2006-11-07 - Brisbane, Australia - Queensland Sports And Athletics Centre
Sound: Not that good. It deserves a 3-star, but a 2.5 would fit too. But Bono is audible, but very muffy. The other instruments sound okay to me, but it sounds like it's recorded at another room.
Performance: I love the last leg of the Vertigo Tour, but this one wasn't that great, methinks. As Gerard pointed out earlier, it was their first gig in months, so we shouldn't be that harsh towards them. His voice was quite good, but it became better on the later shows. The rest was just on basic fire. Standouts for me were:
- Walk On, very different feel to it and some here didn't like it, but I was surprised with it.
- Bullet the Blue Sky: Love these performances with The Hands That Built America..just great.
- Zoo Station: Always good to hear.
- With Or Without You: Nice snippet, good feel to it. Just a good one.
- Kite: Not that good compared to other ones during Vertigo, but this version kicks ass nevertheless.
On a further note: skip Pride...
Audience: Good, enthusiastic. Some good singalongs.
2.5 stars.
Pretty awful. I didn't enjoy this listening experience at all. Particularly when there are other. much better 5th Leg boots out there
Audience:
4 stars
Very intrusive on this recording, spoils the listening to me. But, very enthusiastic and clearly loving the show. And that's what this rating is for.
Performance:
3.5 stars
They would go on to do better in this leg; however 5th Leg is a standout of this tour and it does come together well. WOWY is listenable, which for a Vertigo boot is saying quite a lot. Kite must have given goosebumps to the audience, although it did go on to be bettered. Walk On is a nice inclusion. Otherwise, standard Vertigo fare, although performed solidly.
Overall
3.5 stars
By all means give this a try, the performance is worth it. But the sound severely drags it down (I very nearly gave 3 stars just because of this) and makes it an uncomfortable listen. Much better 5th leg material is available and if you're limited to space or download options they would serve you better (Sydney, Saitama etc).
2006-11-07 - Brisbane, Australia - Queensland Sports And Athletics Centre
Sound
Well, for the most part, until the latter stages of the show, the quality of the recording is questionable, at best (NB - I haven't checked out the update yet, but I'm trusting Gerard when he says its slightly improved, which would make this worthy of the 3-star status it has). I think in its current form, the 3-star is too nice if you consider the majority of the show is pretty dodgy - everything is fairly clear in itself, but not great. Bono's voice carries through the best of the 4 band members, and Adam's bass is pretty clear and really drives the music along. Edge's guitar has good songs, and some bad songs in as far as how clear and standout he is, but Larry seems to suffer the most because for the most part, there's not enough power coming from him and so the music itself loses something.
All in all, it's very much like listening to a radio through a thick wall with polystyrene in your ears, i.e. not great. However, like I say, it picks up during the latter stages of the main set, which benefits the show. However, the main gripe is the audience surrounding the recorder - ok, they are very much part of the show and add to the atmosphere, but it does sound a bit like being at a small venue and there being a limited number of people in the vicinity, not to mention a couple of them talk about some real crap! One standout point definitely has to be the conversation during Bullet The Blue Sky (I think), where a woman starts rattling on about "tall people always getting to the front" - this may be true, but keep it to yourself and just enjoy the bloody show!
Performance
The show itself is very good in my opinion - typical 5th leg fare, if not one of the better shows on the aforementioned leg - which makes up for the below-average audio quality. As I mentioned, the crowd seem to really get into the show (aside from the stupid conversations!) and the band themselves seem to really enjoy themselves. The varied setlist is also a treat, a couple of examples being Yahweh being brought forward into the main set to break things up and Walk On - a Vertigo rarity, and thus adding to the show with its very presence - receiving a full-electric makeover, and aside from the imperfect execution, really standing out. In this respect, I compiled a few highlights;
- Bono's singing: on occasions, he was really belting it out, which, considering the 8-month layoff, was pretty impressive, a couple of highlights being COBL (especially when he sings "time won't leave me as I am"); Beautiful Day (the extended "touch me" after the middle 8 blew me away) and SYCMIOYO.
- As previously mentioned, the varied Vertigo setlist (no doubt to include an Elevation feel because of missing out the Oceanic regions on the last tour) including UTEOTW, Walk On, the belated return of Angel of Harlem (after a long absence throughout most of the tour) and Kite getting a revival.
- SBS; really arse-kicking performance.
- WTSHNN/One: damn me, if both songs didn't get the whole place going. Streets was full of energy, and One was a great performance. Good stuff.
