Originally posted by LikeASong:I was sitting in the Point Depot floor the other day, waiting to U2 to come out while I listened to George Michael's Freedom! '90 and I realized that The Blackout, as much as I despise some of its lyrics, is the best tour opener I have ever witnessed.
First time I saw them was 2005 and they opened with Vertigo. Energetic but lame - and don't get me started on the fact that they played it at the end of the show as wellI missed COBL opening some 2005 and 2006 shows because it didn't happen in Europe - I despise the song nowadays but I reckon it was a damn great show opener.
Second time was 2009, opening the show and tour with Breathe. I love the song but it definitely lacked something as an opener. Audience didn't care about it, they didn't really engage with the song, and it has a strage tempo to which you can't jump along. A shame.
Then came 2010 and they opened with Stingray Guitar, an instrumental that they later recycled for Lucifer's Hands, and then Beautiful Day, the song I look forward the least ever in a setlist. I better shut up.
2015 saw The Miracle opening 100% of the shows. Right tempo to jump, nice lyrics to sing along... but it lacked something too. Maybe it was Bono's chants before the song started, which I didn't really dig... Maybe it was something about the simple yellow lighting when the stage had the potential to do a great visual spectacle, don't know. It's still the 2nd best opener I've seen.
SBS opening TJT30 shows was as bad as show openers get for me. It's grown to be my least favorite tour of all times so bashing the opener is just mandatory, lol. The only good thing about it is that it wasn't a half-arsed semi acoustic version like the one they played in the IE and EI tours.
The Blackout has it all, and I had never seen the audience so engaged and passionate from minute 1. Even people who didn't know the song or even cared about SOE at all were jumping and clapping, which was great to see. The Chaplin video also did a great job and it's quite probably the best show intro since Zoo TV.
Originally posted by LikeASong: The Blackout, as much as I despise some of its lyrics, is the best tour opener I have ever witnessed.
...
Then came 2010 and they opened with Stingray Guitar, an instrumental that they later recycled for Lucifer's Hands, and then Beautiful Day, the song I look forward the least ever in a setlist. I better shut up.