U2 new album "Songs of Experience" coming December 1st, plus 2018 tour.*

Hmmm.

 

I just accidentally heard DD it a second time after not being impressed yesterday when I posted it.

I noticed the first time that the song fit pretty well lyrically. (Which is funny because when I first heard it up until the press releases on its intent, it always sounded highly personal to me) But nothing else drew me in and in a way I was disappointed.

On second listen I'm impressed at the execution even if it is not my taste (which is undetermined at the moment). Really well conceived. ...the ending was kind of funny too.

Now if I had my way it would ROCK OUT and the dynamics would be off the chain with some edgy guitar interluding.

Oh well, it's the Bono show these days.

Still...cool.\

 

I actually quite like that Dirty Day arrangement. I'd love to see that live.

 

I thought that was quite good. It’s far from a definitive version and it sounds like a work in progress, but in my mind it’s co-opting the song for the purposes of this show. As a result, I’ll never listen to the “real version” again. Cool.

 

Dirty Day debuted last night on the 3rd of 4 shows in Dublin. Although a little rough and I can't say this arrangement touches the ZooTV tour version especially with so much of Bono's talking through it, it does work very well.



It's interesting how drastically the set has changed (for the better, imo) especially in the last few weeks as they near the end of the line this month. Here's a comparison of a typical set a few weeks into the US leg versus what it's shaped up to be the last dates of the tour this week:


*Early in US Leg Tour*

Love Is All We Have Left
The Blackout
Lights Of Home
Beautiful Day
I Will Follow
Gloria (or) All Because Of You
Red Flag Day
The Ocean
Iris (Hold Me Close)
Cedarwood Road
Sunday Bloody Sunday
Raised By Wolves
Until the End of the World
- (Intermission - Hold Me, Thrill Me, Kiss Me, Kill Me)
Elevation
Vertigo
Desire
Acrobat
You're The Best Thing About Me
Staring at the Sun
Pride (In the Name of Love)
Get Out Of Your Own Way
American Soul
City of Blinding Lights
- encore(s):
One
Love Is Bigger Than Anything in Its Way
13 (There Is A Light)


*End Of European Leg Tour*

The Blackout
Lights Of Home
I Will Follow
Gloria(or) All Because Of You (or) Red Flag Day
Beautiful Day
Dirty Day
Zoo Station
The Fly
Stay (Faraway, So Close!)
Who's Gonna Ride Your Wild Horses
- (Intermission - Hold Me, Thrill Me, Kiss Me, Kill Me)
Elevation
Vertigo
Even Better Than The Real Thing
Acrobat
You're The Best Thing About Me
Summer Of Love
Pride (In the Name of Love)
Get Out Of Your Own Way
New Year's Day
City of Blinding Lights
- encore(s):
One
Love Is Bigger Than Anything in Its Way
13 (There Is A Light)

 

I haven't seen U2 live since 2000 (still a big fan though). Looking at the above setlists for this tour, I am astonished that there is NOTHING from their biggest album of their careers (JT). I know they performed it in its entirety last year, but this really a daring setlist for a band of their stature, even though I think there is a little too much from the last two albums. Impressive!
Anyone know why JT is not represented? Did they burn themselves out on it playing it in 2017?

 

I don't think they've ever flat out stated the reasons why they aren't playing any JT songs this tour but the perceived reasons are yes, they played the entire album for the 2017 stadium tour and want to give especially the big burnout numbers a rest for 2018 which will certainly be a major draw for fans wanting to see those songs played live whenever they tour again.

One thing I think can be taken from how this tour has shaped up as it finishes is that there's 6 songs from Achtung Baby now in the set (7 if you include UTEOTW which was played on the first leg) and at least half of those are what could be considered deep cuts. I think this greatly diminishes the odds of some sort of full album Achtung Baby tour in a few years. Really, only "So Cruel" is the only remaining live rarity from that album.

 

Agree that the set list in Europe is a dramatic improvement to the US one. I enjoyed the show in LA, but would have loved one of these later set lists.

That Dirty Day version doesn't work for me. They leave out a whole verse. Too much talking. I don't mind talking between songs, but this format of talking during the tune doesn't work for me. Ruins the flow of the song. I love Dirty Day; it's one of my all time faves by them. But this arrangement is very meh for me. I suppose it would be cool just to hear that guitar tone by Edge, but that's about it.

 

Here's an interview with the Edge in Rolling Stone from May explaining why there's no Joshua Tree songs on this tour. I saw the JT tour four times last year and loved it but I'm glad they gave it a rest this year. It seems a bold choice and, as Edge says, allowed them to dig out sings like "Acrobat."

The Edge Talks U2’s Experience Tour – Rolling Stone

At what point in the planning stage for the tour did you decide you weren’t going to do any songs off The Joshua Tree?

It came to us, really, as the show was sort of coming into focus. We were actually on the Joshua Treetour and I started throwing set list ideas towards Bono and [creative director] Willie [Williams] and they were throwing them back at me and early on it became this thing of “Hey, why don’t we just conceive of a show without anything from The Joshua Tree because that’s what we’re doing right now?” If we can avoid playing any songs from The Joshua Tree it would inevitably clear the set list, which would be quite a change, quite fresh, a new sort of thing. Some of those songs we’ve played pretty consistently since they first entered a U2 set list. I don’t think we haven’t played “Where the Streets Have No Name” … might have been one show, but it’s basically been a fixture. We liked the idea that we were forcing ourselves to think in a different way. We felt the result would be something different and fresh.

