha i must say that's a very valid point

 

[CTU2fan]

Just think of how you'd feel if you were the kid seeing his first U2 gig and they didn't play Streets, or Pride? That would suck...I can tell you that when I saw my first gig (ZooTV) and they didn't play SBS I was pretty bummed.

I think what they did on Vertigo is fair. They had the songs they played every night (the Bomb tracks and the really big hits like Streets), then they had the older songs that got rotated (Gloria/Ocean and An Cat Dubh/Into the Heart), and the encores that they switched up (Zoo encore, acoustic encore). Not a bad deal really...especially considering I heard a fair bit of bitching about ACD/ITH being a buzzkill.

As more of a diehard fan I would love to see them pull out more rarities, but I'm not selfish enough to demand they deny a first-timer their chance to hear WoWY or Bad. One rarity a night would be cool, or if they played a bit longer...IMO the length of the show is a fairer complaint than the static setlist.

 

[ZOOTVTOURist]

I think what they did on Vertigo is fair. They had the songs they played every night (the Bomb tracks and the really big hits like Streets), then they had the older songs that got rotated (Gloria/Ocean and An Cat Dubh/Into the Heart), and the encores that they switched up (Zoo encore, acoustic encore). Not a bad deal really...especially considering I heard a fair bit of bitching about ACD/ITH being a buzzkill.

But, you see, you are obviously talking about a 3rd leg gig. If you followed the three dozen setlists on the 2nd, European, leg, you have the Dublin nights – especially of course Dublin III as the peak – and maybe Amsterdam 3 with major setlist shake ups.

There was NO rotation if the elder tunes, with "Gloria" not being played at all (except Dublin III), with "The Ocean" not being played at all, with the (beautiful!) "An Cat Dubh" & "Into The Heart" sequel not being played at all (except, I think you know now, where ...).
There was nearly always the (brilliant) "Electric Co." plus "I Will Follow". In the second half of the leg, even the minor and rare switch with "Out of Control" completely was off. And it's nice, you talk about the acoustic encore – but were was it played at the Europan shows or even on the last leg? It depends on the perspective, as I wrote above – so keep on bitching ...