Experience and Innocence tour
Legs (3): Promo tour, Leg 1: North America, Leg 2: Europe
Shows: 75
  1. Haven't heard that story but find it very believable! It's also possible that once the songs have been written at the time, the band may not actually keep written records of arrangements, chords etc?

    Also, to be fair to the band, while they are incredibly indecisive perfectionists, totally indifferent to any deadlines (even their own), they are always at least trying to come up with new songs and ideas rather than relying on greatest hits nostalgia like so many of their peers.
  2. Originally posted by BelfastBoy:
    Also, to be fair to the band, while they are incredibly indecisive perfectionists, totally indifferent to any deadlines (even their own), they are always at least trying to come up with new songs and ideas rather than relying on greatest hits nostalgia like so many of their peers.
    You might have been hiding under a rock since December 2016 but last year there was a tour called The Joshua Tree Tour 2017 which saw them performing 4 old warhorse hits to start the show, then their most successfully album in full, and then 4 more hits to wrap concerts up.

  3. Originally posted by LikeASong:[..]
    You might have been hiding under a rock since December 2016 but last year there was a tour called The Joshua Tree Tour 2017 which saw them performing 4 old warhorse hits to start the show, then their most successfully album in full, and then 4 more hits to wrap concerts up.

    For LikeASong if I fail to quote your earlier post (been having some problems here):

    Rather than hiding under any rocks, I attended a The Joshua Tree Tour 2017 concert in Dublin last year, and would point out that after all the hits and warhorses, the band concluded proceedings with a strong performance of a new song.

    Sarcasm aside, you're 100% correct about the nature of that tour, and while I'm not defending why it happened at all, it was clearly a contractual obligation, totally atypical of the band's general approach to touring throughout their career as a whole. My intended point, which I perhaps failed to adequately convey, was that U2 could've stopped being creative years ago and would still be capable of filling arenas and stadiums with greatest hits stuff alone. Even on the JT tour, whatever the reasons for it happening, it still resulted in them performing material that was either extremely rare, or in some cases had never been performed before at all. Initial rehearsals for this year's tour are suggestive of a band at least willing to pull out the deepest cut of all, and if it only gets performed once, then that's better than (random example) the Stones sleepwalking through Satisfaction for the millionth time.
  4. I think U2 used to surprise people and that just doesn't really happen anymore.
  5. Disclaimer related to my above post - I think this tour's setlist is going to be insanely good, I haven't given up all hope
  6. U2 surprised me by announcing TJT tour and playing the album in full, there’s songs we would never have got to hear again or rarely at best if the tour hadn’t happened and nobody called it prior to the announcement . Other than that in every other tour they always give new material a chance and bring back a few songs that haven’t been played in a while. I’m not saying they always get the setlists perfect but generally they get the balance about right and I think with E&I I’m likely to be very pleased with the Setlist if as it appears a few more 90’s songs appear as that’s my favourite decade of u2 and I think there could be a lot from SOE which is an album i love. I’m sure there will still be a good few of the regulars but there’s nothing wrong with that up to a point.
  7. Also, who would have thought An Cat Dubh, The Ocean & Into The heart would have appeared on the Vertigo Tour, just hoping they do drop a few rarities on SEI
  8. They were doing that quite a lot between Elevation and 360 though with some fairly varied setlists and surprises.

    I think the problem in recent years has been that the I+E tour was high concept and a slave to the tech, TJT 2017 was largely centered on TJT and things Bono/U2 stand up for.

    Whether E+I will have much in the way of concept is anyone's guess at this point, but my gut feeling tells me its highly likely the band will unshackle themselves from the routine setlists of the last couple of tours and have a little bit more fun and put a little more variety into their night to night setlists once again.

    It could well be their last outing, personally I don't think it will be, but that might be in the back of their minds somewhere, so I think they're gonna go out and have a ball. Nothing ever lasts forever.
  9. Originally posted by Caledonia:[..]
    They were doing that quite a lot between Elevation and 360 though with some fairly varied setlists and surprises.

    I think the problem in recent years has been that the I+E tour was high concept and a slave to the tech, TJT 2017 was largely centered on TJT and things Bono/U2 stand up for.

    Whether E+I will have much in the way of concept is anyone's guess at this point, but my gut feeling tells me its highly likely the band will unshackle themselves from the routine setlists of the last couple of tours and have a little bit more fun and put a little more variety into their night to night setlists once again.

    It could well be their last outing, personally I don't think it will be, but that might be in the back of their minds somewhere, so I think they're gonna go out and have a ball. Nothing ever lasts forever.
    I hope you're right... but using the same production as i/e for e/i it's hard to break away from the synchronized set...
  10. Yeah the Vertigo tour gets a lot of shit for some reason but looking back, there were some AMAZING rebirths on that tour. The ACD/ITH performances were stellar! 360 was super inventive too, they played such a crazy range of songs across those 2-3 years. Tour really evolved a lot. Couldn't say the same for anything they've done since then.
  11. I don’t think there will be much more rotation than I&E maybe 4 or 5 songs from night 1 to night 2 but hopefully the Setlist is so good that we don’t want to see it changed too much. Zoo tv is my favourite tour to listen to not because of rotation but because each night had an amazing Setlist.
  12. Lance Shart on twitter has noticed that U2 have a bonanza type spinning wheel at the Laval rehearsals.