U2 Tour Dates - Now Official!- Page 88

[Type_A_Tiff]

Posted: 5/28/05 at 9:24pm

I didn't pass on SS. It was sold out. Whore.

Larry has aged very well, 'tis true. It's okay, I'd do any of them. Although Adam has a place in my heart. We had a moment during the concert, you know.

[Type_A_Tiff]

Posted: 5/28/05 at 10:20pm

Argh, okay, Mabs, #1, if either of you happened to have downloaded Boston II, would you care to send it to me (online)? I followed the YSI link from Interference but everything past Vertigo/Walk This Way is considered an invalid or stale link. This Zip doodad is taking FOREVER too - it probably won't be finished for another 6 hours or so. I've got MSG on .zip but apparently I'm not registered for WinRAR so I'm screwed there too. Care to share, my darlings?

[Ellie3]

Posted: 5/28/05 at 10:30pm

Oh, it was "sold out" now, was it. Uh huh.

And I have no idea what your last post means, Whiff.
YsI? WinRar?? Zip??? What an oddball you are.

[#1Elphie]

Posted: 5/28/05 at 10:52pm

Tiff, I have MSG I can send you, just PM me your email address if you want me to email it to ya. I haven't downloaded Boston II yet, but I plan on doing so and I'll let you know when I have it!

[Type_A_Tiff]

Posted: 5/29/05 at 1:14am

Boston III Setlist:

Love and Peace
Vertigo
Elevation
Electric Co. // Bullet w/ Butterfly Wings // I can see for Miles
An Cat Dubh
Into The Heart
City of Blinding Lights
Beautiful Day/ Here Comes the Sun snippet
Miracle Drug
Sometimes
New Years Day
Sunday Bloody Sunday / Abraham
Bullet the Blue Sky / Johnny / Hand that Built America
Running to Stand Still
Pride
Where the Streets Have No Name
One
The Fly
Until The End Of The World
Who's Gonna Ride Your Wild Horses
All Because of You
Yahweh
Party Girl
Vertigo


Meh. Wild Horses and Party Girl...meh. Awesome that they did a second Vertigo though. I still think the Boston II setlist is superior. I like them opening with LAPOE, personally. I'm heartened that they're mixing things up lately though. I can't even IMAGINE the list in October!

[FindingNamo]

Posted: 5/29/05 at 2:02am

Well, let me just say this about that and then I'm going directly to bed. Always thought Wild Horses was an okay song. Just okay.

BUT IT WAS SMOKING LIVE TONIGHT.

And Boston rocks. I thought the place was going to collapse.

Updated On: 5/29/05 at 02:02 AM

[#1Elphie]

Posted: 5/29/05 at 11:12am

Ooh, you were there, Namo? I love Wild Horses, I wish I could have heard that. I agree with Tiff, though; I still like the Boston II setlist better.

[FindingNamo]

Posted: 5/29/05 at 1:02pm

Yes, I was there and very much enjoyed the set list. I didn't think I needed to hear "Pride" again, since I've seen them do that live a lot. But it was effective.

Did some digging and noticed that the concert I saw last night came 24 years and one day after the first time I saw U2:

05/27/81 Toad's Place - New Haven, CT: The Ocean, 11 O'clock Tick Tock, I Will Follow, I Fall Down, An Cat Dubh, Into The Heart, Another Time Another Place, The Cry / The Electric Co., Things To Make And Do, Stories For Boys, Boy-Girl, Out Of Control, Twilight, I Will Follow, A Day Without Me, Fire

[#1Elphie]

Posted: 5/29/05 at 1:11pm

Wow! Pretty cool. How many times have you seen them?

[FindingNamo]

Posted: 5/29/05 at 1:37pm

It's very weird to say this, but I don't really know how many times I've seen U2.

I saw them every step of the way, from tiny clubs to theaters to arenas. I think the above-referenced Toad's Place show is the one Bono talked about during the rock and roll hall of fame speech about him getting into a fight with The Edge.

I have a very distinct memory of him kicking Larry's ass as they walked off stage before the encore. I also remember talking to my friends about Larry and asking if he was old enough to even be in the club, he looked about 9. What was funny about the first three times I saw them was that the audience was less than half the size of the number of people who were inside the stage elipse on this tour!

The first stop I saw 'em on the October tour, it was in a club that was a converted bowling alley. When a band with a big audience played, they were on the "big stage" and crowd capacity was a couple thousand. When U2 played there, they played the small stage, which maybe accommodated 500-600 people in the audience. My friend Prudence and I were right at the front of the tiny stage. In a typically "spontaneous rock star moment" of Bono's, he leaned over to me and Prudence during "Out of Control" and said, "pull me in!" He was instructing us to make him crowd surf over us.

That's the thing I find endlessly fascinating about U2. How such complete hokum also manages to come across as heartfelt. I'm not a fan of big arena shows, but somehow they manage to make even those feel intimate. I really don't know how they do it.

