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  1. 2005-12-05 – Boston, Massachusetts
    -----------------------------------
    Note: I haven’t read the other reviews, so that I’m posting my own ideas…sorry if it sounds repetitive!

    The Recording: 3/5

    >> Positive…
    * At least you get to hear all four of them. I heard Adam better than some 4 star shows. The same for Larry. You get Bono and Edge pretty well too.
    >> Negative…
    * Overall, it isn’t good. The update Gerard mentioned could help tho. There is some noise which could be removed. There is also some hand clapping and yelling in it, but I like those, makes me feel I’m there, others might consider it a negative point.

    The Show: 3.75/5 (weird rating!)
    >> Positive…
    * It’s an interesting setlist, some things are different from other shows, and it’s got some very nice snippets as well.
    * Bono’s voice is pretty powerful on this show, he does a good job at singing some tough parts.
    * Good too see a little different “One” speech
    >> Negative:
    * The only thing that makes this show special is the snippets used, and Crumbs being in the setlist. Other than these and maybe a couple of funny moments, the show has nothing special till the end. It’s just a normal (and very relaxed) Vertigo show.
    * Bono’s voice is powerful, but he is too relaxed…makes some songs sound less passionate. Such as WOWY, or Gloria (I think he fell asleep in the middle ).

    Highlights:
    • Vertigo, powerful, I liked the bit in the middle “everybody gets out of here…ALIVE!!”, and the snippets are cool.
    • ISHFWILF, the little Edge comment in the beginning is hilarious, again the snippet it cool, The Promised Land , nice crowd too.
    • Miss Sarajevo, the speech in the beginning makes all the difference. The Opera part is pretty well done too.

    Overall:
    I went for this show, expecting something different than the usual Vertigo stuff (I was judging by the setlist)…I didn’t really get that. The low quality and the band being so relaxed (especially Bono) made it just like any other bootleg of the tour, which is a pity, as it had the potential to be one of the best.
    If you want to hear ‘Crumbs’ (which seems to be the rarest thing in the setlist), there are other shows to try, maybe this one: 2005-10-25 - Auburn Hills, Michigan - Palace Of Auburn Hills, it’s also got “The Ocean” and “MLK” and "Bad" as closer, meaning more rare stuff, and it’s a 4 star.
  2. So, all the reviews are in. This certainly seems to be the most active BRT since we started. Lot's of discussion and lots of differing opinion.

    Personally, I think Drew's review is overly harsh and the other's hit the middle ground I thought the gig was too.

    I'm going to post this comment that I left in my review as to why I think we may all be being a bit hard:-

    Originally posted by DanI think it's easy for us dorks to forget that we annihilate these bootlegs and performances. Most people will only ever see one show per tour, if they're lucky. Certainly, most people will not then go home and download 100's of bootlegs and dissect them to the last note.
    I think someone has observed already (if not for this boot then for another (I get to read them a lot...)) that U2 rarely put a foot wrong live. Occasional wrong-notes and a bit of Bono-voice-bashing besides, they are consumate and, bluntly, fucking awesome live. No band touches them in my opinion.

    Therefore, when I say average, that is intended as high-praise. I enjoyed this show. There are better shows for sure, and there were sloppy parts, but average U2 is very good. Let's not lose sight of that.

    I can guarantee that is you were at this show, you would have had a ball.


    We are an exception here. 85% (my estimate only) of U2 fans will not fit into our category. There's nothing wrong with being in either camp, but we need to remember we are unusual.
    The Vertigo Tour is the first tour a lot of you got to attend (I know some didn't even get to do that), but it's certainly the first one to receive mass internet back-up in terms of gigs. Therefore it is also going to be the one we're most likely to get burn-out on.

    If you've had enough Vertigo, don't listen to it. That simple. There's enough other tours to try instead. But it's a rare gig indeed to my mind that is worthy of anything less than at least 5/10, just because it's U2 and they are our favourite band for a reason.
  3. I get your point Dan...when I was listening to this boot, I did imagine how it would feel if I actually was there...and it just can't be compared to the listening experience.

    But leaving that and feelings aside, this is a "bootleg" round table, not a round table about the band's capability live or what the shows actually are like...it's about discussing this tiny bit of the show that we get, which is a not so good quality audio.

    (To my understanding) we aren't discussing what the show feels like if you're there, there are already reviews of people who have seen each show on u2-vertigo-tour.com, what we do is discuss how it feels to listen to the audio bootleg available from the show. Maybe to help people who are looking for special bootlegs to download...

