Changing up the set for 2011?

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They could never replace Streets. That song is going to stay in the set every day until all the band members are dead.
 
I doubt COBL and Vertigo will be played at every remaining U2 show, and WOWY has disappeared in the past.

Changes next year? I assume the early 2011 dates will mostly mirror the 2010 shows. As for the NA leg, I would hope given the retread of certain places we'd see changes to the encore format. Keep MOS, but don't end the show with it, end it with 40. Better yet, Bad->40 :drool:. We've had a new intro each year, I hope that we get a 3rd. If there's a new album, please continue to rotate NLOTH material in (in place of the ATYCLBathon). Bring back TUF or create another middle of the set showstopper that was lacking in 2010. I love Miss Sarajevo, but don't kill it with overplay anymore.
 
gone for the suit of lights intro second encore
it makes sense the synth guitar
then the whole band coming in with bono fllying on the mic
would suit that but cant see it happening
discotheque would be rad also
mofo replacing crazy tonight and/or blending into one another would be sick to see:hmm:
 
As i've learnt over the years, especially this tour, never expect the unexpected with this band regarding setlist. But at the end of the day, a list of 24 songs on a computer screen is no where near close to experiencing the setlist in real life. I'm sure if every one of us went to the every single show on the tour our views on the setlist would massively different.

As far as their concerned, the set has worked fine so far. The only way they can judge whether the fans like the set is by playing the set in front of them, and you never see anyone moan about the set in the middle of the concert. So in a way, they probably have know idea a large portion of their fanbase wants Mofo once in a while, or a bit of POP. For that reason alone, i can't see the setlist being mixed up to much. Expect the same intro, which i'm still undecided whether i like it or not. I actually really enjoy the idea of Bono walking around the catwalk getting the fans pumped up whilst Stingrays playing. But when it stops and he does that thing with the crowd, and then Beautiful Day comes in, it doesn't feel perfect to me. Which intro's like Elevation did. But as long the band is on stage fit and still playing, im happy with anything they throw out there.
 
what the hell are you people talking about?
NOT ending with MOS? that's ridiculous


I for one HATE the Stingray/BD start... it's awful.
First, the Stingray thing's just an INTRO, and niether one of the 4 do something worhtwhile in the song. Then, ther's dead air for like 10 seconds, what a killer. and then, BD starts, and the intr's just TOO slow. And all because Stingray, BD, IWF and NYD are played with the Explorer guitar. Just lazy


What Axver says, of MOTD instead of Scarlet for Chile, sound actually really nice.
Except that I was hoping NO Walk On (even though is one of my favorites), but with MOTD preceeding it, it actually has a lot of sense. (AND it's a real song, MLK and Scarlet can be called almost-songs). If they play it for REAL, though, like in Istambul (the perfection would be a 87 version :drool: )


and why nobody has thought of this?
UTEOTW ---> Breathe

the ONLY way I see MOFO in is in a new encore:

MOFO
Crazy Tonight
Vertigo

but that would change the main set's finale.



I just hope they play Ultraviolet and not IALW/MS here in Chile
 
SBU2 said:
As i've learnt over the years, especially this tour, never expect the unexpected with this band regarding setlist. But at the end of the day, a list of 24 songs on a computer screen is no where near close to experiencing the setlist in real life. I'm sure if every one of us went to the every single show on the tour our views on the setlist would massively different.

As far as their concerned, the set has worked fine so far. The only way they can judge whether the fans like the set is by playing the set in front of them, and you never see anyone moan about the set in the middle of the concert. So in a way, they probably have know idea a large portion of their fanbase wants Mofo once in a while, or a bit of POP. For that reason alone, i can't see the setlist being mixed up to much. Expect the same intro, which i'm still undecided whether i like it or not. I actually really enjoy the idea of Bono walking around the catwalk getting the fans pumped up whilst Stingrays playing. But when it stops and he does that thing with the crowd, and then Beautiful Day comes in, it doesn't feel perfect to me. Which intro's like Elevation did. But as long the band is on stage fit and still playing, im happy with anything they throw out there.
Click to expand...

yeah that's very true
the firsthand experience is a lot different
although i got chills when the lights turned off and beautiful day came on
it was awesome! but yeah it could be a more upbeat song
 
pepokiss said:
what the hell are you people talking about?
NOT ending with MOS? that's ridiculous


I for one HATE the Stingray/BD start... it's awful.
First, the Stingray thing's just an INTRO, and niether one of the 4 do something worhtwhile in the song. Then, ther's dead air for like 10 seconds, what a killer. and then, BD starts, and the intr's just TOO slow. And all because Stingray, BD, IWF and NYD are played with the Explorer guitar. Just lazy


What Axver says, of MOTD instead of Scarlet for Chile, sound actually really nice.
Except that I was hoping NO Walk On (even though is one of my favorites), but with MOTD preceeding it, it actually has a lot of sense. (AND it's a real song, MLK and Scarlet can be called almost-songs). If they play it for REAL, though, like in Istambul (the perfection would be a 87 version :drool: )


and why nobody has thought of this?
UTEOTW ---> Breathe

the ONLY way I see MOFO in is in a new encore:

MOFO
Crazy Tonight
Vertigo

but that would change the main set's finale.



