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  1. I never fail to appreciate how good U2 were as a live band in 1983. The Red Rocks/UABRS album shows it. Of course, they were playing decent sized venues then. In assessing/acknowledging their past, would they ever be brave enough to try something that could truly revitalise them and put them back on a more immediate and creative path?

    Namely, a tour consisting of only small club dates where they play with just their instruments and no big tech.

    Edge challenges himself to use only a couple of amps, a few delays and distortions and just his Black Strat and one of his Gibson Explorers...and the electric piano.

    That tour would consist of NO SINGLES (A sides). Only album / B sides /deep cuts.

    No big light show or production. Just the band with the bare bones of tech. Tickets could be sold for an affordable price on a raffle basis with most, if not all, of the money going to causes nominated by the band.

    The band's touring carbon footprint would be reduced to perhaps a single truck and the band and crew's own transport. They could afford to present a wildly different setlist every night with no expectations on singles or the tracks casual fans apparently ask for.

    It could be an incredibly exciting opportunity. And I'm not talking SOS-style unplugged. I mean PLUG IN AND PLAY! Haha.

    It's basically the Anti-Vegas Tour....

    A Sort Of Homecoming
    Wire
    An Cat Dub
    Until The End Of The World
    Surrender
    Twilight
    I Fall Down
    Love Comes Tumbling
    Like A Song
    Kite
    Another Time, Another Place
    Unknown Caller
    Red Hill Mining Town
    Heartland
    Wild Honey
    Seconds
    Zooropa
    Exit

    Encore :
    Ultra Violet
    Tomorrow
    The Electric Co.

    2nd Encore :
    Van Diemen’s Land
    Party Girl
    Mothers of the Disappeared
  3. --

  4. Nope.

    They're waaaaaaay too settled in their ways and habits. They have been sharpening and refining what they do for over 45 years, it's way too late to change it now. And what they do is:
    -rely on their creative team to come up with a staggering show concept,
    -rely on their techs to set up the stage and instruments,
    -rely on their overwhelming roster of worldwide hit songs,
    -and carefully spice it up with a few songs from their latest album and/lr one or two rarities.

    I think they can't do without any of these four pillars. And they probably don't want to. If it works, and it's been working for 40 years, why change it?
  5. As opposed to how big rock tours are usually done ?
  6. Any setlists complaints post Elevation tour are lulz.
  7. Originally posted by lanieldanois:I never fail to appreciate how good U2 were as a live band in 1983. The Red Rocks/UABRS album shows it. Of course, they were playing decent sized venues then. In assessing/acknowledging their past, would they ever be brave enough to try something that could truly revitalise them and put them back on a more immediate and creative path?

    Namely, a tour consisting of only small club dates where they play with just their instruments and no big tech.

    Edge challenges himself to use only a couple of amps, a few delays and distortions and just his Black Strat and one of his Gibson Explorers...and the electric piano.

    That tour would consist of NO SINGLES (A sides). Only album / B sides /deep cuts.

    No big light show or production. Just the band with the bare bones of tech. Tickets could be sold for an affordable price on a raffle basis with most, if not all, of the money going to causes nominated by the band.

    The band's touring carbon footprint would be reduced to perhaps a single truck and the band and crew's own transport. They could afford to present a wildly different setlist every night with no expectations on singles or the tracks casual fans apparently ask for.

    It could be an incredibly exciting opportunity. And I'm not talking SOS-style unplugged. I mean PLUG IN AND PLAY! Haha.

    It's basically the Anti-Vegas Tour....

    A Sort Of Homecoming
    Wire
    An Cat Dub
    Until The End Of The World
    Surrender
    Twilight
    I Fall Down
    Love Comes Tumbling
    Like A Song
    Kite
    Another Time, Another Place
    Unknown Caller
    Red Hill Mining Town
    Heartland
    Wild Honey
    Seconds
    Zooropa
    Exit

    Encore :
    Ultra Violet
    Tomorrow
    The Electric Co.

    2nd Encore :
    Van Diemen’s Land
    Party Girl
    Mothers of the Disappeared
    They would need a few years to relearn most of the songs on that setlist, and having wildly different setlists every night just isn't U2. Their "four men playing in a room and back to basics" tour was Elevation. And with Bono's new singing direction these days, I don't think I'd want to hear some of those 80s gems tuned down a whole note 🤣