Setlists for a hypothetical late 2019 tour of Australia, NZ, Asia

[The_acrobat]

Melbourne had some new sections open up yesterday for sale, and some more GA. But the show is pretty much sold out. Perhaps the 2nd shows in Sydney and Auckland were selling poorly, and they decided to not do the same in Melbourne. You can't look at Sydney's map, but you can look at Auckland #2... there are A LOT of unsold seats for that show. I don't know how they can possibly sell all of those.

These tickets are way too expensive. Paul McGuinness believed in keeping cheaper tickets because he was all about quick sellouts, and the hype that was generated as a result of those sellouts. He even said as much in various interviews. I'm sure that by show day most of these shows will be sold out or close to it, with the exception of Auckland 2. That's gonna be a situation where sections are tarped off and people are moved around.

In 2010, Sydney and Melbourne night 2 only had around 40,000 at each. Brisbane 2 only had around 30,000. But those shows still went ahead. They clearly intended to add a 2nd show in Melbourne. They left room in the schedule for it and everything. It's gotta be fear of poor sales that's holding them back. Makes me afraid that this will be U2's last visit to Australia.

 

[d.darroch]

You can't look at Sydney's map, but you can look at Auckland #2... there are A LOT of unsold seats for that show. I don't know how they can possibly sell all of those.

These tickets are way too expensive. Paul McGuinness believed in keeping cheaper tickets because he was all about quick sellouts, and the hype that was generated as a result of those sellouts. He even said as much in various interviews. I'm sure that by show day most of these shows will be sold out or close to it, with the exception of Auckland 2. That's gonna be a situation where sections are tarped off and people are moved around.

In 2010, Sydney and Melbourne night 2 only had around 40,000 at each. Brisbane 2 only had around 30,000. But those shows still went ahead. They clearly intended to add a 2nd show in Melbourne. They left room in the schedule for it and everything. It's gotta be fear of poor sales that's holding them back. Makes me afraid that this will be U2's last visit to Australia.

You're right, the tickets are too expensive. But this is the way the concert industry operates nowadays. It's called "dynamic pricing". Hoping to sell out the intial show quite quickly. But keeping prices high initially, trying to eek out every dollar profit that's possible, selling out not long before show time. Prices will only be lowered at a later stage, if tickets aren't selling.

Interestingly (with the exception of Adelaide), Oz/NZ venues have not had category 4 seats (only GA). So it's been a big jump from the (few) cheap $60 CAT 5 seats, to the $190 CAT 3 seats. But last I looked, the $190 seats in Auckland had sold out. So casual couples are happy to stump up around $400 to see the show (in some of the poorer seats). But are not happy to pay $500 for somewhat better seats, or $750 for the good seats.

Once these prices are lowered to sensible levels, I think the seats will sell. They've still got many months to squeeze every dollar out of fans & casuals.

It's very frustrating that fans pay top dollar, often not for the best seats, then find casuals sitting beside them, having paid less than half for low demand shows. But unfortunately, that's business for you nowadays.

For the US leg of JT 2017, for some of the very low demand shows, many, many front-on seats were reclassified as "restricted views", with prices reduced to only $35! This didn't happen for the higher demand shows. I don't think Auckland will be anywhere near this dire. Once tickets are reduced to CAT 2-4 levels I can see them selling before show time.

Here's the map of the cheap seats in Pittsburgh, not pretty!

 

[AndrewCowley]

Dynamic pricing just seems like good way to screw your loyal fans. They will always buy tickets first. Over it. Got 2 tickets to The National today and am so pumped about that.

 

[cobl04]

Ticketmaster is maybe the worst example of modern capitalism I can think of. Fucking cunts.

 

[Hewson]

Maybe lead singer Bn just doesn't like Melbn

 

[kabigon]

Nobody can drive in Melbourne so Bono would fit right in

 

[Axver]

I swear to fucking god I will not be happy if I have to scrounge a ticket to Sydney 2 to get one different song.

 

[kabigon]

Night 1: Two Tribes snippet / Night 2: Relax snippet

 

[lazarus]

Yeah, I wouldn't get my hopes up too much on that.

Then again, they have 2 recent albums to promote, and if they have any integrity left they'll really mix those SOI/SOE selections up from night to night to keep themselves fresh.

 

[Iggy Fizz]

Hard to believe they will waste any energy promoting 2 albums comprised of songs know one really knows other than the die hards who already have the albums.

