U2: Virtual Road to launch on YouTube Wednesday

[DeVaul]

i live in australia. Man those i+e/e+i shows were good...

View attachment 12841

 

[lazarus]

Totally fair call! The lift in quality from US to Europe was definitely more pronounced on E+I. I was kinda let down from the shows that I saw and miffed they got more grimy after they left the States.

Yeah, felt the same at my one E+I show (Omaha). Not only did they repeat the Innocence set, this was the first show where they dropped Raised By Wolves from it, which was previously a highlight. Also, Bono’s Macphisto schtick was still pretty incoherent early in the tour.

Reading things like this just reassures me I made the right move asking U2.com for a membership cancellation and refund after the LiveNation/Ticketmaster fiasco when E+I tickets went on sale, making it the first tour of theirs I skipped since becoming a fan.

 

[DeVaul]

Reading things like this just reassures me I made the right move asking U2.com for a membership cancellation and refund after the LiveNation/Ticketmaster fiasco when E+I tickets went on sale, making it the first tour of theirs I skipped since becoming a fan.

Don’t get me wrong, I had a great time, but the shows failed to live up to the energy and variety of the I+E ones I saw. Too many duds in the set vs better songs off SOE they didn’t play, zero variety on the e stage and the steadfast refusal to play Streets after the JT tour just left the whole thing kinda lacking. If nothing else, their lack of pop radio play means it’s easier to get decent-to-great tickets at face and probably will continue to be until the announce a farewell tour.

 

[tommycharles]

The Berlin film shows E+I did have its great moments. It just took them a bit to get going. I think the fact that they did a tour where they played almost the whole new album every night ,this late into their career, is pretty extraordinary.

 

[lazarus]

Too many duds in the set vs better songs off SOE they didn’t play, zero variety on the e stage and the steadfast refusal to play Streets after the JT tour just left the whole thing kinda lacking.

I forgot about the setlist issues as well; the fact that my three least favorite tracks (Get Out, Best Thing, Soul) were all singles and therefore obligated to be played every night also had me a lot less interested in going.

I do agree with their decision re: JT songs, though. It made the reunion tour retroactively more forgivable that they were willing to give those songs a break afterwards. Can't really fault them for that and it is a testament to the band that they could still put on a show with a lot of classic tracks despite omitting their most famous album.

 

[DeVaul]

Yeah, toss in RFD, The Showman and Little Things instead of those other 3 and it’s an easy improvement. I understood the reasoning behind leaving out the JT songs but Streets is such a profound moment in their shows that COBL just isn’t quite up to the task of. Would’ve preferred Bad in that spot (yeah I know they played it every night on JT30 too...)

 

[deltau922]

I'm having trouble with the Berlin video. It downloads but says it isn't compatible with quicktime and won't open in Apple TV either. Any help would be appreciated. Very happy to have everything else in this package though. Really incredible.

 

[dan_smee]

I'm having trouble with the Berlin video. It downloads but says it isn't compatible with quicktime and won't open in Apple TV either. Any help would be appreciated. Very happy to have everything else in this package though. Really incredible.

I only watch on vlc, or on a USB plugged directly into my tv and have no issues. Try it, and as an added bonus, you can convert it into another format if you want to use elsewhere

 

[tommycharles]

If you're comfortable with the command line at all, download ffmpeg, and you can use it like this:

ffmpeg -i input.mp4 output.mkv

to change from one format to another.

If you're watching these on Apple TV, look into setting up Plex. It takes a little bit of setup, but once you've got it going, you can pretty well drag any format of video file into it and have it available to watch on Apple TV. It's great.

 

[tommycharles]

All of these remastered gigs have been great to see but I think my favorite was Chicago 2005. It was already a good gig, but seeing it in crystal clear 1080p was just spectacular.

 

[ascender_RS]

It really is good to see these upscaled/remastered shows.

I do wonder what a show with Innocence in full, followed by Experience in full, with a short greatest hits encore would like like and what themes they'd visit for the staging etc.

 

[deltau922]

If you're comfortable with the command line at all, download ffmpeg, and you can use it like this:

ffmpeg -i input.mp4 output.mkv

to change from one format to another.