I just hope they play Ultraviolet and not IALW/MS here in Chile
Click to expand...

Stingray, lights down -----> UTEOTW---->NLOTH------>I Will Follow

or

Stingray------>UTEOTW-------->NYD------->Magnificent

If it goes right from the end of Stingray to lights out to the siren intro, the problem of dead space and slow to build opening song would be fixed.
 
but it would still be an OLD song opening, and that's the other problem with BD opening

maybe they'll open with EVERY BREAKING WAVE :drool:
 
Not necessarily directed at you, pepokiss, I hear this argument a lot here.

Who the hell cares?

As long as it works, which I think Until The End of The World definitely would.

U2 needs to stop being so obsessed with playing 4 or 5 new songs out of the gate lest they be judged as a greatest hits act.

Thank God, they finally realized that all this did was get them stadiums sitting on their hands until they got 4 or 5 songs in during 2009, so they switched it up for 2010. It's far from perfect, but much better than watching the dazed looks from 90% of the crowd during Breathe/NLOTH/Boots and Magnificent. People finally started paying attention when they played Beautiful Day or Mysterious Ways.

1.)U2 will not be relegated to nostalgia act status just by what opening song they use. If they have a new album in 2011, for example, and play 5 tracks from that and 6 or 7 more drawing from the 2000-2010 period, then opening with an oldie doesn't scream "we're the Stones." The content of the entire set is what determines that.

2.)And most importantly, what is wrong with having a mind blowing awesome back catalog and showcasing it? Does U2 actually think they have anyone fooled into thinking they're a group of 25 year olds with only a couple albums under their belt? They're not young, no one thinks they're young! All I care and all anyone else cares is that they keep working at putting out new material and they can still play as good as, or better than they did when they were 25 years old!
 
U2387 said:
Thank God, they finally realized that all this did was get them stadiums sitting on their hands until they got 4 or 5 songs in during 2009, so they switched it up for 2010.
Click to expand...

I was watching the Red Rocks DVD yesterday and it dawned on me that a song from War doesn't start until the fifth song. Maybe I've never paid any particular attention because I enjoy watching it so much :wink:

Looks like the expectation of playing a whole bunch of new album songs before any previous material still lingers from Zoo TV but historically it's the exception, not the rule.
 
The entire set should be unreleased or at least non-album material. Open with Always, dammit!

Although I actually heard Always playing at a restaurant once in Chicago... either it's not that unknown, or Chicago is just awesome. I think Chicago is just awesome.
 
kabigon said:
I was watching the Red Rocks DVD yesterday and it dawned on me that a song from War doesn't start until the fifth song. Maybe I've never paid any particular attention because I enjoy watching it so much :wink:

Looks like the expectation of playing a whole bunch of new album songs before any previous material still lingers from Zoo TV but historically it's the exception, not the rule.
Click to expand...

Exactly!

I watched Red Rocks the other night as well, and that fueled the rant!

Often the same story on the UF tour as well. 11Tick---->I Will Follow to start then get going with the UF material or even play a couple War tracks(Seconds and 2 Hearts being the most common) before UF shows up.

Exactly right. Though Streets opened JT(with Trip, SHF and the token oldie, IWF), Zoo Tv was the turning point with how they approach live sets, especially the opening few numbers.

They developed a whole attitude towards playing older material period---it was to be done sparingly. As we all know from being die hard U2 nuts, Zoo Tv set lists drew extremely heavily on R&H and JT hits for back catalog representation. I mean, War, not even 10 years old at the time(or put another away, as old as ATYCLB is on 360!) was not even touched for a couple of legs! Boy got a few token busker versions of I Will Follow. TUF, the Zoo TV equivalent of ATYCLB(if you will) got Bad for a couple legs and that was dropped, leaving it with just Pride. It would be like U2 dropping Beautiful Day on the Vertigo Tour, only Bad was THE iconic must-do we've come to expect this, emotional climax show stopping moment of a U2 show back then.

Even the JT tour, promoting what had overnight become one of the biggest albums in history, songs like October and MLK stayed on as staples and they still rotated in the old live favorites like Out of Control, Electric Co, 11 Tick Tock and Gloria. Hell, they were playing Gloria on the last shows of the tour before Christmas, 1987!
 
