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  1. Originally posted by ferrari:For me the E&I tour was the least and most boring tour I've seen from U2, since 1989 I have seen concerts of all the tours. E&I was just a copy of I&E, but with worse songs, construction and a lot pre-recorded music.
    Much agreed. Taking the same production on tour three years later and just swapping from yellow light bulbs to blue does not make a new tour. Throw in a lesser album and only working out the setlist for the final run of shows. Meh.
  2. for anyone that has the berlin dvd, are there subtitles? if there are, is italian an option?
  3. Well, it‘s complex. Following this band‘s records since 1984, attending their live shows since 1992 and sitting - with water in the eyes - next to my little daughter, when Bono/Clay reenters the stage and sings his songs to his audience, one fact is clear: U2 have written the soundtrack of my life and will always be my band.
    It‘s tough comparing E&I to, let’s say, ZOO TV.

    Just focussing on the B-man:
    Now an old man, handicapped by health issues, we think we know and some we may do not know, visibly having lost a lot of his stage Charisma he had when he was the frontman of the hottest rock band on earth: a slim young man jumping around, guitar playing - speaking out freely what he wanted to say in public. Pure passion for his art as this is a feature of youth.
    Now we have Clay - with a lot of uncertainty as a guiding light around him. Is he physically fit? How does he cope with all this mentally? When your voice cracks, your muse in songwriting vanishes or disappears - how do you connect with „your“ music? Can you?

    All this is for me is mirrored in the last live phase, we‘ve witnessed. As usual in the band‘s history not just concerts but concepts. Choreographed. Designed.

    Having behind them - unfortunately - the wish for experiments in the 90ies (with POP and POPmart seen by U2 as a failure as R&H and LOVETown in the 80ies - though both impressions in my opinion are completely wrong-guiding), there was a kind of „Comeback“ in the 2000s. Self marketed as „getting back our job as rock band #1“ us fans lost the young U2 forever, but got tours with dream setlists and old songs we thought we‘ve never ever get to listen live again. The strenghts of ATYCLB and HTDAAB - much more craftmanship than the genius of the 90ies albums - carried these performances. And, yes, it was great. Different than in the 90ies, but great.

    A return to grand madness were the nights of „The Claw“. With the machine being overall more in the centre than the members on stage. Spectacular. Show. An unforgettable fire of lights and effects. Rediscovered songs matching. But also the last time Bono really was in full rock star mode, though obviously already struck by serious health problems.

    After this celebration and worldwide success, there is a gap. A struggle of and for ideas and concepts. The Blakean idea of „innocence and experience“, U2 were already thinking about in their ZOO TV heydays, was revived. Colliding with the idea of playing TJT anniversary shows, that developed finally in two separate tours themselves. Time schedules, health issues obviously by several members, creative questionmarks on a double album that never came. Instead we got the stronger SOI (incorporating stuff originally designed for the never to be released „Songs of Ascent“) and the weaker SOE (though I esteem „The Little Things“ as one of the best tunes by U2 in decades).

    To come to my conclusion: All this determined the latest original tour concept, which was E&I. The tour started with a rigid concept. Great effects. But songs that were copied and pasted from the stronger I&E, just that they were performed worse and also abbreviated. Listen to „Iris“ in 2015 and 2018 and you know/hear/see what I mean. On the other side the absence of the SOE‘s best track - and the annoying pre-recorded vocal choirs by Edge and way too many music playbacks.

    This orchestral bombast could not help that this tour had the most boring B-stage ever in U2‘s history. Standing there in 2015 and listening to a brilliant „Party Girl“ in Cologne, a very strong „Two Hearts Beat As One“ or even a harp driven and snippeted rocking war horse like „Desire“ - in 2018 U2 created another mood. Sadness. Melancholy. The spirit of - farewell. That spirit that flashed up when the band got it together: performing „Acrobat“ as hell (like „Exit“ in 2017) - and with the old trick of Mr. Hewson covering himself in another stage persona than the usual Bono. „Every book has been read“ he shouted out. And then in a theatre monologue reassuring a mirror in front of him and his wife (often in the audience) that soon all this will be over, that he will be coming home soon. Irritating those who listened. Disturbing. Depressing.

    The DVD captures a momentum of this, pushed by the band to perform some songs changing the very last setlists of this tour. A cathartic and unique „Dirty Day“ with the speech and the lyrics combined blowing the 93 version out of the water. The segue of AB and ZOOROPA songs as strong as this band in their age can perform it. And an ending - Bono leaving the stage as if visibly in pain - and speeches full of farewell and question marks regarding the future in Dublin 4 and Berlin that left me out in a way never experience before after a U2 concert: I was deeply touched. But not on a High. Just Low. Sad and kind of frightened: When will I see you again? Will this happen? Is this the end, my friends?

    The long break continues and I hope that Clay and his Friends will find again the joy to play for us - and for themselves.
  4. Originally posted by SJKamal:At the time of this tour I was defending them repeating the innocence section. It made perfect sense seeing how it was the experience + innocence tour, and it was visiting markets that never received IE.

