U2 2017 - New Album, Tour, Joshua Tree Shows

If you're in your seat by 8:45, you should be good for the U2 set. The Lumineers opened up here, but I had no interest in seeing them.

 

Boston gig tonight - a beautiful day indeed!!

 

I live in Boston, and I can say that this weekend brings a stunning show by an Irish act that embodies everything great about rock and roll.

But enough about Imelda May....

 

Facts, combined with opinion.
For all I know, they may love doing the JT album and travelling around the World doing it for a year.

But to get to my reasoning, U2 signed a 12 year contract with Live Nation in 2008 after the huge Vertigo tour.
They were given shares of the company. A hugely lucrative deal.
As of the beginning of 2017, U2 has played roughly 200 shows in 9 years. Not nearly enough for what they got in that deal.
So I believe in order to set up the next deal, (30 year anniversary for Achtung in 2021, anyone?) they've got to get out and make their business partners (that'd be LN) happy with the first deal.

FWIW, Madonna and I believe, Tom Petty also did deals with them.
Madonna's toured actively here over the last decade or so, and Petty's put off a solo theatre tour revolving around his solo work to do a 40th anniversary of the Heartbreakers tour.

It appears to me that the people paying the fiddler are calling the tunes/schedule here for these performers.....imo

 

yeh , i'm trying to skip them , but get there in plenty of time , thanks !!

 

Saw the Toronto show on Friday night from the GA section on the floor and it was unbelievable! What a night!

U2 were fantastic! The band was in top form and Bono sang wonderfully throughout. Crazy, lively crowd (in a good way) Fantastic audience participation throughout.

The Joshua Tree segment was transcendent, especially Side 2.

Too many highlights to mention but not knowing what to expect before going in was a real bonus for us; everything was more or less a surprise (other than we knew they'd be playing the full Joshua Tree album)

I could not believe the love in that stadium for this band! Their place in the hearts of many is more than obvious despite many critical naysayers in the last 8 years or so about their current work, etc...

Friday night this band showed why they are the greatest band on the planet right now, no holds barred.

I saw the Joshua Tree show in 1987 at the CNE stadium here (no longer does it exist); 30 years later here we were again, fans and band, full circle.

U2 played for 2 straight hours from about 9:15 or so to 11:15 or so. The Lumineers were totally uninteresting to me. I wandered around during their boring set and all I heard was a loud bass drum and an acoustic guitar playing one long chord and a guy singing "Whoah..., whoah..., whoah......" in a chorus worthy of Mumford & Sons. In short, they were awful.

After they finished the crowd were hanging out when to our surprise they opened the roof at the "dome" and all the heat and humidity let out and the sky and CN Tower were above us...; very cool indeed! One thing though; the stage is low, meaning it was hard to see the band a lot of the time with tall people in front of us holding up cellphones throughout the night. But the energy down there made it bearable. The sound and visuals were excellent as well!

Also, Bono made many a few mentions of Leonard Cohen during the show (including singing some of Suzanne during "Bad"); it was very moving!

We were also treated to an extra song as "I Will Follow" was not on the set list!

10/10 and contender for Concert Of The Year

A great time was had by all!!

 

U2 were phenomenal in Philly a few weeks ago. The Lumineers are everything I despise about new
music rolled into one.

 

Those two were highlights at the Seattle show as well. Great setlist overall...I would've only switched out Beautiful Day and Elevation for something else to make it even better.

 

If I were U2, I'd change radically the setlist, and playing the Joshua Tree album and the rest of the songs in reverse chronological order

Trying to include at least 1 song every 2 albums, it would be something like this:

1- Magnificent or No Line on The Horizon (changing from night to night)
2- City of Blinding Lights
3- Beautiful Day
4- Discotheque or Hold Me Thrill Me ... (changing from night to night)
5- Mysterious Ways or Even Better Than The Real Thing (changing from night to night)
6- Angel of Harlem or Desire (changing from night to night)

The Joshua Tree

6- Mothers of the Disappeared
7- Exit
8- One Tree Hill
9- Trip Through Your Wires
10-In God's Country
11-Red Hill Mining Town
12-Running To Stand Still
13-Bullet The Blue Sky
14-With or Without You
15-I Still Haven't Found
16-Where The Streets Have No Name

Encores

17-A Sort of Homecoming
18-Bad/ MLK
19-Sunday Bloody Sunday or New Year's Day (changing from night to night)
20-Gloria
21-I Will Follow

 

They are playing to a click track, as most acts do when they use video that needs to be sinchronized

 

they have been playing to a click track since the Pop tour. Mullen since Unforgettable Fire.

 

Yes. I´ve got plenty of IEM recordings with the click track and the countdowns....

 

same.

 

Guess you got me beat. This will be my 3rd.

 

Listening to Vancouver 2017-05-12 IEM+AUD right now, sounds very good

 

I saw the original Joshua Tree tour and the recent show in Pittsburgh. Solid shows but,
IMO, overated as a live act by many.

 

I was initially very disappointed with this show after the amazing I+E tour....

I still am, but I blame the venues. Stadiums are too big and attenuate their intensity.

What critics disliked about POPMART articulates what I do not like about this tour.

 

Ok practical question re the tour...we're about to head over to Europe for a grand tour and near the end of it, we'll be seeing them in Paris at the Stade De France. I know they send out details of what to expect when turning up a few days before but as we're about to travel some distance to seem, we might not be able to get this & might miss out on something we should have brought with. Does anyone know what the deal is with these alerts? Are they same general info re the venue or does the ticketing security vary from venue to venue? We did hear that they wanted the credit card that the tickets were bought with. Normally, not a problem except we were a little when we got them

 

on it!

 

i saw 5 JT shows in 87.

3 from a few rows from the stage. overrated live act? that wins prize for most uninformed statement of the year.

 

Glad you enjoyed the concert J99!

I didn't go this time around, foolishly perhaps. I felt like I probably made a mistake in doing that but I burned out on live JT Side 1 and the anthemic singles some time ago and I thought Side 2 always had a bit of a hodgepod effect to it, as good as it can be or is. So, I had my reasons, but when in doubt, always GO lol. Will have to remember that if there is a next time.

Glad you enjoyed the band and concert!!

 

Keep plugging away - you'll catch me eventually...

...if I die tomorrow and Bono and you live to be 1000!

 

Seems a little harsh about Lumineers, but I admit I've been wholly unimpressed by them - they seem to be trying way too hard to be "folksy" and "genuine". They just kinda annoy me.

BTW, Philly was only 7 days ago - might feel like weeks, but it was just week!

 

"Little Things" returns in Boston! And here I thought it was dead!

 

I really wanted to see this tour, but I cannot stand Rogers Centre/Skydome in Toronto. A horrible venue. Too big, muddy sound. I've never fully enjoyed a concert there. I much prefer Air Canada Centre, where U2 played last time, and it was a great show.