Yes but I don't think they were at all worried about being considered a legacy act >10 years into their career.
 
Very true, and it certainly gets harder to represent the whole catalog as time goes on. It's much bigger than it was in 1987.

I'm just saying there is a balance somewhere and I think it can be found if they continue rotating like they did on Vertigo and, to a pretty good extent considering it was a stadium tour, in 2010.

I would certainly not mess with their tradition of heavily promoting new material if there is a new album next year, I was simply discussing the opening numbers and how they pick the back catalog songs to put in their sets.

Material from the latest release and the last decade or so will always be a big part of a U2 set and I have no issue with that.

While they were definitely not worried about being considered a legacy act on JT when they were in their late 20s and just becoming super stars, let's face it, that is a concern for a lot of people in the industry at that age. I mean, how long did the Beatles last? As Bono often is quoted with the "alive at 33" line.

I'm not disagreeing with you, but I'm just saying that you are judged by the standards in the industry, and it's not all that uncommon to have "legacy act" stamped across your face before you are 30. Not in the rock world. So knowing this, U2 still didn't care what people would think if they busted out Gloria or Electric Co.

In many ways, it was harder then, as there was more of an expectation on them to take it to the next level with their new material every time out.

It would be a lot easier and much less criticized today if they decided they wanted to dig deeper into the back catalog.
 
U2387 said:
Not necessarily directed at you, pepokiss, I hear this argument a lot here.

Who the hell cares?
Click to expand...

U2 do, ever since Zoo TV. As do plenty of fans.

And the "no one cared for the new songs in 2009" argument is also overplayed. I also attended a show in 2009, and I can tell you the crowd happy clapped and sang along to Magnificent, and as the bootleg proves, we drowned out the massive PA when Boots riff started after the intro. I concede it should have opened instead of Breathe, but NLOTH is a great stadium song.

Stadiums weren't dead for the first 4 songs.
 
I watched my Amsterdam 2009 (second show) bootleg yesterday for the first time in a few months and I'm sad that they dropped NLOTH. That's one awesome song and the crowd response was huge.
 
I don't say that ALL the 3-4 first songs should be friom NLOTH, but the FIRST ONE should be, like MOFO on Popmart or Streets on JT

hey, think about this:

Fez (extended)/Being Born --> IWF --> GOYB --> Mag --> BD

THAT's awesome, and if you replace F/BB with NLOTH, it still rocks, but F/BB has a more "epic" vibe
 
U2girl said:
U2 do, ever since Zoo TV. As do plenty of fans.

And the "no one cared for the new songs in 2009" argument is also overplayed. I also attended a show in 2009, and I can tell you the crowd happy clapped and sang along to Magnificent, and as the bootleg proves, we drowned out the massive PA when Boots riff started after the intro. I concede it should have opened instead of Breathe, but NLOTH is a great stadium song.

Stadiums weren't dead for the first 4 songs.
Click to expand...

Well, U2 aren't hard and fast on this requirement like you and some others are.

They've been opening with Beautiful Day and I Will Follow/NYD.

Because that is what works.

I am not saying stadiums were silent or asleep during the new material, of course, there were plenty of people clapping and singing along. They're U2 fans at a U2 show. Still, in America, I don't know about in Europe, there was a noticeable lack of energy compared to other tours' openings until they played BD or MW.

Also, where were you sitting?

I highly doubt anything from NLOTH got anywhere near the reception the hits did.

I agree the title track would've probably been the best opener from NLOTH, but still, there are no real ideal options here.

That's why I'd like Until The End....------>>>NLOTH.

I am not against opening with new material, if there is a great opener like Elevation or City of Blinding Lights on the next release, perfect!! I'd prefer that.

But in the absence of something similar from the latest release, I don't see the obsession with needing a "new" song to open. Especially when the latest release is over a year old and did not sell nearly as well as their last 2 albums.

It's really kind of a silly obsession, and one U2 does not share.

Also, Fez-Being Born would not work as an opener either. They've never even played it live in the 2 years it's been out, what makes people think they'd all of a sudden open with it? It is the most out there song on the album and the "epic" feel deflates after the first round of "ooohhhs."

If a song is going to open, it needs to be:

1.)Really well known(Elevation, COBL, Streets).

2.)Or a really great, energetic song with a ton of energy. (MOFO, Zoo Station, Out of Control)

It should come as no surprise that the best openers have been some combination of both of these- most notably Zoo, City and Streets!

NLOTH fits in the 2nd category, that's why it would work if we want to talk new(ish) material to open.
 
if your new album, no matter how good, doesn't have a song on it that works as a great concert opener then there's no point in still trying to force it
 
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