Why didnt they ever play Acrobat?

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I figure that if they played bizarro songs like Zooropa and Lemon 10 or so times, they at least have to play Acrobat once.
 
I heard somewhere that it was because it would mean Bono playing guitar, and as we now, he aint to good :wink:
 
Maybe they just don't rate the song themselves to play it live?..If they can work out how to play Mofo live or even The Fly live or Bullet they can play Acrobat..nowhere have i heard it is a technically difficult song to play:huh:

Maybe they also just like the mystery they have created for this one song...a band such as U2 enjoy some of the mystique around them..never playing Acrobat just adds to that..maybe one day they will hit us with it..but i will never ever expect it to be played...just one of those things....

...then again how many people would think its an amazing song without the mystique around it? It is one of my personal favourites...but maybe thats because of the mystery around it? If they didn't play Vertigo ever live would it become a masterpiece in some people's eyes?:wink:
 
I think they felt they couldn't fit it into the ZooTV setlist well. And as we know, any song that doesn't make its own tour won't make a future tour.
 
Because they cannot reproduce it live in a form they would be proud of. Bono said to a girl begging for it at a concert in 2001 that he and Edge would have to 'meditate in a tree for a month' to be able to play it live. Apparently, they have still not managed to do that and don't plan to. It's not gonna happen.
 
U2Kitten said:
Bono said to a girl begging for it at a concert in 2001 that he and Edge would have to 'meditate in a tree for a month' to be able to play it live. Apparently, they have still not managed to do that and don't plan to. It's not gonna happen.
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i think we all know bono well enough that thats probably just something "rock and roll" he pulled out of his ass. its probably got something to do with the meaning of the song and like someone said before, its place in the setlist.
 
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explorer said:


i think we all know bono well enough that thats probably just something "rock and roll" he pulled out of his ass.
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And probably the fact that they didn't know how to play it, didn't have time to learn, and probably didn't want to, but you're not going to say that to someone on their birthday because it would sound rude.

I'd take the "we'd have to meditate in a tree for a month" quote with a grain of salt. U2 could easily play the song if they chose to.
 
When you consider that the last time they probably played Acrobat was 14 years ago for the Achtung Baby master/Hershey rehearsal, not knowing how to play it sounds kind of reasonable! :wink:
 
The main thing I think that would be tricky to get would be the intro bit, with the harmonics that goes into feedback. You can do that fairly easily with most delay units (I've done it myself a couple times, but I can't remember exactly how right now) but it probably wouldn't sound too close to the record.

But as other people said... they did MOFO live. That's quite a feat.
 
Mof o live works amazingly because it has a slight reowkring but its way harder and complex than acrobat.

The final concert idea - tis possible. i think wen this happens (After the next tour) they willl play a few unbelivable songs
 
Yea I have a recording of U2 playing Acrobat, but it's only acoustic.
 
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