Do you think it’s weird U2 only released one live album?

I agree there - the shows need to be out on Blu-ray!

You know it's easy to copy audio from DVDs, right?

 

Yes I do. It seems to me that some people are greatly mistaken in their belief that the DVD player is a staple device in most homes. It isn’t.
You want me to go out and buy a bunch of DVDs that I’m never going to play (Haven’t owned a DVD player for over a decade) just so I can rip the audio from them? Doesn’t sound like a very modern or elegant solution to a problem that could be solved very easily and at zero cost to the band by providing a digital download on ITunes or all the other digital stores, including HI RES options. It’s 2019!

For the record, I do own a few of the older titles on DVD, and yes ripped the audio from them ages ago. But the more recent titles are useless to me if I can’t access them in a modern format. For a band that has long prided themselves on being at the forefront of technology, their collection of live releases is so 1995.

 

It's weirder that they never did an unplugged set in the 90s.

 

So do you rebuy all your music on CD digitially? If not how do you listen to them?

I ask because I don't have a CD player anymore so CDs are useless to me.

 

I tend to agree with most folks here, the band has released a ton of Concert videos instead of live albums. The Live albums, tended to be EP's ...

The dvd's/blurays I know of

Under A Blood Red Sky (essential) 83
Rattle And Hum movie (not completely a concert but some very good footage included) 88
Zoo Tv 94
PopMart 98
Elevation 2001
Go Home 2001
Vertigo 2005
Songs Of Innocence and Experience 2011
Live At Glastonbury 2011

plus the Joshua Tree tour in the deluxe box

An excellent representation of the band live

 

So the real thread topic turns out to be "Do you think it’s weird U2 only released one live album in a format I personally prefer?"

 

I've got about 35 U2 albums, at least a third of those are live albums and only one of them is a bootleg

 

And that's a soundboard of the whole 'Under a Blood Red Sky' Red Rocks show.

 

Nice!

 

Nice list Alofter! Agreed. Modern music fans like everyone else are visual beings and U2 live shows are definitely spectacles to see. Live video releases are a good way to capture both. They are releasing a large live collection from I +E tours this year as a fan exclusive for their website subscribers.
Son of Ziggy, you are correct though. The only official live release was released 36 years ago!..and only had 8 songs on it.

 

So I was in Toronto last week to see Iron Maiden and as per usual I hit the
`used new arrivals' bin at Sonic Boom. What is the first thing I find? The U2
2001 Slane Castle concert.....on CD. This was, what, available only to fan club
members? I had known of its existence for years but had only seen the DVD.
It was pricey ($50) but I would have happily paid twice that. When the gent
at the cash register commented on my purchase and said that most people
would balk at the price tag, I said `dude, I peed a little bit, I'm not gonna lie'.

 

exceedingly odd for such a great live band with so many tours

 

I'd be in if they released more live content. I know there is plenty out there, but I'd rather have vinyl over DVD's (although I have them all but the Innocence + Experience one). I was even a member of the fan club up til the last five years or so. As great as some of those CD's are there is always something off about them, songs missing, sound that could be better etc. I thought for sure we'd have seen an official release of the Apollo show they made such a big deal over. But I guess it's kind of out of the question since they spend so much time wanting to get the studio albums just right, warts and all live albums of full shows just doesn't seem to be something they want to release.

 

Yeah, I don't think they even remixed the audio for the ZooTV/Slane/etc fan club CD releases. Slane sounded okay, but I always thought the ZooTV audio was pretty lacking, mix-wise.

 

I agree on the sound of the ZooTV show. It was always lacking from the original VHS release and even the PPV. I am pretty sure they just ported the audio from the DVD over. Could be better but still the best sounding Zoo show out there.

Slane I don't think needed a remix as it already sounded good on the DVD PCM track which I assume was also a direct port to the fan club release. Pretty sure the Hasta La Vista release is also exactly the same as the audio from the Mexico DVD and U2 Communication has the exact same audio as the Live in Chicago and Live in Milan audio tracks on their respective DVDs.

 

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Yeah, ZooTV is the only one that really needed a remix. But basically I was just pointing out the sheer lack of effort in those releases for a number of years. They could've at least released different material from those tours or something...i'm sure everything was recorded by that point.

 

As for the Apollo show I read recently that they still plan to do something with it although it will likely be totally web based at this point. Most likely due to the 360 degree camera technology used to film it and they want to somehow show that off or incorporate it into a release. It will not be part of any bonus content on the E+I release upcoming later this year as was previously rumored as a possibility. I think they should simply release the audio as a digital only release but no one asked me. It is a shame they felt the need to remove Red Flag Day from the Sirius Broadcast as that was the song I was looking forward to hearing the most at that show aside from WGRYWH.

 

Total agreement. As far as I know every single show from ZooTV on has been recorded in audio and video even if the video is just from the camera used to show on the screens at each venue. I already had rips of all their video releases so I didn't need a separate audio release but it is now 2019 and people still can't figure out how to rip a dvd based on all the clamoring for a cd release of previously issued DVDs. Not so much U2 but I see it for other bands and artists all the time. I remember people asking for a CD release of the audio from the Paris I+E show.

Their decisions make no sense to me. Even something as simple as the Live 87 MSG show. Why not release the whole show? Why did they feel the need to include a version of BTBS from a totally different show and why did they pick one where Bono flubbed so badly. I mean they have a bunch of multitracks from that tour including the night AFTER the Denver show they chose which we know they have since it was used in Rattle N Hum. I cannot make heads or tails of their reasoning at stuff like this.

 

All of this.

I still think eventually they'll do streaming/download audio releases of these things as soon as someone keys them in that it would cost literally zero dollars to do and might bring in a few extra bucks. But then again, not much they've done in the past 15 years makes a ton of sense.

 

Yeah I know they looked into the official bootlegs release before but decided against it. I think their slave to perfectionism attitude is a big reason why they havent yet plus the relatively static setlists compared to most of the other bands that do the live bootleg thing. Plus I think they don't like looking back unless it is part of a special anniversary or something. However I do think they are winding down as the huge touring force they have been since JT and once that is done that more archival releases will be coming. No reason not to at that point. Just select a few shows a year and put them out digitally only. They don't need to do the Bruce monthly thing although I would love it if they did.

 

2 more songs released from the upcoming live set. Invisible and Red Flag Day. Red Flag Day is my favorite song from the last 2 albums and the song I was looking forward to most on this set and it didn't disappoint. Sounds really good in my opinion.

 

A live album can be a double-edged sword. Take the Stones' "Ya-Yas" album. On the one hand, it sends the message that they're a sell-your-blood, must-see live act. On the other, it calcifies peoples' expectations to the point that for 50 years thereafter some people come away from Stones' shows saying "It was good, but it was no Ya-Yas."

That could have happened with any number of U2's 1985 or 1987 shows, IMHO. Like U2, Springsteen also declined in the 80s to just turn their giantest commercial juggernauts (Born in the USA, Joshua Tree) into an unedited complete concert experience. "Rattle and Hum" and "1975-1985" were cut-ups/collages, so to speak. (Always leave them wanting more.)

Fast forward to today, and both Bruce and U2 made up for lost time, but I think that's appropriate and fine for a matured act looking to print some money.

 

Got the fan club live discs today. Lovely packaging. Hopefully U2 releases the rest of the tracks digitally so I can listen to them. I don't have a cd player anymore even in my pc. It died years ago and I never bothered to replace.

 

3 official live albums/ep's if I'm not mistaken:

Under A Blood Red Sky
Wide Awake In America
Rattle and Hum which is a combo of Live and new material