Also, inevitably, Bono does something so pre-packaged and planned and manipulative that I am SHOCKED that I always find myself weeping at a rock concert. THREE TIMES last night he made me cry. THREE TIMES.

I guess what I love is the total theatricality, in the best sense of the word. It's rock theater on a grand scale, and it works so well that it pulls me in.

I saw them multiple times on the Boy, October, War tours and then I think only once on Unforgettable Fire. As far as I can recall, I was never able to score tickets for any concerts after that, they just suddenly were the new Rolling Stones and tickets vanished within 90 seconds of going on sale.

I was pleased to get tickets for this tour, just by hitting "refresh" a lot on the Ticketmaster site when the third Boston date went on sale. (I have since heard that Ticketmaster now has a time-out thing that kicks you out for hitting "refresh" too many times. To "prevent scalpers.")

I was far from the stage and still sucked in. My friend Eric said, "It's just stupid rock star moves and Bono somehow makes it all work."

[#1Elphie]

Posted: 5/29/05 at 1:49pm

Wow! You're so lucky. I wish I could have been there from the beginning, to see them grow into the icons that they are today. Unfortunately I was born a little too late. I think it's so cool that you've followed them for so long. I feel a strong, unexplainable connection to them and I just saw them live for the first time a week ago, so I can't really imagine how much more special it must be for you.

[FindingNamo]

Posted: 5/29/05 at 2:01pm

The thing that amazes me is that basically I am so resistant to the huge rock star gestures and trappings and yet I am taken in by the shows (when I get to actually see them). I'm from punk rock! We came along to remind people that rock and roll was for small sweaty clubs and not big hockey rinks and football stadiums.

A friend of mine ran a record store in the early '80s and I remember on the October tour he was chatting with Bono and said, "You guys are getting so big I'm not going to be able to like you anymore." And Bono said, "Why?" And he replied, "It's just going to suck if you start playing arenas," and Bono said, "Oh, we WANT to play arenas." And it was just the fact that they always wanted to do that and clearly were trying to figure out a way to connect on a massive level with the same intimate impact that they had back in the clubs.

And somehow, they figured it out. I'm impressed by the fact that *I* can't figure it out. I don't know what the key is. I just know that they do it effectively.

I think the best things about art is the exploration of contradictions. So much of what Bono does is BS. And. It. Works.

Genius.

[Ellie3]

Posted: 5/29/05 at 3:28pm

Yup, genius describes it.

The fact that they play in giant arenas doesn't take away anything from the spirit of the show - they always manage to avoid the cheesy stadium-rock atmosphere of Bon Jovi, for example. And that's because THEY ARE U2! One of a kind.

[Jim2]

Posted: 5/29/05 at 7:25pm

My sister-in-law brought my nephew to his first U2 concert last night in Boston (the third and final show in Boston until the fall). My sister-in law is the biggest U2 fan I know. She has seen every U2 tour in the past 20+ years starting with the Unforgetable Fire tour at the Worcester Centrum in the early 80's. My nephew is 5 years old and is loves U2. He watches the DVD's, listens to the CD's and knows all the words to almost all of their songs (Vertigo and Sunday Bloody Sunday are his favorites). He wore my sister-in-laws Unforgettable Fire tour shirt that she bought over 20 years ago at her first U2 concert to last nights show. She said that several people at the concert wanted him to take the shirt off and buy it from her. Of course she wouldn't part with it.

They both said the Vertigo tour was amazing and my nephew is dying to see them again. He might be in luck because she has tickets for one of the October shows and two of the December shows in Boston. Does anyone know if last night's concert is somewhere online to download?

Sorry for the long post. I just thought you might want to hear that U2 has dedicated fans of all ages!

[Jezebel]

Posted: 5/29/05 at 7:27pm

That's great. On the oppostite end of the spectrum, I work with a lady approaching retirement who rang in sick the day tickets went on sale!

[#1Elphie]

Posted: 5/29/05 at 7:29pm

Lucky kid!
There's a torrent of the show already, you can find it on U2torrents.com. Interference should have it (probably as an mp3 or shn file) in a few days.

[Type_A_Tiff]

Posted: 5/30/05 at 12:48pm

Namo, I know exactly what you mean. Bono's the consummate showman and he knows how to play the crowd. I admit there were parts of his spiel where I had to roll my eyes a bit (i.e. "The thing we love best about Seattle is its heart, and its hope for the future..."...as per every other city they've played) but then there was Sometimes You Can't Make It On Your Own, where I teared up when he "teared up" and accidentally called the kid on stage "Paul". As people have pointed out on Interference, it's all an act, including the choreographed "wipe of the tear" at the end - but the fact that Bono really had me in that moment, and I still refuse to wholeheartedly believe that it was an act, is a testament to his genius.

