cobl04
45:33
Well, you can add "The First Time" and "The Wanderer" to the long list of U2 songs that have made me cry.
Other than Hedge’s guitar cutting out the moment before the Fly solo (completely took me out of the number grid collapse sequence) and Boner quite literally sucking his thumb for half of TTTYAATW, I think that was pretty damn good.
Also… hello.
I loved reading that paragraph, New South Wales. Beautiful, and I feel similar, though I obviously never saw ZooTV. How do these shows compare? There's two things I'd go back in time for - ZooTV, and to see the West Indies at their peak.
I wish I had stayed at the Venetian, but because of that fucking emo festival, prices were insane. On the day of the first concert I went to, I did a shitload of walking... I was on the strip and tried to "follow my gut" in the direction of where I thought the Sphere might be, and of course went like a kilometre in the wrong direction. Oh well, gave me more time to play Achtung Baby as I walked. I walked around the back, through the F1 track, and then spotted the Sphere. Still took fucking forever to get to, though. And I have to say, we all know that there were some major issues with the F1 race and the build, but there was something I saw in the construction area on the back straight as I walked towards the Sphere that really shocked me. I took a photo, and I'll put it in a spoiler, because it was pretty confronting. Maybe it's partly because I'm Australian and you just don't see this sort of thing here, but I was really taken aback.
there's an interference reddit page now because the app was arbitrarily pulled, thus killing the last remnants of interference. i heard the baby lives there, too.
We moving there? We can start posting threads to mirror the ones here.
i mean... i'd prefer that this place didn't just die, but, welp, pulling the app without a viable replacement was akin to unplugging life support.
the main issue is that the current web version sucks - it's clunky and has giant ads all over it.
there's supposed to be an update but... well... nothing. can't get an answer.
and the place is dead since the app was pulled. it was finally seeing a teeny but of life, and now.. dead.
I can't remember the last time I saw an ad?
Going again to the Sphere on February 18th. GA. Taking my older brother with me this time around, without whom I would not have been listening to Achtung Baby when I was 5 years old.
Of course, I expect those rumoured 5 Zooropa tracks this time around. Lemon, Dirty Day, Stay, The Wanderer and The First Time will suffice. I am not greedy. I won't request Daddy's Gonna Pay for Your Crashed Car.
Finally able to read this my friend, so glad you enjoyed the show so much, and I echo your sentiments on pretty much all of it.My review for the October 5th show:
Well, for somebody who is an Achtung Baby / ZooTV fanatic, and who was too young to see that tour, this show was in many ways a dream come true. It was an ideal combination of intimacy and spectacle. I should emphasise as to how much of a small club experience that GA feels like, which was just as impressive as the bombastic production. Standing very close to Edge while he was playing his Love is Blindness solo - his greatest in my mind - is easily my U2 concert highlight.
A lot has been said about the venue and it truly is an intimidating, colossal and dystopian monstrosity. In a good way. I do think the band smartly utilized the screen, not letting it to overshadow and overpower the music. One random impression - I love the fact that the Achtung Baby sound effects followed you through those black hallways all the way to the bar or the toilet.
Gigantic screen notwithstanding, what matters is the playing and I think the band has approached this smartly. It is good to see Bono truly focused on the songs. Scripted Broadway speeches are thankfully gone. Long-ass political or campaign introductions are gone. A song like One sounded fresh because the focus was on the song and only the song. The Hear Us Coming verse was sadly missing, but Bono made up for it in trying to replicate the album falsetto climax. Sure, the Boner was talkative, especially during the acoustic set, but I never had the feeling it derailed the show, and it felt like it was honestly reflecting his enthusiasm.
As soon as that I Could Have Lost You intro started, I knew the show was going to be special. A minor flub or two notwithstanding, the band went through that first Achtung Baby set with tremendous power. The visuals were insane, especially during The Fly and Even Better Than the Real Thing. My one big complaint is Mysterious Ways should always, always have the slide guitar solo. Bram van den Berg was being faithful and respectful to Larry's drum parts, and what was possibly missing in Larry's unique groove was made up by his energy. Those drums were punished severely during the night.
Tryin' to Throw Your Arms Around the World was always a big live favourite for me and I was happy to see that this live version was similar to the ZooTV one. While Bono was doing his bit with the fan, Edge was doing some nice guitar improv parts. The only nitpick was that his guitar felt a bit low in the overall mix. The sound was in general very crisp and clear, even though the band might have overhyped the quality a bit in the promotional campaign. At least in the GA, it did not sound that revolutionary as advertised. But excellent sound nonetheless. Maybe some of you who had a seat had a different impression?
The acoustic set was the best one of the U2 acoustic sets I've seen (not there is that much competition there), simply because it was full band. I have enjoyed listening to Angel of Harlem for the first time live, and Bono dedicating All I Want is You to Eddie Vedder - who was having a lot of fun on the balcony with his wife and Javier Bardem - makes this a delight, since Pearl Jam is my other favorite band. It was bizarre to hear and see Love Rescue Me - possibly my least favourite pre-2000 track - but it was a nice little version, and it is cool to see Edge on bass. In terms of pacing, this part of the set might have been a tad too long. But I still vastly prefer that to I Still Haven't Found / Pride / MLK alternative. This was my first show without Pride and I have not missed it at all.
What followed was likely the highlight. So Cruel was done very well, and the masterful transition to a very powerful Acrobat showed that the band's moody and heavy dark side is one of its strongest. This culminated in a masterful version of Love is Blindness. I was trepidatious they might neuter the song a bit, but no, this was the ZooTV arrangement in its full glory, and Edge was just demolishing that guitar. I was never as emotional on a U2 show as during that song.
The encore was expectedly a crowd pleaser, just like the JT '17 tour. As much as I would like to hear anything other than Elevation as the encore opener (I think Hold Me, Thrill Me, Kiss Me, Kill Me would be ideal here), one has to admit it gets the people going, and the casuals probably deserved it after being subjected to the set from Love Rescue Me to Love is Blindness. The visuals during With or Without You were downright stunning. I did not mind Streets coming after Vertigo - as in the case of One, I think the song itself was in the foreground, and it is an excellent song even without a big intro or segue. Closing the show with Beautiful Day might seem weird, but it does make sense when you are there and you see that crazy screen doing its thing.
Overall, it was a special show and it made me far less cynical about the band. Those Achtung Baby songs are always incredibly powerful live and one can see how exquisite of a talent The Edge is in particular. If Larry was there, I would call it easily my favourite U2 show I've been to so far. Maybe it is anyway.
Thanks a lot for the kind wishesFinally able to read this my friend, so glad you enjoyed the show so much, and I echo your sentiments on pretty much all of it.
Hope your brother has as much fun with you in a couple weeks.