- The whole encore - the ZooTV theme to the first half was great. Zoo Station was an exemplary example of why I prefer Vertigo to ZooTV renditions, what with Edge's guitar being so much more prominent and Larry's drums blowing the world apart; The Fly and WOWY were both good, especially on the latter when the crowd really started getting into it. The 2nd half was great too; although I'm not a fan of TSAC, one can't deny that it was a good performance and the crowd loved it; Angel of Harlem and Kite were, as ever on the tour, great.
There weren't really any genuine downsides to the show performance-wise for me, apart from perhaps Elevation and BTBS; the former because I'm not a big fan (although the fact they didn't draw it out and wait after the first verse for everyone to kick in was a blessing for me!) and the latter because it just seemed to take so bloody long to get going - it only took off once Edge was a fair way into his solo...
Conclusion
Overall, I liked the show - granted, I wouldn't call it one of the standout shows from the 5th leg but it's still great. It gets my recommendation as long as you take note of the many warnings regarding the quality of the audio! I wouldn't give it "must-have" status, but I definitely think it rates higher than merely being considered as "die-hard collector material".
Harry's counting down the hours until he chooses his boot...
Who's Gonna Ride Your Wild Horses....
Who's Gonna Drown In Your Blue Sea....
Can't wait for the next one!
HA!
So true lol. I still can't decide! I have a couple of ideas, but none are particularly concrete. I'm wondering whether to stick to form and choose one you guys would think "I wonder WHY he likes the look of that show..." or whether to shock you by going for the unexpected.
2006-11-07 - Brisbane, Australia - Queensland Sports And Athletics Centre
Sound: Horrible. If you were to record it from underneath the Brisbane river, this is what it would sound like. In more common terms, it was cold, distant, and not suitable for my sensitive ears lol....
Performance: Well, this was the first show in months, so you have to keep that in mind before criticizing the bands performance here. I think you also have to consider that the sound quality (or lack thereof) can effect your views on a performance, and this is one of those shows. Would I think Larry's drumming during "Elevation" sounded horrible on a 5 star soundboard? Probably not. So I feel I can't really judge if the band was having an off night or not, because I was so distracted by the piss poor sound quality.
- Walk On was very different than most arrangements, but not in a good way.
- Until The End Of The World was placed in a very nice spot in the setlist, as I love the trio of Elevation - UTTEOTW - NYD.
- Kite was decent, although it lacked the energy that it usually has.
Audience: Really energetic, and enthused. Just like any other Australian U2 show Sound: 2.5/10 Performance: ?
bootleg of the month Every month we have a bootleg in the spotlights, the current one took place on 1989-12-27 in Dublin, Ireland. You can download this bootleg, read reviews or write your own review here. You can also join the discussion on this bootleg in our forums.
fan of the month Every month we put an U2 fan in the spotlights, the fan of this month is user drewhiggins. Every fan of the month has an interview with us, you can read our interview with drewhiggins here.
statistics There are currently 4,749 topics started on the forums with over 208,726 messages.
More than 13,354 fans are a member of U2start. The average age of the U2start users is 29, only users who submitted their age are included in this figure.
popular songs Where The Streets Have No Name is the most-requested song from the song pages and quite popular. According to the favorite song lists of our users, Bad is the all-time favorite song.
new fan around us The most recent fan who registered is named gdb66, welcome to U2start gdb66! As a new user you can introduce yourself in the Welcome to U2start y'all forum.
latest site news Jeremy, known as haytrain here, is the latest addition to the U2start crew. Jeremy will be a crew member specialised in bootlegs, he will mainly work on maintaining our bootleg collection, making it even better, more r.. (read more)
did you know? The song 'Numb' is about how The Edge felt when he split up with his wife. The felt like he couldn't do anything, he was useless. He felt numb.
news headlines We cover the news of many international U2 websites including U2.com, the most popular headline in the last two weeks was 'U2 Album Still Not Finished' from atu2.com.
popular concerts According to our user reviews, 1987-07-08 - Brussels, Belgium is the best bootleg we have in our collection. Our users also think that 1993-08-28 - Dublin, Ireland was a great concert since it appears the most in the list of favorite concerts.
high resolution photos We have 696 high resolution U2 photos available for you, the biggest photo collection you will find. The latest photo we've added is 'October'.
"A word I've always liked more than happiness is joy. Happiness is a mood that comes and goes, whereas joy is just there."
- Bono