    Every single one of their shows is more than special if you're there...but the audio recording is limited. They are the best band live in my opinion too, I'm a fan you know...
  4. I'm with you there Ali. I rate the show, the performance, the crowd and the audio quality. I wasn't there but that doesn't matter as we are only reviewing the bootleg. When virtual reality or time travel pops up anytime soon then we can take thisthing to the next level but for now we can only review the audio. If it's shit it's shit (regardless if that mans its better than anyone else). This gig was crap to my ears (even by Vertigo standards)
  5. Yeah, I get that. And by all means rate the sound 0.5 / 5 if you like (some of the Boy boots come to mind...)

    I just don't think that any performance of U2 I've come across is worthy of less than 5/10.

    That wouldn't lead to a recommendation from me or this round table. It would make it a poor bootleg, barely worthy of download. But it would still recognise U2's position as the best live band ever seen. It's not a great Vertigo bootleg, that's true. But it's not that bad. We've all listed maybe one or 2 bad songs. Out of 23 that's not sloppy.
    Even Drew says that the snippets make it worth the download, but then gives it 2.5/10. There's some inconsistency there to me.

    If you're going to be bored of the speeches on a Vertigo boot, that applies to every boot, so really we should dock all of them 2 points automatically or just ignore that bit and listen to just the songs.
  6. Originally posted by djrlewisIf you're going to be bored of the speeches on a Vertigo boot, that applies to every boot, so really we should dock all of them 2 points automatically or just ignore that bit and listen to just the songs.


    I skip the speech on every Vertigo boot and don't let itaffect my rating. I kinda get where you are coming from about the minimum of 5 but I tend to disagree. This Boston gig gets a 4 from me. If we take Point Depot or Milan 1992 as the bands pinnacle (both 10/10) then some gigs just haveto slot in below 5.
  7. Originally posted by djrlewisYeah, I get that. And by all means rate the sound 0.5 / 5 if you like (some of the Boy boots come to mind...)

    I just don't think that any performance of U2 I've come across is worthy of less than 5/10.

    That wouldn't lead to a recommendation from me or this round table. It would make it a poor bootleg, barely worthy of download. But it would still recognise U2's position as the best live band ever seen. It's not a great Vertigo bootleg, that's true. But it's not that bad. We've all listed maybe one or 2 bad songs. Out of 23 that's not sloppy.
    Even Drew says that the snippets make it worth the download, but then gives it 2.5/10. There's some inconsistency there to me.

    If you're going to be bored of the speeches on a Vertigo boot, that applies to every boot, so really we should dock all of them 2 points automatically or just ignore that bit and listen to just the songs.


    I do agree that Drew's rating is harsh...I rated the sound 3.5/5 and the performance 3.75/5...I really couldn't get it lower in my mind.
    For me to give the performance 2.5/10, the 4 boys have to be drunk and play different songs at the same time...would still get 2.5
  8. Originally posted by germcevoyI skip the speech on every Vertigo boot and don't let itaffect my rating. I kinda get where you are coming from about the minimum of 5 but I tend to disagree. This Boston gig gets a 4 from me. If we take Point Depot or Milan 1992 as the bands pinnacle (both 10/10) then some gigs just haveto slot in below 5.


    I didn't think you did, as it didn't come up in anything you say. But some poeple do and lose sight that the reason Bono does it is because 95%+ of his audience is fresh every night, so they don't get that he says the same thing night after night and uses a teleprompt to help him.

    Ah, bollocks, each to his own and I respect everyone's right to view this differently. That's just the criteria I use I guess and it shocks me when I see such harsh critique.

    I get your system if that's how you correlate it. This Boston show is less than half the performance of Point Depot to you so 4 makes sense. I'll stick to my 6.

    This is going to make my summary very interesting. I love all this debate. This is what it's all about.
  9. Originally posted by djrlewis[..]
    Reviewers this week are:-

    Ali Posted
    Gerard Posted
    Dan Posted
    Casper Posted
    Daley Posted
    aussiemofo Posted
    Harry Posted
    Jeremy Posted
    Drew Posted
    Tim Posted



    Excellent. All reviews posted.

    Chooser for next week is Nate. What's the show Nate?

    More debate fine by me until the end of today; then dear God please stop as there's enough to summarise as it is!!
  10. Originally posted by drewhiggins2005-12-05 - Boston, Massachusetts - Fleet Center


    Sound

    Listening to a lot of later North American shows like Chicago and Philadelphia, it was about as good as those shows. I could pick up many of the instruments by setting both my Foobar and iPod equalizers to ones with a lot less bass. Not bad, but not out of this world either.


