Is this tour frustrating you?

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Or how about, I dunno, opening with a song not from NLOTH? This concept got lost when U2 decided to dream it all up again. They have about 150 other songs to choose from....

Oh, please god no...

In fact it's one thing I really hate about Pearl Jam's current tour, it doesn't feel like it's promoting anything really... It just feels like another tour, like someone at the end of their career.
 
Not frustrated or disappointed in the least. The sense of entitlement on this forum is staggering. I'm happy they're touring. I'm happy I get three shows next week. I'm happy they're playing Streets and WOWY. I'm fucking e.c.s.t.a.t.i.c. that UF and UV are being played, more than I can verbalize. The tour is what the band wants it to be, nothing more and nothing less. They set a theme, and these are the songs we get. Next tour will be different, just like the ones before it.
 
Not frustrated or disappointed in the least. The sense of entitlement on this forum is staggering. I'm happy they're touring. I'm happy I get three shows next week. I'm happy they're playing Streets and WOWY. I'm fucking e.c.s.t.a.t.i.c. that UF and UV are being played, more than I can verbalize. The tour is what the band wants it to be, nothing more and nothing less. They set a theme, and these are the songs we get. Next tour will be different, just like the ones before it.
...so enjoy the shows, mate!:wave:
 
Nah, I'm a big fan of each tour being about the new album.....

FEZ would have made a lot of sense as the opener...

I usually agree, it's just that none of the openers they've chosen have been able to match Streets, Zoo Station, Mofo, or even COBL.

If it were up to me, NLOTH would open every night. Turn off all the lights, let Edge play a short (30-45 second), spooky, kinda psychedelic guitar solo after Space Oddity, and then just blow the fucking roof off the place. From there, you have an available transition into Magnificent that we're already conditioned to like, or you can keep the tempo going with Boots.

Oh, please god no...

In fact it's one thing I really hate about Pearl Jam's current tour, it doesn't feel like it's promoting anything really... It just feels like another tour, like someone at the end of their career.

Yeah, the sets I've seen have been pretty light on Backspacer material. Bruce hasn't been doing much better...how many songs from Working On A Dream have been played, five? I don't understand what the opener has to do with ignoring the new album though. Wouldn't hurt my feelings if the band played 9 songs from NLOTH but opened with Streets.
 
Dear fellow INTERFERENCERS.

In the last couple of years there have been (wonderfull) debats between us, the people who clearly love the band, for so long, about new songs, setlists, Bono's hair etc. For the first time (although I have been very critical of the band the last 7 to 8 years) I notice that I get more and more "frustrated" with the decisions the band makes when it commes to songselection on the album as well as on tour etc.

Be honest and ask yourself: are there wrinkles appearing on your U2 appreciation face or are you still the 100% devotee you have allways been and they can do no more wrong/right then they used to do?

I am clearly in the first category. There is still a lot of love but a lot less marvel if you know what I mean.

I am curious :)

Yes. I used to be completely obsessed with U2. Being introduced to them in 1996 and hearing Pop got me hooked.

All That You Can't Leave Behind came out and I was disappointed, but it didn't stop me from seeing them live 3 times on the Elevation Tour.

How To Dismantle an Atomic Bomb was released and I was even more disappointed, but I still saw them one time on Vertigo Tour.

Now with No Line on the Horizon and this tour, I have become even more disappointed in the boys.

They are not my favorite band any more, and they probably are not in my top five.

Right now I'm not happy with them. I am seeing them on Sunday in Norman, and then I probably will never see them again. If the next album sucks like the last three, and if the setlists are all the same, I am done, officially with the band, and will only listen to their music up to 1997, nothing after.
 
If it were up to me, NLOTH would open every night. Turn off all the lights, let Edge play a short (30-45 second), spooky, kinda psychedelic guitar solo after Space Oddity, and then just blow the fucking roof off the place. From there, you have an available transition into Magnificent that we're already conditioned to like, or you can keep the tempo going with Boots.

I'd love that! Frankly, I think I expected it before the tour started... I certainly never expected Breathe! Although I do think it works better than I expected...
 
Ahem, no. U2 are not promoting the album in a way, they should do.

What??! Um, yes, they are.

1. WAS is not "too slow", but the lyrical highlight of the whole album. An acoustic approach of this beautiful folk song would be much more than only a replacement for the alway-played-till-death SIAMYCGOO.

Big yawns from this corner.

2. COL should also be played. A beautiful tale, a musical painting. It is pure nonsense, that it would not work and only shows, that such judgement is based on whatever "bla". IYWTVD was astonishing 97/98 before WOWY.

COL comparable to IYWTVD?? No way. Not even close.

