Your I+E show suggestions ('if I were U2/Willie Williams thread')

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malchik_petya

The Fly
Joined
May 3, 2015
Messages
47
Location
Moscow, Russia
What would you suggest to further improve the existing I+E tour show - anything from whole setlists, song rotations to graphics ideas, choreography (lol) - but keeping it realistic, i.e. keeping the overall idea and the 'script' they have now.

It may be wrong trying to start a thread being a complete noob on this forum and not having attended any shows on the tour so far (ready to get burned), but I think the topic could be interesting
(and of course later on I want to post my suggestions so they don't bug me for days :wink:)

PS I hope I haven't missed an existing thread like this
 
I would ditch the song or two where all four were inside the catwalk / cage / Thunderdome.

The songs were fine, I just thought it felt a bit staged and hokey and in my opinion it looked a bit limiting or restrictive for the band.

It would be interesting to add video of the other band members and have them walk in the Thunderdome to illustrate their respective neighborhoods... or maybe add some non-Bono footage of their childhood during Cedarwood Roads despite (I think) it being the name of Bono's street.

It might also be interesting to add some really old photos of the band to the video during the whole "were a band from the North side of Dublin" moment.

Also like to see a bit of Paul too... he was huge back in the early days and it would be nice to see him honored so to speak.
 
Have "Bullet" segue into "Cedarwood". This will increase the impact of "Cedarwood". Right now, it's a dead spot in the set list. It doesn't help that Bono rambles on about their childhood.

Not sure "COBL" is the right song to kickoff the encore/third act, especially with "WOWY" closing the main set. It felt flat on the first night, but better on the second night in Montreal.

They should do one cover a night (like they did last night) to add spice to the playlist.
 
1. Try opening with Raised By Wolves
2. Don't play COBL, Miracle Drug or Pride!
3. If playing One, ISHFWILF or Beautiful Day...play it during the first set
4. Bad or All I Want is You -> Streets
5. Gone to open the second set
6. Discotheque or Lemon to open the encore
7. Love is Blindness or 40 to end the show
 
-stop playing EBTTRT inside the stage. It was such a highlight in 360 and a little odd to see them caged up during the song

-switch up the opening song.
-maybe another song to segue into Streets

and of course I'd be on board with more song variations on the set but to be honest, it's a great show of you only have tickets to one night.


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-stop playing EBTTRT inside the stage. It was such a highlight in 360 and a little odd to see them caged up during the song

I might be in the minority here, but that part of the show actually might've been the highlight for me, surprisingly. I really enjoyed the video effects during the first part of the song as well.
 
Move Beautiful Day to open the encore (or the second encore song after COBL). Add The Troubles in its main set spot.

(Ideally, they could rotate some of the "warhorses," but I'm assuming they like the songs chosen, so other than "mix it up," this is my one realistic suggestion.)
 
For invisible

They should film Bono singing and have it appear as if he's in the screen and have all the house lights down except for the screen. Then in the "I am not invisible, I am heeeeeeere" part the lights come up and BOOM Bono is in the upper deck singing

#ifU2showswererunbytheWWE

fCSZRDZ.jpg

over here my friends!
 
Here's a bunch of ideas I've been thinking about the most:

- Have The Fly open the second set every once in a while. Take the classic graphics and rework them a bit for the new setup. Flashing words and phrases would look amazing on this screen. I love Invisible, but I think there are a few songs they could work into those 'cage' slots to keep things exciting, and The Fly is at the top of this list for me.

- Have California as a staple somewhere very late in the set. Either at the end of the main one or as the second to last song of the encore. I'm not 100% sure that it would work, but I think it could. Have balloons flowing down on the crowd, like they did during One Tree Hill on a couple occasions on the 360 tour (if I'm not mistaken).

- Keep things rotating in those two 'meerkat' e-stage slots. This is an amazing idea to have different songs there pretty much every night and I hope they'll play Dirty Day, full band Stay, Kite, Staring at The Sun and lots of cool songs they don't get to play very often (dreams).