 

While Zooropa is not a favorite of mine, it's not often that you see two songs from it played at the same show, so that is pretty cool. It's easy to get away with no Joshua Tree songs when you are playing so many well-known classics from other albums (I will Follow, Pride, New Year's Day, One, Vertigo, Beautiful Day, etc.). Still seems weird to be ending shows with 13 (good song, but not a good show closer).

 

We still need JT 30 blu ray!

 

I was at the first of the four Dublin shows and I think it's probably my favourite time seeing them. It's audacious to leave out Joshua Tree songs, but kind of understandable, and - as had been remarked - it frees up the setlist for other things. The volume of Achtung Baby material is great. For a show that manages to still include plenty from the most recent album (albeit grouped together: two at the start and a cluster at the end), I was really surprised how much of the show was "oldies".

 

Yeah, I usually see multiple shows on any U2 tour but the 2nd show in LA was enough for me and honestly, I thought it was among the most disappointing sets from the band I've ever experienced. A big part of it was the rehashing of the "Innocence/Cederwood Road" group of songs from the 2015 tour in the first set, overall pacing and poor encore and finally, a focus on (IMO) many of the wrong songs from the SOE album (which I admit is near the top of least favorite U2 albums).

 

We got ‘Dirty Day’ and ‘Landlady’ tonight in Dublin. Definitely the best show of the Belfast and Dublin runs.

I don’t think we will see them back on stage in Dublin for a while.

 

Listening to that Dublin video they are playing Dirty Day a half step down in C compared to the rehearsal clip and studio version that is in Db

 

I’ve heard for years about U2 dropping the keys of songs and have no issues with it. I do have a question about the logistics of it. When I play, say, a four chord Dylan song, I have no problem switching the key.... DGA becomes CFG or AbDbEb... no big deal.

But U2 songs are riff driven, often intermixing patterns up the neck with open strings, so you can’t just slide it down a few frets. So how do they (I.e., Edge and Adam) do it? Downtuning their guitars (which impacts the feel of the strings, resonance, etc)? Digital transposition post instrument?

 

As a guitar player, yeah you are exactly right - with the riff-oriented stuff they change keys of the song by downtuning the guitar and playing the riff the same way they would have in the original key

Since it is pre-planned ahead of time, The Edge for example has probably a plethora of guitars properly set up in that tuning (for example Eb standard for when they do songs like The Fly, Zoo Station, etc.). Dropping the strings of a properly set up and good quality electric guitar a half step, at least from my experience with my own guitars, don't affect the feel of the strings too much besides a tiny bit less resistance, but not enough to drastically alter the physical experience of the guitar. But for people like The Edge where he has a ton of guitars, there definitely are guitars that are in a designated tuning for a number of the songs on the setlist

Hope this helps!

 

When U2 plays songs live in lower keys than the studio versions, the also may play it a bit slower as well. This can drastically affect the overall feel of the song making it “drag.” Here is an example of Sunday Bloody Sunday from the Elevation tour in 2001 played in it’s typical album arrangement but tuned down a full step.



And yes, The Edge has usually 30+ different guitars in his tech pit under the stage all set up and tuned specifically for certain songs. He will switch out a guitar for a different one for almost every single song in the set. It’s not just different tunings but each song requires a different distinctive guitar tone - the Gibson Explorer for I Will Follow and Beautiful Day, Les Paul with capo for Until The End Of The World, Gibson SG for Elevation, Strat for Streets, and so on.

 

Dirty Day (Bitter Kiss) is one of my favorite 90's U2 songs.

Not on Spotify or any other streaming service I know of. One would think they would have used it for their 00's revisionist compilation of their 90's material (Best of 1990-2000 + B-Sides).

Sounds a bit like it could have been on All That You Can't Leave Behind.

 

I think over time Zoorapa has become my favorite U2 album (other than Joshua Tree) so this works for me.

 

This is pretty cool, but nothing beats the album version and/or the live version from '93 for me. Just breathes so much better. It has a feel to it that sticks with you. Nice and dirty, ha...

 

Thanks for the insight on Edge’s approach to switching keys. In my experience, a half step is no big deal (and as I recall U2’s default tuning in the early days was Eb not E anyways). Beyond that and you need, at least, a long scale neck, and likely thicker strings (I keep an acoustic downtuned a full step but has twelves on it and I’m considering going to 13’s).

If you haven’t seen it, here is the recent rig rundown for the Edge. The biggest eye opener here is that not only does he have a lot of guitars (duh!), but he also has customized patch cords for each with individualized capacitors to ensure all his guitars hit the amps the same regardless of pickup output. Genius if not a bit obsessive!

Rig Rundown - U2's The Edge

 

Listening just now I thought it was fantastic. I remember noticing that flattening at that time and thought it actually worked well. Then it plods along.. I referred to it at the time as the classic rock delivery version.

They sound committed though. Really engaging in every beat.

Revisiting now... I loved it. It blew me away.

Thanks for sharing. Interesting how different people appreciate different aspects of their long.... and broad career.

 

I think the JT Tour was part of the concept bridging the tours that encapsulate it.. The original JT album/tour signifies the point (commonly) where the innocent U2 became...something else. Pretty brilliant in my mind, ...artistically and business-wise.

 

Well, the tour ended tonight in Berlin. Same setlist as what was played the last 2 shows in Dublin, no final show surprises. Based on the live Mixr stream and comments from a few that attended, the show was very good but the last two Berlin shows last week were better and it's likely the band will need to use a few tracks and footage from at least the 4th Dublin show to "fix" some minor issues in tonight's show (Bono's vox weren't very good on Beautiful Day) for broadcast on Netflix and the home video release.

Likely the last time many songs played the last 3 tours will ever be performed again and clearly, the band is going to take several years off.