Out of curiousity, is your friend who talked to Bono at the record store still a fan?

Jim2, good story! If you're looking for bootlegs of Boston 3, check out:

http://s13.yousendit.com/d.aspx?id=15F8RYGIAQVB0345LQ6S6FN3UR (Wild Horses),

and if that doesn't work, try: http://s50.yousendit.com/d.aspx?id=3HE830WH9MWQP04816NQJ99OHW

You can also find torrents of the entire show at: http://forum.interference.com/t129117.html


I wouldn't mind hearing Wild Horses actually. And a LAPOE opening. I've always though LAPOE would be an awesome intro.

I can't WAIT until October!!

[FindingNamo]

Posted: 5/30/05 at 12:58pm

Ya know, I lost track of the guy who ran the record store. His coke issues brought about the losing of his business scenario. I THINK another friend ran into him in a San Francisco record store in the '90s, 3000 miles away. I would guess he no longer likes U2.

I hadn't been reading anything about the tour before I saw the show. So I didn't know that they were mostly opening with City of Blinding Lights. But since Love and Peace or Else quickly became my favorite on the new album very quickly, I was psyched to hear those two low notes playing as they walked around the elipse with those bright lights in their hands.

It was a perfect opener. Then of course, the segue into Beautiful Day and I thought the roof of the place was going to blow off.

[Type_A_Tiff]

Posted: 5/30/05 at 1:05pm

And how 'bout Vertigo 2 as a closer? Seattle 2 was the first city to repeat it and people who weren't there thought it was a lame choice, but I've been telling everyone, on paper, it seems crappy to repeat when they've got hundreds in their repetoire to choose from, but in person, I thought the rafters were going to implode from the roar.

How have your seats been for the shows you've attended? I lucked out with GA for Seattle (thanks in part to your PM!) so I'm spoiled, but I think Mabel and my nosebleeds for MSG shouldn't be too bad.

[FindingNamo]

Posted: 5/30/05 at 1:10pm

My nosebleeds were perfectly fine. And at 50 bucks, it seemed like the bargain of the year!

Having them do Vertigo twice reminded me of that first time I saw them in '81, see the set list above, when they did I Will Follow twice.

I remember thinking back then that they didn't have enough material, but this time, I thought it was funny and audacious. Hell, I woulda liked to hear it a third time instead of "New Years Day," but that's maybe because I saw the War tour at least three times and feel as if I have heard that one too many times!

[Type_A_Tiff]

Posted: 5/30/05 at 3:56pm

I'm a bit relieved. According to a DJ in Boston (100.7), he talked to Adam, who said the European leg is getting more Pop and Zooropa since those records sold better than they did in North America. Whew. I don't dislike Lemon or Dirty Day, but my feelings about Pop is that it makes a good coaster. (Staring At The Sun is passable though.) I hope they leave Zooropa and Pop behind in Europe come the third leg. The '90s weren't terrible, but those were hardly their best releases.

I would have loved to have been at Toad's Place! I guess 24 years ago, you already knew that good things were to come, eh? Awesome. I was glad to hear NYD live; there are other songs I'd replace. Like The Ocean. And maybe Yahweh. (Don't hurt me, Mabs and #1!)

[Ellie3]

Posted: 5/30/05 at 4:49pm

I'd actually love to hear a smidgeon of Pop and Zooropa in October. I thought they were great, although I am glad they've left that experimental phase behind. Staring At The Sun isn't the only good song! Tsk, you call yourself a fan.

The Fly, Even Better Than The Real Thing, Stay and One are all from the 90s too, so I wouldn't discount that decade altogether. Don't throw the baby out with the bathwater, Tiff. Put the Best of 1990-2000 into your player now - it's great stuff! I listen to it regularly.

[Type_A_Tiff]

Posted: 5/30/05 at 4:53pm

Ms. Reading Comp, didn't I say the '90s weren't terrible but it was Zooropa and Pop in particular that bit the bad one? Although to be fair, I think PopMart would have been a freakin' awesome tour to attend.

*shakes head in disbelief*

Tsk. And you call yourself an Ivy Leaguer. It's a good thing you've got some redeeming qualities to compensate. I just...haven't...found...them...yet.

Off to get "a job". And listen to Best of '90-'00 in the car. Woot!

(PS, dear, did you download Boston II yet? It's quite fabu!)

Updated On: 5/30/05 at 04:53 PM

[Ellie3]

Posted: 5/30/05 at 4:56pm

Oops, my mistake. I tend to skim your posts, inane as they are. Have fun getting a "job", whatever that is.
Updated On: 5/30/05 at 04:56 PM

[Type_A_Tiff]

Posted: 5/30/05 at 4:58pm

And the '90s had other good songs you missed - Mysterious Ways, Beautiful Day, Until the End of the World (better live than on the CD though), Gone, HMTMKMKM and Numb.