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  1. Ok, based on the shows we've already seen, and in a few articles (specially the pre tour in NYT and the last one in RS), the show is obviously NOT about the songs. It's not about which song sounds better or which song they think it may sound cool to play.
    At least not entirely.

    The show is a lot closer to a play. Or a musical. Or an opera.
    It's very explicit in some parts and very subjective in others but the story is there, and I guess that it helps to understand why some songs are not played or why some others should remain on the set.

    I know that all of this is subjective, I know. I'm not pretending to come up with the definitive interpretation of the show. Like usual, I just had too much time on my hands and decided to do this, hoping that some people will find it interesting and some will want to discuss about it and give their own interpretation of the show.

    The show basically has 5 acts including the encore.

    CHAPTER I - THE PAST (iNNOCENCE)

    1. The Search of Innocence
    He wanted to have a lightbulb over the stage for the first few numbers, which presented itself as U2 stripped back in the innocence moment of the band
    The Miracle, Out of Control, Vertigo, I Will Follow, California, Electric Co.

    The idea in here is going back in time and show U2 as if they were playing in a small club. You get to see them in McGonnagles. No theatrics, no screens, no special effects, no overuse of samples (if any), just the band on the stage.

    It's not necessarily only early songs, as Vertigo proves it. But Vertigo is a simple rocker, a song that despite being in a different era could have very well fitted into Boy. On the other hand, I'd say it would be pointless to expect them to play Mofo or Gone or Discotheque in here.

    High energy striped down rockers are welcome in here.



    2. Us And Them, The Loss Of Innocence
    When we were younger our enemies were clearly drawn, very visible to us. They were very real, they weren't imagined.
    Iris, Cedarwood Road, Song For Someone, Sunday Bloody Sunday, Raised By Wolves, Until The End Of The World

    If the first act was showing the band when they started, the second act is showing how they got there. Why did they get into it, what's behind that punk rock band.
    If it was a movie, the second act would start with a black screen and an ominous "5 years ago" written in white.

    We get to see Bono, dealing with the loss of his mom (Iris), the friends in his neighborhood (CR), the love for his girlfriend (SFS) and the anger and desperation they had to deal with in the 70's Ireland (SBS/RBW).

    In the end they were betrayed by the world (UTEOTW) and that anger triggered the band to that search of innocence we saw in the first act.

    The narrative and the music here is very tight, explicit and compact, so it'll be hard to mess with it. That's bad news for songs like Volcano (or even SLABT), who clearly belong in here (hopefully I'm proved wrong tonight, though).

    025

    CHAPTER II - THE PRESENT (eXPERIENCE)

    3. There Is No Them, Search For Experience
    The core idea behind the Innocence + Experience tour is this movement from "them and us" to "there is no them, only us."
    Invisible, Even Better Than The Real Thing, Mysterious Ways, Desire, When Love Comes To Town, Angel Of Harlem, The Sweetest Thing, The Wanderer

    This is a party.

    Tired of fighting against their old enemies, they start to realise that really there is no enemies (them). They start making peace with their own ghosts.
    After a "dark" moment, when they actually disappear from a few minutes as they start a journey in search for experience, they are reborn when they embrace that concept in Invisible.

    They are back but now they have a whole new attitude, a new approach when dealing with the issues that upset them.

    Instead of the direct confrontation of Sunday Bloody Sunday, now they get ironic with Even Better Than The Real Thing.
    More important, instead of wallowing about War, they get into Desire, Sweetest Thing and Mysterious Ways... forget about the past and kiss the future. Come to the party.

    Happy songs are welcome. And there's plenty of them. That's why we're getting the rotation in here.



    4. Experience Found
    As you get older, you start to discover that the greatest enemy you will encounter in your life is often yourself. You are the biggest obstacle in your own way. (,,,) That's the dialectic at the heart of the tour from a lyrical perspective.
    Every Breaking Wave, Bullet The Blue Sky, (Where Are) The Hands That Build America, Pride, The Troubles, With Or Without You, Beautiful Day, Bad

    Partying is not enough. Every Breaking Wave reminds us (I would've said "reminds them", but duh, there is no them...) that we keep failing over and over again, that the troubles are still there and they won't just disappearing when you ignore them.

