2015 U2 Tour - General Discussion Thread VI :)

[thavidesco]

So 25 years more of back catalog, but only 2 less songs?!

Yeah dude, stellar argument


Sent from my iPhone using U2 Interference

So the reason why they used to play more of their new stuff was because they didn´t have enough older songs, right? Interesting

 

[thavidesco]

and they're trying to fit the Troubles back into the setlist somehow.

Are they?

I haven´t noticed.

 

[BVS]

So the reason why they used to play more of their new stuff was because they didn´t have enough older songs, right? Interesting

Partly, yes.


Sent from my iPhone using U2 Interference

 

[Axver]

So the reason why they used to play more of their new stuff was because they didn´t have enough older songs, right? Interesting

Well no shit, this is true of any band that's stuck around a long time. The more albums you have, the more songs are competing for a place in the setlist. Inevitably that affects how many songs from the new album can fit on any given night.

I think we've done quite well to already get eight SOI songs, plus Invisible (with a ninth SOI song played on the promo tour). By comparison, U2 only ever played seven songs from NLOTH total.

 

[Oregoropa]

Pride still gives me goosebumps. The guitar chords are magical.

I guess we were all hoping for more than 2-3 changes per night. I think they have enough material to do about 6 changes without disrupting their core elements.

 

[Headache in a Suitcase]

To remind when they were playing JT at Los Angels, their last show on Apr 22, 1987 at Los Angeles had 8 JT songs. Later in the tour it was even 10 songs!

Their best tour ZooTV had regularly 9 songs from Achtung Baby...

It´s great to see a band promoting new material as much as possible on the tour. The problem is the second part of the show looks little bit like greatist hits tour.

 

[TheUnknownCalle]

Well no shit, this is true of any band that's stuck around a long time. The more albums you have, the more songs are competing for a place in the setlist. Inevitably that affects how many songs from the new album can fit on any given night.

I think we've done quite well to already get eight SOI songs, plus Invisible (with a ninth SOI song played on the promo tour). By comparison, U2 only ever played seven songs from NLOTH total.

While I agree with this, we hit those eight on the second night and since then there's only been one night with more than six.

I wish they could find a consistent place in the second set for another a new song. (Yeah, I know, Invisible, but I prefer the album stuff.)

 

[Axver]

What I find surprising is that although U2 have played 38 different songs live since opening night (36 on tour, plus 2 more only at the Roxy), there have been 18 songs played every single night. Those other 20 have cycled through 5-7 slots per show.

So they have a wide pool of songs they can play, but the set as a whole remains static.

 

[catlhere]

They have so many damn hit songs they could swap in and out. Tunes that they've either already played so far, or are at least familiar enough for the general U2 concert audience to know and enjoy.

I Will Follow, Out Of Control, The Electric Co.
Gloria
Sunday Bloody Sunday, New Year's Day, 40
Pride, Bad
Where the Streets Have No Name, I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For, With Or Without You, Bullet the Blue Sky, In God's Country
Desire, Angel Of Harlem, When Love Comes to Town, All I Want Is You
Even Better Than the Real Thing, One, Until the End of the World, The Fly, Mysterious Ways
Numb, Stay (Faraway, So Close), The Wanderer
Discotheque
Beautiful Day, Stuck In a Moment You Can't Get Out Of, Elevation
Vertigo, City of Blinding Lights, Miracle Drug
Get on Your Boots, Magnificent

That's 30 from albums alone, and not adding everything from Songs Of Innocence or non-album stuff like Invisible and Sweetest Thing, etc. They could be interchanging a lot of these and still give the "New stuff plus lots of Hits!!!" feel they seem to love going for. I think Bono (and maybe the rest of the guys) just love having a theme/feel/whatever to a tour so much that they don't give themselves any wiggle room to play around because everything is so damn calculated.

 

[dan_smee]

For fucks sake everyone - STOP FEEDING THE FUCKING TROLL!


Sent from my iPhone using U2 Interference

 

[dan_smee]

What I find surprising is that although U2 have played 38 different songs live since opening night (36 on tour, plus 2 more only at the Roxy), there have been 18 songs played every single night. Those other 20 have cycled through 5-7 slots per show.

So they have a wide pool of songs they can play, but the set as a whole remains static.

This is my main gripe with la 3 and 4. Third and fourth nights need big shake ups.


Sent from my iPhone using U2 Interference

 

[Axver]

I think Bono (and maybe the rest of the guys) just love having a theme/feel/whatever to a tour so much that they don't give themselves any wiggle room to play around because everything is so damn calculated.

I can understand the commitment to a narrative or theme, but what I don't get is the failure to rotate songs that fit within the theme. You raised a whole bunch of good options, many of which can rotate without changing the central story.

For example, they could each night play any given two of EBTTRT, HMTMKMKM, MW, and Discotheque and the general point of those two slots is unchanged. SBS and NYD could rotate. Gloria could rotate with I Will Follow to give a bit of a different take on the band's early days, though IWF is important to the story leading into Iris. The end of the main set could rotate any two or three of AIWIY, WOWY, Bad, One, ISHFWILF, and Beautiful Day.

 

[Headache in a Suitcase]

 

[Hawkmoon269]

Interview with Willie Williams about the tour:

Willie Williams On U2’s Innocence + Experience, Part 1 | U2 iNNOCENCE + eXPERIENCE Tour 2015 content from Live Design

LD:We talked at LDI about this notion of two different shows, alternating nights. Did that happen?