3. FEZ is not too much of a studio pice, but simply the only more experimental and so challenging tune of NLOTH. Play it as the encore before UV, show some scenes from 'Linear' and there you go ...

What is so challenging and experimental about Fez, exactly? Absolutely nothing. It's probably the least experimental song on the whole album, in terms of what type of music they're accustomed to making.

By the way DYFL, IGWSHA and Miami really show, how strong POP was and how weak in comparison the quality of tunes on NLOTH. Do hope for the next step in '10, when hopefully the missing (better) tracks from NLOTH might find a way in these boring setlists plus new, more exciting material ...

I love DYFL, but for god's sake there's no way the other two overshadow most (if any) of the songs on NLOTH, at least the ones they are currently playing live. Cmon! Also...given your love of the three weakest most boring songs on the album, I'm hoping they have a different take on what classifies as "exciting material".
 
Yes, but who cares about this? I want to go to a concert, listen to my favourite band live. And if it is on an 'intelligent' stage, that does underline the music and does not kill the spontaneity, even better. But 360 is way too much on the technical aspect, and so much less on the art of music...:down:

so far it's been as spontaneous as the vertigo tour and i think the music has been better too.

actually fuck it, i'm not getting into this.
 
so far it's been as spontaneous as the vertigo tour and i think the music has been better too.

actually fuck it, i'm not getting into this.

you're a blind sheep. this is a U2 fan forum. you're not supposed to actually like what they're doing.

bah! bah!
 
will you please let it go? sicy's already asked for the bickering to stop. you need to learn when to step away from things.

To be honest, I didn't even initially look at the name of the post I responded to, and the response from this person shows exactly who is incapable of 'letting it go'. I merely stated my opinion. Again. Just like everyone else has. Again and again. Maybe the thread has run it's course, after all. :shrug:
 
To be honest, I didn't even initially look at the name of the post I responded to, and the response from this person shows exactly who is incapable of 'letting it go'. I merely stated my opinion. Again. Just like everyone else has. Again and again. Maybe the thread has run it's course, after all. :shrug:
so basically you have no self control and have to reply to every post? niceman asked you to not respond to his posts, there's nothing wrong with that. again, let it go. i appreciate you being kind enough to tell me what threads to close, but this can stay open.
 
That's a pretty limited definition of "artist". Now I can see why you think they are losing "artisitic vision" your definition sucks.




Cedars wouldn't work in any way shape or form live. It's great where and how it is on the album, but it's almost spoken word.

White as Snow may work stripped down to piano, if it was around Christmas time and he sung Emmanuel along with it but other than that they'll put the audience to sleep, and no matter what your definition a good artist doesn't do that...
Since my academic/professional area are the cultural studies and the artistic studies, I'm pretty confident on my opinion that good artists's first will is definitely not what the audience wants. It is the exact opposite, good artists want to replicate emotions by offering to the audience something they're not expecting. That's not the path U2 have been following, not on the studio and not on the live performances of this tour.

So, forgive me the arrogance but, given this, I'm pretty sure that my opinion is more valid than yours.

P.S.: I said it once and I repeat: any song can work when played life, depending on the way the performer delivers it. That means that "Cedars Of Lebanon" can work on a 360º tour setlist of band has the will to do it.
 
With 7 songs played off NLOTH - and 4 of them opening the show - 360 is promoting the new album.
And while UC may appear on and off, I doubt it will get cut completely (like If god will send his angels and Do you feel loved and eventually Miami got dropped from the setlist on Popmart. Wake up dead man wasn't played regularly either.)

As for the other 4 songs...exactly what would work ? WAS is too slow (same goes for Cedars only more so), FEZ is too much of a studio piece. That only leaves SUC, which is interestingly missing -- so far. We are only into the second leg of the tour though.

The "they're scared of Pop/mart part II" theory is not working as majority of the new album is getting played, in stadiums, and they will tour it worldwide.

There would be less frustration if people wouldn't be reading setlists 24/7 and seeing multiple shows. There's more to a U2 show than the attitude "zomg they played _____" and "oh noes they're playing _____ again". That can be left for the likes of Pearl Jam/Radiohead/Bruce Springsteen...


Remember that U2 almost had no time to rehearse the songs back in 1997 and songs like IGWSHA or DYFL were dropped very early because they didn't work live and the band didn't have too much time to find a way to make it work.

Velvet Dress is "too slow" as well, and the band played it anyway. Plus, "Van Diemen's Land" or RTSS are slowers too and they were played lots of times, specially RTSS. You said that WAS doesn't have a proper chorus. Well, neither RTSS has a "proper" chorus.
"Lemon" and "Numb" are studio pieces and the band found a way to present it live and to insert (and make i fit) it on a show that had already a concept previously conceived.