    My only real complaint, which isn't even that big, was the lack of visual effort put in for the experience songs. Apart from The Blackout and Lights of Home, all the other experience songs didn't really have any effort put into their visuals. I was expecting an "experience" section similar to the "innocence" section where the band would be in the screen and have some cinematic visuals for their new songs, like Cedarwood, Raised and SFS had.
    THIS. I am one of the few that doesn't care for the 90s songs in the Berlin DVD. Sure they're great but it's SO NOSTALGIC. It's their go to when they don't have anything else. I kept thinking all along 2018 how great it would be if they could just create new visuals with some of the lesser known SOI songs. Something along the lines of The Ocean / Iris / Volcano (inside the screen with red/aggressive visuals), Landlady (to replace SFS), This is Where You Can Read Me Now witih something akin to SBS on i+E but better, and maybe BAD to balance out no JT or SBS, then go into Who's Gonna Ride Your Wild Horses since it was played opening night.

    My girlfriend and I were rewatching E+I recently and it's pretty fantastic though. Visually it's great but my God, does Bono talk A LOT. Every time we were gaining momentum and getting into the music and vibing, Bono would start doing a speech/story. I get it, it's U2 and the last show of the tour but the concert would be about 15 minutes shorter if he cut the talking down. (Dirty Day, Even Better, Best Thing, Summer of Love are just feel too rambly to me. I'm fine with a little bit of talk but not 1.5-2 minutes every song. I really hope he doesn't continue this on the next tour.
  5. I experienced that "goodbye" with Love Is Bigger and 13 at each of the concerts on that tour
  6. Originally posted by Genaro92U2:[..]
    My girlfriend and I were rewatching E+I recently and it's pretty fantastic though. Visually it's great but my God, does Bono talk A LOT. Every time we were gaining momentum and getting into the music and vibing, Bono would start doing a speech/story. I get it, it's U2 and the last show of the tour but the concert would be about 15 minutes shorter if he cut the talking down. (Dirty Day, Even Better, Best Thing, Summer of Love are just feel too rambly to me. I'm fine with a little bit of talk but not 1.5-2 minutes every song. I really hope he doesn't continue this on the next tour.
    My fiancee also said that after we saw them 4 times in 2018. Two in Madrid with the "pre-Zoo" setlist and two times in Dublin with the Zoo suite. And she was so happy to hear Horses which is one of her favorite U2 songs, but at the end she told me "wow, if you combine all of tonight's Bono's speeches you get a TED talk"
  7. I’m convinced it’s all a ploy to allow their ageing bodies to recover. Especially Larry’s glass wrists.
  8. still can't understand the shitty macphisto filter thing, so bad, so cringy like why? to imitate macphisto perfectly they could have put the red horns in Bono's hat and that's enough because in that part of the show he was already wearing makeup
  9. Originally posted by thalloween:still can't understand the shitty macphisto filter thing, so bad, so cringy like why? to imitate macphisto perfectly they could have put the red horns in Bono's hat and that's enough because in that part of the show he was already wearing makeup
    I thought the whole macphisto character on Zoo TV was pretty cringe to start with but at the time appreciated what the band / Bono were trying to do with it in those shows. Bringing it back with the filter for this last tour was very weak imo. Totally agree on the cringe factor.
  10. I think it was mainly for Bono to get into character to perform Acrobat. I don’t think he’s comfortable singing songs like that as much, same why he put on a bit of a character for Exit. It’s like his way of singing more angry songs these days. Bono’s passionate words during gigs in the 80’s and earlier often you could sense that anger and frustration at things and he’s just a lot more measured with it nowadays realising that actions talk louder than words so rather than moan about something or get angry about it he just does something about it when he can. Acrobat and exit as examples don’t really fit in with Bono’s personality anymore.
  11. Originally posted by deanallison:I think it was mainly for Bono to get into character to perform Acrobat. I don’t think he’s comfortable singing songs like that as much, same why he put on a bit of a character for Exit. It’s like his way of singing more angry songs these days. Bono’s passionate words during gigs in the 80’s and earlier often you could sense that anger and frustration at things and he’s just a lot more measured with it nowadays realising that actions talk louder than words so rather than moan about something or get angry about it he just does something about it when he can. Acrobat and exit as examples don’t really fit in with Bono’s personality anymore.
    i totally agree with your point, but what i was trying to specificate was about the style, i loved the return of macphisto, i really loved it. but i didn't like the filter thing, i think that if Bono would've wear his black hat with just the red mcphisto horns it would have been so much better. then at the end of Acrobat he would remove the hat and get back to the love YTBTAM Bono. btw i loved this Acrobat/YTBTAM transition
  12. Originally posted by thalloween:[..]
    i totally agree with your point, but what i was trying to specificate was about the style, i loved the return of macphisto, i really loved it. but i didn't like the filter thing, i think that if Bono would've wear his black hat with just the red mcphisto horns it would have been so much better. then at the end of Acrobat he would remove the hat and get back to the love YTBTAM Bono. btw i loved this Acrobat/YTBTAM transition
    Yeah I get what you’re saying. They probably fancied getting the use out of technology and with it being on the b stage thought it would be good to stick up on screen but I agree they could have just kept it simple with the horns and they could still use the visual effects during the song like they did which was pretty cool, not the filter stuff the other effects we seen. Wasn’t the biggest deal to me though, all about the music really, the other bits I can usually take or leave although I do like some of the more sentimental speeches at times leading into songs, stuff that really comes from the heart like the bits about Bono’s dad were very touching during dirty day and pre best thing.