I find it extremely unlikely that they'll come back to NA in 2019. Sure, they could find a few places to do shows that haven't had a show since 360 or before. But, if the main markets like Chicago, LA, Boston have been oversaturated, it's not going to happen. Seems kind of like backward logic, in a way, that during stadium tours of larger venues, they've been more likely to include smaller markets like Pittsburgh or Tampa than they are to include them in smaller arena tours. I think after this year, they need to lay off the US until about 2021. Allow everything to reset, and then come back and do a big fuck off tour.
I definitely think they could come back and do a tour of Europe in 2019, based mostly on cities that haven't been hit since 360 or before.
Poland
Prague
Riga
Helsinki
Oslo
Munich
Frankfurt/Mannheim
Bologna
Zurich
Vienna
Zagreb
Athens
Budapest/Bucharest
Birmingham
Any French city that's not Paris and has a suitable arena
Throw in some other cities like Stockholm, Antwerp, Glasgow, London, Dublin, Amsterdam, Paris, Barcelona that are U2 staples, and you've got a good 40+ show leg right there. However, I think that after they hit up Australia/Asia in early 2019, that'll be it for a few years.
U2 could do anything they want with regard to playing arenas in Europe.
Another problem with a 2019 North American leg of the SOE tour is that it probably would not start until late spring/early summer by which time the album would have been out for nearly 18 months.
Unfortunately I think you're right and they are probably going to finish the tour with shows in New Zealand, Australia and Japan in early 2019. Those might be the last U2 shows until 2022.
I think they have changed their minds about touring and album releases many times over the past four years. Seems a bit more chaotic than in years past.
just curious as to what makes you say this... was this from an interview or are you just speculating based on charts/radio play/whatever??? or are you literally making it up?
The new music has not done well when it comes to streaming, radio airplay, digital track downloads etc. The sales of the album are better, but are not on the level of many of their previous albums, even after adjusting for differences in the market in 2018.
I think SOE has done about as well as any aging rock band can do. I don't think they could have hoped for any better of a reaction. Fact is, they are deep in CLASSIC ROCK territory. Very few people are going to their shows to hear new music, hence why the JT Tour was so successful.
Perhaps that is true, but they still should be putting their best foot forward and giving the new music its best shot of doing well. Its what they have always done in the past.
In the United States, the number of people going to the SOI-SOE shows is a smaller group and tend to think they are more die hard and into the new music.
U2 could have done a JT tour at any time over the past 20 years and it would have done really well.
I hope the JT tour 2017 is a one off, because even though I enjoyed it, I'm more interested in the new music and hearing that new music live.
Hopefully U2 will go other places in the world that they have played far less, so that people who can't count on a regular visit get to see their favourite band.
Your examples aren't very good anyway. Kansas City, really? The city that on JT30 got its first U2 gig in sixteen years? It has been visited on just two of the six tours U2 have undertaken this century.
I picked the top 28 markets in the United States and Canada. Kansas City is at the bottom of that list, but I challenge you to find a U.S. market I didn't list which would be more played by U2 over the course of their entire career to this point.
Kansas City got shows on Boy, October, War, Joshua Tree, Zoo TV, Popmart, and Elevation tours. Every U2 tour from 1980 through 2001 with the exception of the Unforgettable Fire Tour. The only reason they probably did not play there on the UF tour was because they did not think Kansas City was ready for an arena show yet. It was skipped on 360 because the 360 configuration placed demands on audience size that were too large for Kansas City to support. The only mystery is why they skipped it on the Vertigo Tour. The SOI and SOE tours don't count given the dozen plus other places they are not playing as well.