- Find a song to segue with the start of Streets. They've always had some really stunning transitions to Streets, but this time, promoting (Red) and trying to speechify while Edge is playing the intro feels almost criminal to me. I suggest Love Is Blindness -> Streets combo either at the end of main set or at the start of encore. Love Is Blindness MUST get played on this tour in full :pray:

- If there was a 'dance' remix of Crystal Ballroom (like Redanka's Crazy Tonight last tour) it could have been an amazing staple opening the encore.
- Surprise people with The Ocean + 11 O'Clock opening on some nights. And play Seconds. And 2 Hearts. And Celebration. :drool:
- Plus imo they should switch Hands That Built America for October once they hit the other side of Atlantic. And occasionaly replace Pride with NYD right after :drool: [2]


Sorry if my post is in 'tl;dr' department. Pretty sure it is indeed :shifty: :whistle:
And I'm yet to dig deeper into the encore issue, find a place for Lemon or touch upon their embarrassingly long neglect of Pop material. :reject:
 
Okay I'll bite.

Obviously my number one suggestion would be to play a completely different set every night... but as that's never happening.

#1) add even more songs to the opening rotation between The Miracle and Iris.

I have no issue with The Miracle opening at all, and like Iris as the opening to the whole themed part of the first set.

But I would rotate more uptempo crowd pleasers into the I Will Follow / Electric Co / Vertigo / Out Of Control slots...

New Years Day
Gloria
Two Hearts Beat As One
Wire
Stories For Boys

#2. Fix the intermission

I'm fine with the rest of the first set as is. I think the intermission followed up by Invisible confuses people who don't know what's going on ahead of time.

That slot could be better used by The Fly or Zoo Station, hit em over the head right from the start with a song they all know and some crazy multimedia shit show that interacts with the band, THEN do Invisible.

3. Stop talking before Streets

For fucks sake... Many of the universally accepted greatest live moments in U2 history involve how they segue a song into Streets. And you've got a giant fuck screen... It should be all red, not black and (red). This isn't hard.

Short of that, I'm pretty much okay with everything else, other than the "new" chorus in Miracle Drug
 
^ I like it.

Hasn't Bono been altering the lyrics in Streets too? I'm not a fan of that. They could do so much more with Streets, especially coming where it does in the setlist.

If they keep Beautiful Day where it is, add another song before WOWY, like they did at LA4. Rotate a song there, such as AIWIY, ASOH, Bad,... That's a place for some rotation as well.
 
There needs to be a song segueing into Streets really, really badly.


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Move the 'red' speech to before pride, have the full streets intro, full red screen, red floods, and full box white lights at the cue before Bono starts singing.

Just re listened to zoo TV rtss alleluia streets, wish they had an arrangement that approached how good that was.

Don't rotate ooc and electric co, play both in the beginning with vertigo and then do iwf- iris. If you want to rotate add Gloria.

Start the second act from the main stage with discotheque then go into invisible inside the cage.

Don't close with ishfwilf.

Throw ultraviolet back in once in a while.

And explain the songs less. It takes away from rather than adds to the pleasure of hearing them. Most people can figure out iris is about your mom. Larry said a long time ago that he thought Bono shouldn't explain his thoughts behind each song. He thought it was better if the listener interpreted it on their own.

Drop the meerkat plug. Periscope is bringing whole shows to the masses. Plugging meerkat was like having blackberry advertising everywhere as the company was dying. Feels like your grandfather telling you what technology is new and cool.



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Switch up the instruments every night! This band has no talent and are just straight up lazy. No excuse for each band member to not play a different instrument every night.
Maybe throw Bono on drums, Edge on piano, have Larry on guitar and Adam on lead vocals. No bass player. In fact, the show might sound cooler with an instrument missing. MW and NYD would be great even without a bass player.
Some nights they could go with only obscure instruments. Don't tell me you've never wanted to hear Streets with Bono on tambourine, Edge on Jazz Flute, Adam on Accordian, and Larry yelling out made up African chants and random screams of "AFRICA! AFRICA!" while wearing an Aung San Suu Kyi mask.
Then give the boys back there instruments and close out the show with a face melting, 16 minute version of Womanfish that features 4 Edge solos and Bono puking on a group of fans after chugging down an entire 30 pack of Guinness on stage.