WW:We fully intended to have two different set lists and make it a pair of shows. This idea survived all the way to the beginning of the music rehearsals, at which point it became apparent that it wasn’t really viable. I really believe that they could have rehearsed enough songs for two shows, and I would have very much enjoyed being able to delve into the catalog, but the question of which songs would be left out of any given show became too big to get around. The potential upset that a punter buys a ticket for the “wrong” show, depending on their personal taste, began to make it a bit of a minefield.

I think they should've go ahead with the two shows thingy, but considering how people get mad about at what end of the stage they are or if GA or RZ is at the rail, I understand their decision.

 

[Galeongirl]

Maybe next tour they should sell shows in pairs. One for the general public and one for the fanclub members. The first night gets the hits and such, the second rarities and weird stuff the band want to play for their hardcore fans.

 

[KUEFC09U2]

Maybe next tour they should sell shows in pairs. One for the general public and one for the fanclub members. The first night gets the hits and such, the second rarities and weird stuff the band want to play for their hardcore fans.

Could you imagine what the line nazis would be like for fan club only?


Sent from my iPhone using U2 Interference

 

[Galeongirl]

Could you imagine what the line nazis would be like for fan club only?


Sent from my iPhone using U2 Interference

Shit I better start the line RIGHT NOW.

#1

 

[KUEFC09U2]

Shit I better start the line RIGHT NOW.



#1

I bet somewhere one of them has already started a list


Sent from my iPhone using U2 Interference

 

[Hewson]

Shit i better start the line right now.

#1

#2

 

[Hewson]

the second rarities and weird stuff the band want to play for their hardcore fans.

Of course in the band's opinion this would mean songs like Angel of Harlem, Stuck in a Moment, City of Blinding Lights and In a Little While.

 

[DeVaul]

Maybe next tour they should sell shows in pairs. One for the general public and one for the fanclub members. The first night gets the hits and such, the second rarities and weird stuff the band want to play for their hardcore fans.

Adam recently mentioned contemplating making music just for their fans as opposed to aiming for pop radio. Not that Bono would dare consider this route ("One of the things that experience has taught us is to be fully in the moment. What’s the moment? Pop music.”)

A rarities & album cuts night would require actual planning in the marketing and advertising of the tour, something which the band's new management apparently can't be bothered to bother with.

 

[trevgreg]

Of course in the band's opinion this would mean songs like Angel of Harlem, Stuck in a Moment, City of Blinding Lights and In a Little While.

Weirdly enough, I've only seen two of those four live.

Adam recently mentioned contemplating making music just for their fans as opposed to aiming for pop radio. Not that Bono would dare consider this route ("One of the things that experience has taught us is to be fully in the moment. What’s the moment? Pop music.”)

Yet again, what is the music that is "just for the fans" going to sound like? War-era tracks? Ambient tracks (i.e., Passengers on steroids)?

A rarities & album cuts night would require actual planning in the marketing and advertising of the tour, something which the band's new management apparently can't be bothered to bother with.

That seems like it'd probably be the only way it would work at this point. And if the band would even want to go ahead and do it.

 

[Galeongirl]

Of course in the band's opinion this would mean songs like Angel of Harlem, Stuck in a Moment, City of Blinding Lights and In a Little While.

Maybe we should propose a rule that it can't be songs that have been played on the last two tours.

 

[SpiralStaircase]

Maybe next tour they should sell shows in pairs. One for the general public and one for the fanclub members. The first night gets the hits and such, the second rarities and weird stuff the band want to play for their hardcore fans.

They'd have to do two different sized venues, though, wouldn't they? Like, say, Manchester's MEN Arena (21,000) and Manchester Apollo (3,500). Logistically nightmarish

 

[taytay8b]

Sorry if this has been talked about already, which Im sure it has been. But how have the new songs been fairing? Are people at the shows actually into them, singing the words, etc?

 

[Popmartijn]

Maybe we should propose a rule that it can't be songs that have been played on the last two tours.

So you mean no Bad, Party Girl, All I Want Is You, Electrical Storm, One Tree Hill, In God's Country, The Electric Co. or Zooropa?

 

[BVS]

Sorry if this has been talked about already, which Im sure it has been. But how have the new songs been fairing? Are people at the shows actually into them, singing the words, etc?

Take a look in the setlist subforum in here, there's an entire thread speaking about this.


Sent from my iPhone using U2 Interference

 

[Headache in a Suitcase]

They'd have to do two different sized venues, though, wouldn't they? Like, say, Manchester's MEN Arena (21,000) and Manchester Apollo (3,500). Logistically nightmarish

It's been done.

 

[VintagePunk]

WW:We fully intended to have two different set lists and make it a pair of shows. This idea survived all the way to the beginning of the music rehearsals, at which point it became apparent that it wasn’t really viable. I really believe that they could have rehearsed enough songs for two shows, and I would have very much enjoyed being able to delve into the catalog, but the question of which songs would be left out of any given show became too big to get around. The potential upset that a punter buys a ticket for the “wrong” show, depending on their personal taste, began to make it a bit of a minefield.

That was their first mistake. If they had planned ahead and marketed it as such, they would have been fine. Steely Dan does this every tour, for 6 - 8 shows at the Beacon Street Theater. Every show is announced as "Complete Album X plus hits," or "Greatest Hits" or "Fan Favourites and Rarities," and so on. It's hugely popular and people know exactly what they're getting.

 

[No spoken words]

You say it's a mistake, but if they didn't do this, we wouldn't have a "2 night sham" thread.