If you're watching these on Apple TV, look into setting up Plex. It takes a little bit of setup, but once you've got it going, you can pretty well drag any format of video file into it and have it available to watch on Apple TV. It's great.

Thanks, yep I’ve got Plex and VLC. It’s only now dawning on me that the Virtual Road shows are working differently bc they were pulled from a different source. I’ll play around with file conversion today.

 

[mikal]

If you're comfortable with the command line at all, download ffmpeg, and you can use it like this:

ffmpeg -i input.mp4 output.mkv

to change from one format to another.

If you're watching these on Apple TV, look into setting up Plex. It takes a little bit of setup, but once you've got it going, you can pretty well drag any format of video file into it and have it available to watch on Apple TV. It's great.

An even easier way is if you have a macbook, just screen mirror it to your Apple TV.

 

[ascender_RS]

I'm having trouble with the Berlin video. It downloads but says it isn't compatible with quicktime and won't open in Apple TV either. Any help would be appreciated. Very happy to have everything else in this package though. Really incredible.

I had that problem too, but I just encoded it with Handbrake.

 

[deltau922]

Turns out you can actually convert them with VLC itself, into Apple TV compatible movies.

 

[dan_smee]

Turns out you can actually convert them with VLC itself, into Apple TV compatible movies.

Yep -
Vlc is awesome

 

[ChurchBay]

Don’t get me wrong, I had a great time, but the shows failed to live up to the energy and variety of the I+E ones I saw. Too many duds in the set vs better songs off SOE they didn’t play, zero variety on the e stage and the steadfast refusal to play Streets after the JT tour just left the whole thing kinda lacking. If nothing else, their lack of pop radio play means it’s easier to get decent-to-great tickets at face and probably will continue to be until the announce a farewell tour.

It was a crying shame that they chose not to play Little Things on the last tour. For me, it was a perfect example of U2's tendency today to just utterly fail in realising when they have something brilliant. It seems to obvious to go after them for playing a stripped down version of a complete non entity of a song (Best Thing) but it just shines more light on such lumpy decision making.

 

[tommycharles]

I mostly agree with that re: Little Things, with one exception: where would you have put it? The only place I could have imagined it going in ‘18 was after COBL to close the main set, but even then I’m not sure.

 

[DeVaul]

Could’ve worked in place of that lame Best Thing

 

[Achtung Ya'll]

Did anybody manage to download Feu! Chatterton's set from the last (IE) show? That kinda knocked me on my ass and I loved it, but now the damn link is private.

 

[randy5554]

I recovered my password and logged in for the first time in years just to thank dan_smee. I’m watching Chicago 2005 in 1080p, and it’s amazing. Wow. Why are they hiding this? Amazing quality, and an amazing arena production. I’d take a show like this 15 years later.

 

[randy5554]

But yeah, this is definitely where the “preachy Bono” stereotype starts. Yikes.

 

[DaveC]

the preachy bono stereotype started wayyyy before 2005 lol.

 

[dan_smee]

I recovered my password and logged in for the first time in years just to thank dan_smee. I’m watching Chicago 2005 in 1080p, and it’s amazing. Wow. Why are they hiding this? Amazing quality, and an amazing arena production. I’d take a show like this 15 years later.

Thanks Randy!

 

[Hewson]

the preachy bono stereotype started wayyyy before 2005 lol.

Basically 1960.

 

[lazarus]

But yeah, this is definitely where the “preachy Bono” stereotype starts. Yikes.

"Am I buggin' you?" and the Apartheid speech was in Rattle and Hum.

 

[Irvine511]

Maybe ... maybe too much talk.

 

[deltau922]

Yeah but in what year did we first have mp3s of a show where six of the tracks were named “Bono talking”?

 

[dan_smee]

Yeah but in what year did we first have mp3s of a show where six of the tracks were named “Bono talking”?

You’ll notice on the mp3s of all the shows recently I have avoided doing that as much as possible

 

[Nate Dogg]

I like to shuffle all my “Bono talking” tracks to make it appear he is on a long, incoherent rant.