Bono
New York City, NY
April 28, 2023
Beacon Theater
Lineage:
1. Multiple IEM Receivers > Multitrack Recorder (24/44.1)
Taper: Sharebear/hoserama
2. Countryman B3 > Battery Box > Tascam DR-2D (24/44.1)
Taper: One8Ung
Mixed by sharebear/hoserama
Dithered using Izotope MBIT+
Flac'ed using Trader's Little Helper
Mix version 20230522
--
01. Intro
02. City of Blinding Lights
03. Vertigo
04. (On Tour With Me Book)
05. With Or Without You
06. (Show Intro)
07. (I Was Born With an Eccentric Heart)
08. (My Father, The Tenor)
09. (My Mother, Iris)
10. (The Ramones)
11. Out of Control
12. (Geomoetry and Geography of the Irish Mind)
13. (Drummer Seeks Musician)
14. (Larry Mullen Jr.)
15. (The Edge)
16. (Adam Clayton)
17. Stories for Boys
18. (U2's Rehearsal Room)
19. Iris
20. (Back in the Sorrento Lounge)
21. (Mt. Temple Comprehensive School)
22. (Paul McGuinness)
23. (Business of Pumped Up Personalities)
24. Sunday Bloody Sunday
25. (Two Tenors in Search of a Third)
26. Pride
27. (A Bigger Brain)
28. Where the Streets Have No Name
29. (After the Joshua Tree)
30. Desire
31. (Love Makes the World Go Around)
32. (Back in the Sorrento Lounge Again)
33. Beautiful Day
34. (Unscientific Theory)
35. Torna a Surriento
36. Outro
37. Ball & Chain*
* Recorded from 4/29/2023 soundcheck, but was pre-recorded by the crew. Playback from an earlier session.
--
Show Notes:
Bono decided to try his hand at a Broadway residency show. Not quite the number that Springsteen did, but 12 is a lot for our irish friend Bono. Plus the extra show they added in Italy.
I had seen the San Francisco show back in November 2022, and was interested in going again. Originally was planning on doing two shows (4/28 + 4/29) and taking my mother to go see NYC. Then had a bit of clarity that maybe I should expand the trip to actually see NYC, as opposed to a hit and run show. IEM taping isn't very conducive to tourism in general. So we expanded the trip for over a week, and ended up doing a total of five shows.
This Friday show on 4/28 was the show #4 out of 5 for me. The last three shows I saw were significantly better than 4/21 + 4/22, just in terms of energy and accuracy. Much less random moments of disorientation on stage (I think he learned to leave his mic stand in front of the center stage teleprompter so he could see it in the dark). Also much less moments where I felt he was reading off the teleprompter, and more natural storytelling. Things you notice when you see five shows in a row! More or less same show as 4/26, but Bono did add a section including impersonation of George W. Bush.
Included a random bonus track from the crew soundcheck recorded on 4/30/2023.
Recording Notes:
As I mentioned for the SF release, the PA for this show was on the low side, and the dynamics were very wide. Bono goes from a faint whisper to a loud yell of a rock star. Then since the PA volume is low, crowd noise can overpower the music easily. Thankfully the wireless recordings help greatly in that regard, putting a direct line from Bono's microphone(s) to your ears. That said, the wireless cames with a bunch of extra sauce. All four folks on stage to a high level of click track and verbal cues during the musical sections of the show. In particular, several songs have a "one" cue on every downbeat of the song. Very annoying for the outside listener (can't blame them though--not meant for outside listening). I've spent a lot of time scrubbing those counts and clicks. Sometimes you'll hear a little left over, or some artifacts when the cue overlapped with a spoken word. Can't be perfect, but much better than the original source in my opinion.
In the end, I think it's a very nice listen to the show. His spoken word sections and the musical numbers should be leveled so you're not riding the volume knob. There's just enough audience noise but shouldn't be overpowering. I always like a nice stereo mix, and there's a lot of cool stereo effects plus panning of the cello + harp.
--
As always, encouraging people to get into taping and mixing. Just take the craft seriously and it will reward you many times over. There's no point in complaining about missing recordings or subpar quality if you're not contributing--pushing 1's and 0's around on the internet is no comparison for taping.
--
IEM recordings are not for everyone. If not they're not your thing, either sonically or ethically, well at least you didn't spend any money on this.
Similarly, I'm mixing primarily for my ears. This is what sounds best to me. This may not sound best to you. That's a fair statement. I'm open to honest criticism (although you should have caught me when I was working on the mix!), but pointless complaining is unappreciated (naturally). Let's play nice.
--
Please don't sell this recording in any way - no cash for blanks, 2:1s, or any other form of "getting paid for your time". Just share it freely.
Please don't convert to mp3, then back to wave, and then trade it around. This stuff is too easy to find on torrents now.
Feel free to remaster/remix this recording. Just keep it to your own computer and iPod.
Also, please don't torrent or share on other sites without at least dropping me a line and asking. I may want to just torrent/share it there myself. This means you, guitar101!
Please ask (and wait for permission!) before putting it into any matrix + video production. If you ask nicely for a quality high-res video project, I will likely say “yes”. If you put it on YouTube or cell phone video production without asking, I will send my cats from hell to chew your computer cables.
--
Enjoy y'all!
- Hoserama/Sharebear
If all fans who downloaded a show in the last 12 months would donate € 0,21 a year,
we could pay all our hosting and storage bills without personal funding. Learn more