    But the new Bullet and the new Hands at the core of the show give us a whole new perspective on the problems we have to face. It takes everybody to work it out, because after all, the trouble is not "them", The Trouble is you.

    Experience comes with redemption in Pride and even with Beautiful Day, but sadly, things are not perfect and despite all of our efforts, with or without our good intentions, things usually don't work out... in the end, experience also comes with hopelessness and constant desperation, represented in songs like With Or Without You and Bad.

    Another tight set musically and thematically, hard to mess with it. Again, bad news for songs like The Troubles, who clearly belong in this set but narratively it's redundant with the new Bullet. Not sure if the town is big enough for the 2 of them.



    EPILOGUE - THE FUTURE (Return To Innocence)

    5. Encore - Looking For Innocence

    Please instert Bono speech about HIV before Streets here
    Stephen Hawking speech, Miracle Drug, Beautiful Day, Bad, Mother And Child Reunion, Where The Streets Have No Name, One, I STill Haven't Found What I'm Looking For

    A teacher told me once that innocence is not something that you can lose, but something that you can achieve. He said that a child is not innocent, he's just ignorant, and that innocence is something you can try to get only AFTER you have knowledge and experience.

    That looks to be the case in here. They're not going back to the anger of their "innocence", but they're also trascending their own experience. They're looking at the future with hope.

    Stephen Hawking's words, Miracle Drug and Beautiful Day all build up hope until Bono starts promising based on the hope of this new quest for innocence that we can get rid of something like HIV. After all we're one.

    We have to look for this innocence, to believe we can make this world a better place.

    But you know how this ends... and we still haven't found what we're looking for.

    ----


    Ok, obviously all this won't make any sense if today -or any day in the following year- they start making changes to the setlist, but for now, I like to see the show with all this in mind.

    (sorry for the long post, hopefully you can enjoy it).

    Opinions? thoughts?

    030
  2. I thought that... Not with so many details but something like that and I think it's genious
  3. Brilliant post Love it.


    I wonder what would Bono or the band say if they read this. Bravo.
  4. As usual, very interesting perspective from you. Like you said, this shows that the band will not consider changing Vertigo for Volcano, for example, as the latter belongs to the 2nd set. I think The Troubles was a victim of bad synching between Bono and Lykke Li's prerecorded vocals and bad placement, between the euphoric Pride and the fan favorite WOWY. I hope they find its place in the show, even if that means putting it as the closer, with the "Looking for Innocence" batch.
    Where would you put Crystal Ballroom? This can be the bridge between the first set and the second one.
  5. Amazing post!!!
  6. wow, very neat, bloodraven. like sergio said, wonder what the band would say to this... I dare say they'd applaud you for it, as do I
  7. Amazing summary Bloodraven !


    Today i was thinking about the structure of the show too

    It seems to be soemthing like this :

    1 The Miracle (Of Joey Ramone)
    2- what they called McGonnagles
    3- what they called McGonnagles
    4-what they called McGonnagles

    Here they played OOC, Electric co , Vertigo , IWF ...maybe in a future Gloria, NYD , A sort of homecoming ?

    5-Iris (Hold Me Close)
    6-Cedarwood Road
    7-Song For Someone
    8-Sunday Bloody Sunday
    9-Raised By Wolves
    10-Until The End Of The World


    this part seems to be unchanging

    (Intermission)
    11-Invisible
    12-Even Better Than The Real Thing
    13-Mysterious Ways

    this part seems to be unchanging

    14-
    15-

    This could change every night . They played Desire, SThing, WLCTT , Angel of Harlem

    16-Every Breaking Wave
    17-Bullet The Blue Sky
    18-The Hands That Built America (snippet) / Pride (In The Name Of Love)

    set

    19-

    This place was for Troubles but it seems they forgot . Then played BD and Bad

    20-With Or Without You

    encore(s):
    21-
    22-
    23-Mother And Child Reunion (snippet) / Where The Streets Have No Name /
    24-
    Maybe the part where they could do more changes . But they didn t a lot yet