They will play the same show every night and it will look 90% like the US/Europe shows.

 

[AndrewCowley]

This tour is more about denying the existence of the last two albums than promoting them.

 

[LuckyNumber7]

I dunno. This tour is about reaching the most fans (and their wallets) I’d say.

 

[d.darroch]

Maybe lead singer Bn just doesn't like Melbn

Nah, for names we always put the 'o' on the end. Richo, Davo, Stevo

 

[d.darroch]

Hard to believe they will waste any energy promoting 2 albums comprised of songs know one really knows other than the die hards who already have the albums.

They will play the same show every night and it will look 90% like the US/Europe shows.

For me it's a total toss up as to whether it'll look a lot like the US/Europe shows, or whether they'll redesign it to incorporate a decent amount of SoI/SoE. I'm an optimist, & hoping for the latter.

 

[bono_man2002]

It’ll be just like the UK JT gig’s. We’ll get the closer of Don’t Look Back In Anger as the last ever song U2 grace the stage in Australia with.

 

[kabigon]

Live Nation's Facebook confirms no Melbourne 2 https://www.facebook.com/LiveNationOzNz/posts/2716193268394172

 

[bono_man2002]

 

[kabigon]

I can dream that they play a small gig somewhere on that Saturday night to compensate.

 

[AndrewCowley]

Can't wait for another round of single page set list party threads.

 

[kabigon]

I can, there'll be a U2 show at the same time that takes priority.

 

[The_acrobat]

So they aren’t confident they can fill a 2nd stadiums. Why not set up at Rod Laver Arena and play there on Saturday night? Because they’re U2. But many other bands would have no problem doing this.

 

[bono_man2002]

Yeah Springsteen has done a mix of Stadiums and Arenas before. Bon Jovi has done similar (a gig at the opera house or the enmore or something whilst on a stadium tour)

It would be cool if they did a Roxy type gig at The Corner.

 

[The_acrobat]

U2 had a bad experience playing stadiums and arenas simultaneously on the original JT tour. Paul said they would never do it again. Aside from a few exceptions they haven’t.

 

[Iggy Fizz]

You'd think that 32 years of experience would have helped them deal with/prepare for a mix of venues.

It's amazing how static these guys are in so many ways. They could not even pull off a good Glastonbury performance even though they were otherwise in good form due to being in the middle of 360 shows...

more of a theater act than a rock show.

 

[cobl04]

I still feel like the option of a second Melb show is not dead in the water yet. Not unheard of for a show to get announced way later I feel. I hope.

 

[AndrewCowley]

What was the problem with the mixture of stadiums and arenas on the JT tour? Was it logistical, financial or just them not liking it?

They really should do a Vegas residency. Same set list, same place, same everything every night. Would suit them down to the ground.

 

[rennowba]

What was the problem with the mixture of stadiums and arenas on the JT tour? Was it logistical, financial or just them not liking it?

They really should do a Vegas residency. Same set list, same place, same everything every night. Would suit them down to the ground.

Couldn’t have been that much of a problem , they did a mix of stadiums and arenas on zoo tv , pretty sure they did a few outdoor shows on elevation obviously mainly being indoors aswell. Vertigo was also a mixed arena stadium tour.

 

[rennowba]

You'd think that 32 years of experience would have helped them deal with/prepare for a mix of venues.

It's amazing how static these guys are in so many ways. They could not even pull off a good Glastonbury performance even though they were otherwise in good form due to being in the middle of 360 shows...

more of a theater act than a rock show.

Didn’t think Glastonbury was that bad if I’m honest , it wasn’t great but it was still good. Worse I’ve seen u2 in person though but it was still good. The thing I remember most is the rain , ridiculous rain

 

[AndrewCowley]

Couldn’t have been that much of a problem , they did a mix of stadiums and arenas on zoo tv , pretty sure they did a few outdoor shows on elevation obviously mainly being indoors aswell. Vertigo was also a mixed arena stadium tour.

JT was different in that it was stadiums and arenas within the same leg. e.g. on one night they'd play an arena and then two nights later a stadium etc...

 

[rennowba]

JT was different in that it was stadiums and arenas within the same leg. e.g. on one night they'd play an arena and then two nights later a stadium etc...

Great point , others I mentioned were full legs inside and then full legs outside wasn’t it .