    Performance

    A very Christmas-orientated show with snippets like We Wish You A Merry Christmas, Jingle Bells, Christmas (Baby Please Come Home). It just wasn't as good as the early shows or even the previous European shows, and I'm thinking maybe it's something to do with the endless nights playing each song every single night at those said killer European gigs. As usual the songs that stood out were Gloria (anything is better than a tired rendition of New Year's Day), but at the same time, it actually still sounded familiar to me from the early 80s shows like London, Denver, Manchester, Loreley - plus the JT period - but should have been in all the shows on a rotation of Electric Co, New Year's Day, 11 O'Clock Tick Tock... - not just at certain leg points. City of Blinding Lights was in top form as usual.

    Maybe it's just me but I wasn't interested in the encore - and at one point sent me to sleep. I prefer something like Zoo Station > The Fly with a bit of life. Crumbs From Your Table should never be played again as should Yahweh. But there were some great songs to make up for a boring encore; Until The End of the World and ''40''. One more thing; if you're not interested in playing a song, don't. With or Without You bored me to tears - Bono's voice was strained and in fact, I skipped the song because it was so painful. One was nothing spectacular as usual, and the speech made it even more tedious. We get the idea you have a ONE.org campaign, Africans are dying of AIDS - so stop fucking around and play the fucker, would you. U2 tried to incorporate new songs (Crumbs, Instant Karma...) but unfortunately, most of the gatherers are probably casual fans (Bono's a knob, the nameless drummer, but Beautiful Day and One are the greatest songs since sliced cheese) and you can't do much because they'll have a sook about how boring the songs are. The snippets were well worth admission price (or download) alone. Rock the Casbah, Van Morrison's Gloria, Rockaway Beach, Christmas (Baby Please Come Home), She's A Mystery To Me...what else could you want.

    I'll keep the show, but I don't expect to listen to it much, except when I'm bored. Get Philadelphia or Chicago (2005-09-21) and hear some great efforts, plus giving the crowd something to have fun along with - seriously, how many casual fans know of Gloria, or even much about October? You mean to tell me, you play songs from your lowest-selling album, yet you play no songs from what could be your most innovative album (Pop) - come on, surely you can do Please or even another version of Discotheque. Pay attention to your fans, they do like Pop - even the casual ones may like it too!

    U2 seriously need to go back to the drawing board to avoid another show as bad as this one. I'm glad that it was a bootleg and I wasn't there, otherwise I may have gotten up the front and told the band to play some real songs, not this excuse you call 'Vertigo'.

    Rating: 2.5/10


    Ouch, that's one motherfucker of a kicking for a bootleg lol...

    PS - 'scuse my use of the cruder form of the English language lol...

    Originally posted by drewhiggins[..]

    Get rid of the following songs until you feel more comfortable with them again:

    New Year's Day, Streets, Pride, One, Beautiful Day, Original of the Species, Sometimes You Can't Make It On Your Own, Sunday Bloody Sunday and Bullet The Blue Sky. Yeah, they're all classics - but they're tired and becoming predictable.


    EDIT - basically, apart from SYCMIOYO, I'm happy with all those songs being on nigh on every setlist lol (apart from maybe OOTS - encore material, I feel) AS LONG as they're performed WELL.

    A better appraisal than my attempt that has now been edited lol...
  11. Originally posted by germcevoy[..]

    I skip the speech on every Vertigo boot and don't let itaffect my rating. I kinda get where you are coming from about the minimum of 5 but I tend to disagree. This Boston gig gets a 4 from me. If we take Point Depot or Milan 1992 as the bands pinnacle (both 10/10) then some gigs just haveto slot in below 5.


    Call me blasphemous BUT...I didn't think the Milan bootleg was/is THAT amazing IN MY OPINION I hasten to add lol...the crowd however were incredible BUT with regard to the performance and quality of the bootleg (although that's not that much of an issue), it didn't feel like a 10/10 to me...

    ...although the So Cruel snippet in Bad rocked my socks lol
  12. Originally posted by WojBhoy[..]

    Call me blasphemous BUT...I didn't think the Milan bootleg was/is THAT amazing IN MY OPINION I hasten to add lol...the crowd however were incredible BUT with regard to the performance and quality of the bootleg (although that's not that much of an issue), it didn't feel like a 10/10 to me...

    ...although the So Cruel snippet in Bad rocked my socks lol


    you disagree with all of us there then. Almost flawless performance (you'l find that out as your bootleg collection grows)
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