    I can t find a right place for many new songs like Volcano , CB or even California or older songs from the 2000 to this days . Only if they want to left out some greatest hits ( like SBS, MW , UTEOTW, or WOWY )
  8. Genius, Bloodraven. Very insightful and thought-provoking! I especially like your analogy of rebirth and the search for experience going along with the band playing inside the screen for Invisible, and your point that achieving innocence in how you look at the world requires intentionality and effort.

    It's making me look forward to Chicago even more than I already am.
  9. Hey thanks everybody for the comments!
    I'm enjoying this perspective, let's see what curve balls they throw us tonight and see if somehow they still fit in this narrative.

    Originally posted by cesar_garza01:I think The Troubles was a victim of bad synching between Bono and Lykke Li's prerecorded vocals and bad placement, between the euphoric Pride and the fan favorite WOWY. I hope they find its place in the show, even if that means putting it as the closer, with the "Looking for Innocence" batch.
    If Bono is emotionally invested in this narrative (and I believe he is at least in this moment), Troubles after Pride has to be too demanding... he already sang Bullet's rant (a dark moment) and Pride (relief and joy), so getting back in the mood of "somebody stepped inside your soul" is harder than "if you twist and turn away".

    I used to say that Troubles belonged between Wolves and End of the World, but obviously now I don't believe that at all. Is the total opposite... "The trouble is you" definitely has nothing to do (thematically) with Wolves.

    I think narratively it belongs where they intended originally... between Relief (Pride) and Hopelessness (WOWY), but sadly emotionally/musically the song seems out of place in there.


    In this narrative, it should be the closer. They're back to where they started -McGonagle's- with all the people of their past, in peace.
    Alternatively it could start the encore/epilogue, but I think that Hawking is doing fine in there.

    Originally posted by bpt3:I especially like your analogy of rebirth and the search for experience going along with the band playing inside the screen for Invisible
    If this is indeed what they're trying to say, then playing The Wanderer during the intermission is one of the most powerful moments of the whole show, and they're not even on the stage (which is partly why it would be so powerful... so much for calling it "intermission").

    I've always loved that concept.


    ---

    Sadly I can't see most of Pop having a place in this narrative, but you know which song fits pretty good in all this narrative? this narrative needs a moment when he realizes that he most talk like this and act like that, to dream outloud and don't let the bastards...
  10. Not opening a new thread, so I'll just add this comment in here.

    Even before the Roxy show -but now even more- people have been suggesting/wishing that they should play the traditional version of SBS...

    ... My point of view is that they're actually "not playing" Sunday bloody Sunday, they're just playing Raised By Wolves and the lead in they thought better enhanced that song -both thematically and musically- was this version of SBS.
    In other words, imho, they wouldn't care too much which version of SBS sounds better, just which version -or which song for that matter- would make RBW shine more.
  11. I would like to agree with you

    But sadly, the band already worked on an acoustic arrangement for SBS in 2009 and 2010 although it never came to fruition, so they just wanted to change the way it sounds, it doesn't have much to do with the narrative.

    PS. Fact is that it actually makes Raised By Wolves shine more!
  12. Originally posted by LikeASong:But sadly, the band already worked on an acoustic arrangement for SBS in 2009 and 2010 although it never came to fruition, so they just wanted to change the way it sounds, it doesn't have much to do with the narrative.

    PS. Fact is that it actually makes Raised By Wolves shine more!
    Oh I didn't said it was the first time they've tried to do this or something different with SBS (there's also popmart)... I'm just saying that they thought this was the best way to lead into Wolves, so I wouldn't be expecting them to just think "you know what, probably we should play it full electric instead, it sounds great!"

    I think that the emotions of this version, more focused on angst instead of the traditional anger are a more powerful way to get into the news/explosions/drama that leads into wolves.