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Originally posted by dylbagz:He doesn't need a new persona. He's too old. All he needs to do is get a minimalist stage, go tour arenas, stand up there and sing and interact and play guitar. Play 25 songs a night a rotate the songs in the set. And that would be a significant enough reinvention for the modern day U2.

In other words, pretty much another Elevation/Vertigo indoors Tour? I wouldn't really see that as a re-invention myself. They've been stuck in that vein as a band ever since (Vertigo outdoors and 360 stage sets excluded).. I think whatever the new album sounds like will dictate whether there's going to be any re-invention or not..

I think the only thing that would make me happy at this point is if the next album was something of a return to their 90's sensibilities and the tour drops a few 'warhorses' and features some of their more obscure moments (zooropa was a first step in that direction on 360). Oh and Bono re-learns how to write decent lyrics and somehow manages to become less annoying and slightly cool again...

Probably wishful thinking though (especially on that last point)

TheRefugee

12 years

There is very little chance that U2 will do a Springsteen and vary the setlist each night. Think back to how U2 described their 'Jukebox' days of the Lovetown tour and how they wouldn't do that again. Comparing a U2 show with a Bruce show is not like with like. How many musicians has Bruce on stage these days? I counted 16+ last year when he played Dublin. U2 will openly admit that they're not really proficient enough musicians to learn enough songs to vary a setlist regularly during a tour.

LikeASong

12 years

Originally posted by TheRefugee:There is very little chance that U2 will do a Springsteen and vary the setlist each night. Think back to how U2 described their 'Jukebox' days of the Lovetown tour and how they wouldn't do that again. Comparing a U2 show with a Bruce show is not like with like. How many musicians has Bruce on stage these days? I counted 16+ last year when he played Dublin. U2 will openly admit that they're not really proficient enough musicians to learn enough songs to vary a setlist regularly during a tour.

Yes, we discussed this last week at the Bruce topic. I posted something really similar to your post: www.u2start.com/topic/by-post/530327/ ... They're not comparable in a lot of aspects, the comparison basically makes no sense besides the fact that they both fill up stadiums all over the world.

dylbagz

12 years

I never said they had to do the variation Bruce does - twenty songs some nights. Just ten songs would be enough. U2 don't deserve to be worldwide superstars if they "aren't proficient enough" to remember/learn how to play a total of 60-80 songs to play over a tour. They have 2-3 days off between shows and travel on planes - I'm sure they could easily relearn/remember a couple of songs to play at the next show during that time.

clover68

12 years

they can do it sort of .. don't play a song to infinite and then drop it forever
they "learn" 60 songs during 360? good rotate them
the will is enough

clover68

12 years

not a matter of number of persons on stage .. PJ are 5+1 instead of 4+1

dylbagz

12 years

Originally posted by clover68:they can do it sort of .. don't play a song to infinite and then drop it forever
they "learn" 60 songs during 360? good rotate them
the will is enough

+1

Is it really that hard for them to go through the back catalogue and say, alright here's the songs that we'll pool up to pick from:

Boy:

I Will Follow
Out of Control
The Electric Co
An Cat Dubh

October:

Gloria
October

War:

Drowning Man
Sunday Bloody Sunday
New Year's Day
40
Two Hearts Beat As One

The Unforgettable Fire:

Bad
Pride
The Unforgettable Fire
A Sort of Homecoming
MLK

The Joshua Tree:

Streets
ISHFWILF
With or Without You
One Tree Hill
Mothers of the Disappeared
Running To Standstill
Bullet the Blue Sky

Rattle and Hum:

All I Want Is You
Desire
Van Diemen's Land
Angel of Harlem

Achtung Baby:

One
Even Better Than the Real Thing
Mysterious Ways
The Fly
Zoo Station
Ultraviolet
Until the End of the World
Love is Blindness

Zooropa:

Stay
Dirty Day

Pop:

Discotheque
Staring at the Sun
Please
Wake Up Dead Man

All That You Can't Leave Behind:

Beautiful Day
Elevation
SIAMYCGOO
Kite
Walk On

HTDAAB:

Vertigo
COBL
Crumbs From Your Table

NLOTH:

Fez
White as Snow
NLOTH

New album:

6-8-Full album.

Others:

HMTMKMKM
11 o'clock Tick Tock

With U2 playing 8 songs from their new album, all those songs would total about 62 over the tour.

Imagine the reaction that they would get if some of those songs were played regularly over a tour.

I don't see how it can be that hard to play 62 songs all regularly over the length of a tour.

There would only be about 20-25 songs they'd have to learn that weren't on 360..

patou2

12 years

Originally posted by Andrew_C: he'd look like Mrs Doubtfire.

hahahahahaa

TheRefugee

12 years

We can only go on what the band have said and done in the past in order to get an idea of what the future holds.

Travelling Salesmen
They primarily tour to promote their new work and staying relevant by playing the new songs rather than looking to the past. The band don't necessarily put on shows for the diehards to hear their favourite tracks. For better or worse, they're out there selling their new record and putting on a show too.

History
360 aside, U2 setlists rarely change much over the course of a tour. They've often joked that they only hit their stride performance wise on the last leg and when they find the setlist that works best for them, then they stick to it.

Narrative
Also, Bono has said in the past (circa PopMart) that he likes the show to have a kind of narrative structure. Changing up the tunes each night may impact on the story or theme. Old tracks that fit into the theme are played. Of course, things can change over a long tour, but will they tour on as big a scale as 360 again which necessitated such a long run to be financially feasible.

Pacing
An effective show requires pacing with a degree of ebb and flow. There are a lot of slow to mid paced songs in the list above (admittedly U2' stock in trade). Look at Adam's comments about Unforgettable Fire in the Ground Up cd liner notes. Some songs don't make it because they are too midpaced.

Musical Proficiency
As much as I'd love to hear the bass intro to Two Hearts..., I can only imagine the fear that Adam would have if he had to learn bass parts for 62 songs to be played regularly over a tour. I know the pedantic will point out that Adam and Larry can sit out the 'Everly Brothers' numbers, but Adam has said that he worries about making mistakes in the likes of Until The End of the World and Walk On, now imagine how he'd cope with the band changing it up drastically from night to night.
Poor ol' Edge might crack up under the pressure of it all. It's not like Bono will help out. Bono has been in a band for how long now and he still can't play guitar.

RattleandHum1988

12 years

I agree with dylbagz, but there's no sense in trying to argue that position, because we all know it's a shot in the dark. Personally I don't mind how U2 does it, but it would be incredible to see them use the Pearl Jam method too. That being said I've had friends who've seen Pearl Jam and who've blamed that aspect of their show for it not flowing super well and seeming like a mixtape and not a "show".

Also, it's not the amount of songs they can play that make U2 famous enough to play around the world, it's the songs they've written and the effect they have on people. If they see a great reaction when they play the "warhorses", they're going to play them, simple as that. So many people around here say "it's time they dropped the "warhorses"", thing is every one of those songs got a HUGE audience reaction at every show I went to. Like it or not many of those songs are staples of the U2 show.

clover68

12 years

even the above mentioned artist and band have their stable warhorses .. they (the so-called warhorses) are not the "problem"

ahn1991

12 years

In case you haven't seen their cover of Aslan's "This Is."

Not going to lie, this performance gives me goosebumps. It's an amazing song and the band does an amazing job performing it. And Bono... omg Bono. If his voice is like this leading into the new album and tour to follow, they might have something that can top 360 from a vocal perspective.

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