1. Hey friends,

    I've been collecting LED Zeppelin live shows for almost 30 years. Vinyl, Cassette, CD, now digital. I'm trying to get into U2 LIVE SHOW collecting now. I had several shows from over the years and my collection was stolen last year. (They stole my entire music collection, my guitars, even my Darth Vader toaster oven, no joke!)

    My heart broke when my music was stolen, especially losing the lifetime of Zeppelin bootlegs I had on Vinyl.

    So, I wanted to start collecting again with U2 this year, rebuilding my live concert collection. But collecting live shows as you all know is 50 percent sound quality and 50 percent personal opinion about the performance! (Can I get an amen? Haha!)

    The question I have for you all, OTHER than the official DVD or live album releases, what are the Top 20 best sound quality U2 bootleg shows I should get?

    I'm really honestly interested in the best sound quality possible and want to leave the audience recordings out this time....

    Can you all recommend a "Top 20 best sounding bootlegs?"

    Thank you. I know how annoying these questions are about Led Zeppelin bootlegs, so thank you for taking pity on me! Sincerely.

    Sincerely,

    ----Chuck in Arkansas USA
  2. Originally posted by ArkU2FanChuck:[...]
    I'm really honestly interested in the best sound quality possible and want to leave the audience recordings out this time....

    Can you all recommend a "Top 20 best sounding bootlegs?"
    [...]
    Hi Chuck,

    It's a very good question: "what are the 20 best U2 bootlegs?"
    In fact I've been trying to figure that out myself for the last 15 years, and I'm still not sure...because I haven't heard them all

    But it's a great journey so far and I can give you one bootleg that for sure is in my Top 20 and is also not an audience recording
    (since you want to leave that out...pity, because that way, I think, you will be missing out some of the best...).

    Anyway, the one I want to recommend is this:

    1981-02-12 The Hague - Paard Van Troje "re-broadcast"
    - this one is available in FLAC as well

    OK...I'll give you one more: East-Rutherford 516
    This is a professionally recorded "true" bootleg because it was sort of officially released at Wolfgang's Vault. Therefore we can not
    share it here. I've given you the discogs link, but you don't have to search very hard to find a torrent of it...

    Hope you will enjoy my two suggestions

    NB: It's much easier (and less time consuming) to give just two suggestions than twenty at once.
    Perhaps other members can give two suggestions as well...
  3. Excellent links and advice. Thank you. I spent most of yesterday downloading about 100 bootlegs. My biggest issue is that some of the files I downloaded are corrupted. On some really highly recommended shows. I'm hoping if I try again later they will work.

    I can't believe collecting is this easy. Point and click. I'm blown away.
  4. Cool !!! Normally they put the highest quality recordings on top of the page the Soundboard , IEM , ALDS, and broadcast recordings usually sound far superior to audience recordings!
  5. Originally posted by ArkU2FanChuck:Excellent links and advice. Thank you. I spent most of yesterday downloading about 100 bootlegs. My biggest issue is that some of the files I downloaded are corrupted. On some really highly recommended shows. I'm hoping if I try again later they will work.

    I can't believe collecting is this easy. Point and click. I'm blown away.
    you can report broken links here: http://www.u2start.com/topic/2153/1836/12/
    someone will check that and probably will do something with that...

    Btw. best sounding bootlegs are broadcasts (at least until 2005. Some 2009 broadcasts are not that good), so filter broadcast bootlegs wit 5* quality and there you go (some mentioned above, but all Dublin 1989 shows, 1993 Dublin, 1997 Sarajevo, Leeds and Some South American shows will be definitely among them)
  6. 1987-04-29 - Rosemont, Illinois - Rosemont Horizon

    Use the "Rock's Hottest Ticket" version.
  7. 1992 Stockholm
    1992 Washington
    1993 Dublin
    1997 Leeds
    1997 Santiago
    2001 Notre Dame
    2001 MSG
    2006 Buenos Aires
    2009 Sheffield
    2011 Montreal 2

    are ten post-eighties shows that come to mind. I've listened to these ones a lot over the years.
  8. Originally posted by RUMMY:1992 Stockholm
    1992 Washington
    1993 Dublin
    1997 Leeds
    1997 Santiago
    2001 Notre Dame
    2001 MSG
    2005 Buenos Aires
    2009 Sheffield
    2011 Montreal 2

    are ten post-eighties shows that come to mind. I've listened to these ones a lot over the years.
    Those 2001 shows are something else, very emotional and just fantastic performances.