Will anything ever top RTSS-Streets from ZooTV?

[Zoocoustic]

I don't see it ever happening for the following reasons:

1) The complete re-invention of Running To Stand Still. The version of this song that was created for ZooTV was leaps and bounds ahead of any version up to that point. True, they dropped the piano, but made up for it and more with the strings arrangement and amazing guitar work.

2) Bono's "shooting up" act during RTSS. This just heightens the experience...watching Bono and at first wondering what he is doing, only to realize as soon as he mentions "the needle chill" that he is the addict.

3) Harmonica solo during smokescreen. This is just beautiful. The harmonica sounds great all by itself, but when Bono stands there, the smoke and lights swallowing up his sillhouette, it is chilling. As he turns to walk off stage, the strings still going - there's never been a moment like it sense.

4) ZooTV being "tuned out". If you notice as Bono walks off from the b-stage in the dark, you can hear over the strings, the sounds of a channel surfing. Almost as if ZooTV is trying to still break through the one moment in the show when U2 tunes it out.

5) The Streets intro. As the channel surfing fades out, the familiar intro to streets kicks in with the organ. It's etremely long, drawn out, and the screens trun on the familiar red color that has come to symbolize this song. This is the pinnacle - the most adrenalyne-pumping moment in the history of U2 shows.

6) Where The Streets Have No Name. Brilliant performance. No Fly, no helicopter pilot, no MacPhisto or Mirrorball Man. Just U2 being U2, calling up images of the JT photo shoots on screen and giving Bono enough time to catch himself on screen and call out "Hey you! I remember you!"

Gotta' go watch Sydney again...

 

[typhoon]

No.

 

[Chizip]

please into streets comes close

but yes, rtss into streets gives me chills everytime

 

[UnforgettableLemon]

I think it's more complete if you take it as Bullet->RTSS->Streets

 

[Axver]

I think it's more complete if you take it as Bullet->RTSS->Streets

Even more complete if you take it as Bad --> All I Want Is You (or The First Time) --> Bullet The Blue Sky --> Running To Stand Still --> Where The Streets Have No Name. The sudden 'explosion' into Bullet was simply outstanding. I may fault ZooTV a lot, but the flow of that part of the setlist was some of the best live work ever done by U2.

 

[namkcuR]

Even more complete if you take it as Bad --> All I Want Is You (or The First Time) --> Bullet The Blue Sky --> Running To Stand Still --> Where The Streets Have No Name. The sudden 'explosion' into Bullet was simply outstanding. I may fault ZooTV a lot, but the flow of that part of the setlist was some of the best live work ever done by U2.

Better yet was on the European legs of the tour when it was Satellite Of Love --> Dirty Day --> Bullet The Blue Sky --> Running To Stand Still --> Where The Streets Have No Name.

 

[Chizip]

live, dirty day really came alive

i didnt really like it until i saw it on the sydney concert

but wow, now i really like it

i wouldnt mind seeing it on this tour


that is possibly the best sequence of songs u2 has ever done in concert

 

[Axver]

Better yet was on the European legs of the tour when it was Satellite Of Love --> Dirty Day --> Bullet The Blue Sky --> Running To Stand Still --> Where The Streets Have No Name.

Dirty Day was only played at the ten shows in Australia, New Zealand, and Japan, but yes, you're right, the connection with Bullet was wonderful. Definitely equal to Bad --> Snippet Of Choice --> Bullet The Blue Sky, if not better.

I don't really enjoy Satellite Of Love, though. A bit of a snooze sometimes.

 

[stagman]

Satellite of Love does'nt deserve to be mentioned in the same sentence as the other songs you have listed.

I must Say Unforgettable Fire-Sunday Bloody Sunday-Exit-In God's Country-Helter Skelter was a kickass sequence too, the few times they did that.

 

[starsgoblue]

Zoocoustic...WONDERFUL post.

 

[Axver]

Satellite of Love does'nt deserve to be mentioned in the same sentence as the other songs you have listed.

I must Say Unforgettable Fire-Sunday Bloody Sunday-Exit-In God's Country-Helter Skelter was a kickass sequence too, the few times they did that.

I'm personally quite keen on MLK --> The Unforgettable Fire --> Bullet The Blue Sky --> Running To Stand Still --> Exit --> In God's Country --> Sunday Bloody Sunday. That was a great JT era setlist combination.