These are no excuses.
 
So, um, yeah, I'm frustrated that U2 isn't playing more Canadian cities, the bastards.

There's only like what, 10,000 freakin km between Toronto and Vancouver? Unacceptable.

You're a Canadian? I was convinced I've been arguing with some guy from Boston...

Btw:
< 10,000 KMs between Toronto and Vancouver, and you forgot everything East of Toronto.

Also:
By my calculations, Canada is one hot U2 country...
Canada - 30 milllion people... 3 shows. 1 show / 10 million people.
USA - 250 million people... would need to have 25 shows to approach our ratio.
Poland - 1 show / 50 million people.
UK - 1 show / 11 million people.
Ireland - 1 show / 1.26 million people* Exception as home of U2

So, it goes like Ireland*, Canada... etc.
 
Velvet Dress is "too slow" as well, and the band played it anyway.
"Lemon" and "Numb" are studio pieces and the band found a way to present it live and to insert (and make i fit) it on a show that had already a concept previously conceived.

These are no excuses.

To be perfectly honest, I think your analogies fall flat, in fact, they serve to further support the belief that the songs that are being left out should be left out.

Velvet Dress is a sultry sexy tune, it's supposed to be slow groove song. These sorts of things typically work wonders on female audience members.

Lemon has a chorus, a complete song structure and Bono doing some of his best falsetto. Also, it's catchy, was generally known (I mean, it's found at Karaoke bars, for chrissakes), generally infectious, and worked well live.

Numb features Edge doing lead vocals, and a rap - and - wait for it - a CHORUS!! Unique, awesome, and about a million times better than Fez. It translated very well live, also.

Also, just to get you thinking on something...when U2 writes, enters the studio and records, they are artists. When they conceptualize the tour, the stage, the lighting, the graphics, etc, they are artists, first and foremost.

When they hit the stage tonight, there is a distinction. They are performers, first and foremost. They are performing for an audience that has paid to see them. There is indeed a necessary catering to the audience that goes on, and it in no way diminishes their artistry or otherwise invalidates them as artists.
 
Since my academic/professional area are the cultural studies and the artistic studies, I'm pretty confident on my opinion that good artists's first will is definitely not what the audience wants. It is the exact opposite, good artists want to replicate emotions by offering to the audience something they're not expecting. That's not the path U2 have been following, not on the studio and not on the live performances of this tour.

So, forgive me the arrogance but, given this, I'm pretty sure that my opinion is more valid than yours.

Oh, because you know my background? No, your arrogance is not forgiven.

I never stated that the artist's first will is to give them what they want, in fact that will inhibit the artist.

But knowing how to feed energy from a stage and giving them what they want are two entirely different things.

If you think MOS, WAS, COL, or NLOTH are obvious "giving them what they want" moments then your arrogance is now clouding your brain.

But a good artist knows what will work live and what won't. U2 has tried and forced things in the past and they have learned from their mistakes. Could they be taking more risks this tour, absolutely, but look at their audience YBR, ES, UC weren't exactly feeding the energy.

Unfortunately for us, U2 is big, therefore they don't have audiences like Radiohead and PJ where there are very few casual fans. Knowing your audience is key, and diehards are not the only part, not even a majority of their audience.
 
You're a Canadian? I was convinced I've been arguing with some guy from Boston...

Btw:
< 10,000 KMs between Toronto and Vancouver, and you forgot everything East of Toronto.

Also:
By my calculations, Canada is one hot U2 country...
Canada - 30 milllion people... 3 shows. 1 show / 10 million people.
USA - 250 million people... would need to have 25 shows to approach our ratio.
Poland - 1 show / 50 million people.
UK - 1 show / 11 million people.
Ireland - 1 show / 1.26 million people* Exception as home of U2

So, it goes like Ireland*, Canada... etc.

Good lord man! :lol:
 
Velvet Dress is "too slow" as well, and the band played it anyway. Plus, "Van Diemen's Land" or RTSS are slowers too and they were played lots of times, specially RTSS. You said that WAS doesn't have a proper chorus. Well, neither RTSS has a "proper" chorus.
I love WAS, but comparing it to RTSS doesn't quite work for me. I agree "too slow" is not a reason. I just don't think it would really work in a stadium with today's audience.


"Lemon" and "Numb" are studio pieces and the band found a way to present it live and to insert (and make i fit) it on a show that had already a concept previously conceived.

Now I know I'm a minority when I say this but Lemon didn't work live. And Numb sucked "live". And yes that had to be put in quotes, because calling that a live performance is pretty weak, a low point in U2's career.
 
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