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1. Bring back the slide guitar ending of MW.

2. At least throw in a snippet of something in WOWY every now and then.

3. Play a deeper cut around one out of every four shows.

I think these three small changes would make the worst setlist of the tour at least mediocre.


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Am I the only one who doesn't care that Bono changes the lyrics to Streets (or other songs)?

I mean, he's been singing the damned thing for 30ish years. If changing it up a bit helps him stay invested in the song, knock yourself out, B-man. :up:
 
They need to do an extended outro on Streets again like they did on Popmart, that was pretty awesome
 
This thread would have been great if you said no changes to the setlists. Following that rule...bring back Beat on the Brat as intro music. Keep Wanderer, play MW acoustic like they rehearsed.
 
Give Miracle Drug a permanent spot in the set, and not where it is now. Put it in place of Every Breaking Wave going into Bullet, and then tack EBW onto the start of the encore before COBL. They went to the effort of rewriting it, and now they're not even playing it. What was the point? If it doesn't work as the encore opener, then move it, don't just drop it.

Also, play more NLOTH. Moment of Surrender is too good not to play (snippets count for precisely nothing), and it wouldn't be hard to slot Magnificent into the early second set. Even if they're not there every night, it's a shame to drop literally everything from the previous album altogether. There's some good stuff on NLOTH.
 
Arena pitch black. Big light bulb gets illuminated as Beat On the Brat plays. Bono walks into glow, begins singing Miracle's chorus as Ramones fade out. Band comes in. Start of show

1- The Miracle (Of Joey Ramone)
2- a) The Electric Co / b) Out of Control. Screen with Boy album art. "We're a band from... etc"
3- Vertigo
4- I Will Follow
5- Cedarwood Road
6- Bad
7- Sunday Bloody Sunday
8- Raised By Wolves
9- Until The End Of The World

(Intermission: The Wanderer)

10- a) Cash fades to white, New Year's Day / b) Cash fades to static blue, Zoo Station / c) Cash fades to black, The Fly
11- Invisible (band exit screen to e-stage)
12- a) Mysterious Ways / b) Crystal Ballroom
13-14-15- Meerkat Wildcard set. Different every night. Gloria/Two Hearts Beat as One/In God's Country/Ordinary Love/Volcano/Stuck in a Moment You Can't Get Out Of/Elevation/Running To Stand Still/Angel of Harlem/Desire/When Love Comes to Town/Stay/Staring At the Sun/Kite/No Line On the Horizon/Sweetest Thing/etc. (Larry & Adam return to main stage)
16- Bono & Edge Acoustic Every Breaking Wave on e-stage. Full band joins during bridge.
17- Bullet the Blue Sky
18- The Hands That Built America -> Pride (In the Name of Love)
19- Iris
20- With or Without You

(Encore: Stephen Hawking)

21- Beautiful Day
22- City of Blinding Lights
23- All I Want Is You
24- Where the Streets Have No Name
25- "40"

They're never going to please everyone, so I just made the setlist that would please me personally :lol::up:
 
Switch up the instruments every night! This band has no talent and are just straight up lazy. No excuse for each band member to not play a different instrument every night.
Maybe throw Bono on drums, Edge on piano, have Larry on guitar and Adam on lead vocals. No bass player. In fact, the show might sound cooler with an instrument missing. MW and NYD would be great even without a bass player.
Some nights they could go with only obscure instruments. Don't tell me you've never wanted to hear Streets with Bono on tambourine, Edge on Jazz Flute, Adam on Accordian, and Larry yelling out made up African chants and random screams of "AFRICA! AFRICA!" while wearing an Aung San Suu Kyi mask.
Then give the boys back there instruments and close out the show with a face melting, 16 minute version of Womanfish that features 4 Edge solos and Bono puking on a group of fans after chugging down an entire 30 pack of Guinness on stage.



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:up:
 
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