 

[paulrg]

One of the lesser acknowledged feats of U2s live stagecraft is their brilliant use of the segue. I agree that RTSS into Streets was perfect. Every tour since has had similar moments.

Popmart - Please - Streets (with Bono singing Please in Jeff Buckley style falsetto)
Elevation - Bad/All I Want Is You - Streets (particularly Toronto and Slane versions of All I Want Is You)

I'm hoping for something great for this next tour and am expecting Love And Peace Or Else to take on a whole new life live. Maybe we will get to hear Mercy live as well.

 

[starsgoblue]

To hear Mercy live...

 

[paulrg]

To hear Mercy live...

... is one of my great hopes from this tour. It would raise the roof and could make an excellent closing number ...
Love has come again
I am gone again
Love is the end of history
The enemy of misery
Love has come again
I am gone again

Love is justice, a charity
Love brings with it a clarity
Love has come again
I'm alive again
Alive...

I am alive, baby I'm born again and again
And again, and again and again and again
Again

... my spine is shivering and the hairs on the back of my neck are standing up!

 

[Axver]

One of the lesser acknowledged feats of U2s live stagecraft is their brilliant use of the segue.

Agreed. Even from the early days, they had this one nailed - An Cat Dubh --> Into The Heart and The Cry --> The Electric Co., which are probably U2's two most inseparable combinations. My nomination, however, for the greatest segue ever is All I Want Is You into Bad from 20 October 1989, Sydney. Anyone who has heard this will attest to the fact that it is absolutely brilliant and should have been done much more often. Pure genius.

Personally, I'm hoping we don't hear Mercy. The band need to take that one away, refine it, and release it as a centrepiece of the next album.

 

[Aardvark747]

Zoocoustic - you forgot another great part, Bono's Hallelujah chants at the end of the song!

 

[miss becky]

Zoocoustic - you forgot another great part, Bono's Hallelujah chants at the end of the song!

Yesss! That is what makes the song, for me. RTSS on Zoo is just amazing. The lighting, the smoke, Bono's performance, all this adds to the song itself and turns it into one of the stand-outs of the Zoo TV concert.

And the segue into Streets is fantastic. That extended note, oh-so-subtly changing in tone, until you think you know what it is, but you're still not sure, and then suddenly there it is, the opening note of Streets.

That's it. I'm watching Sydney again tonight.

 

[starsgoblue]

Zoocoustic - you forgot another great part, Bono's Hallelujah chants at the end of the song!

Oh dear sweet Lord...yes!

 

[jick]

Bad - Bullet - Running To Stand Still - Streets ZOO TV Version

Best 4-song stretch in U2 live history.

Cheers,

J

 

[nathan1977]

What's great about the RTSS/Streets segue is that they didn't have to change keys. The Please/Streets segue always felt a little tentative, and Bad into Streets on Elevation was always off b/c of the key change.

But RTSS/Streets is perfect. Sublime.

 

[djerdap]

Miami-Bullet the Blue Sky-Please-Where the Streets Have No Name segue is fantastic.
Dirty Day-Bullet the Blue Sky-Running To Stand Still-Streets even better, although Bad/All I Want Is You is very close.
Also: Hawkmoon 269-Desire-All Along the Watchtower is also brillant. Pure rock and roll.

 

[Mike P]

I must add Bad--> 40--> Streets, as was done quite a few times on the Elevation tour.

Since I first heard a U2 bootleg, the one thing I'd always wanted to do was to sing the "how long..." part of 40 along with 20,000 other people. And I finally got to do it in Albany.

The chants only broke down when the crowd went apeshit because the red screens had come up. THAT was awesome.

-Mike

 

[Pero]

I have just listened on sequence:
not big but
ALL I WANT IS YOU-STREETS

 

[GG_The_Fly]

I have just listened on sequence:
not big but
ALL I WANT IS YOU-STREETS

As long as we're on seques ---

LEMON ==> WOWY

during Zooropa was pretty sick . . . loved those two together. . .

 

[Wildhit]

I'm actually quite fond of Until the End of the World into New Year's Day from the Sydney Zoo TV show. It's just so fricking exciting.

 

[spencr00]

i love last night on earth into until the end of the world on the popmart video....but rtss into streets is amazing

 

[U2DMfan]

even my 63 year old dad loves that segue from RTSS/Streets on the Sydney video.

it's probably the best thing they've ever done, period.

add in Dirty Day/Bullet lead in and it's even that much better