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  1. I'm Jordan. Just became a member of the site (why i was missing out for so long beats me)...Anyway, I played on stage with U2 May 18 in NJ on the 1st leg of the Vertigo Tour. I played Still Havent Found with the 4 boys and my 2 buddies. I played Edge's main custon Les Paul and sang the third verse with B. Was the best experience of my life...theres a couple of videos and photos up around the internerd. Heres my story...http://u2tours.com/displayfan.src?ID=20050518&XID=5788&Return=

    Heres a video clip: http://media.nomilkrecords.com/video/tbr/u2_320x240.html

    Just a few other things....

    Please (live from any Popmart show) is their best song of all time

    Popmart is their best tour!!!! (Your crazy if you don't think so)

    I was extremely dissappointed with the Vertigo Tour. The setlist and just overall performace...No magic

    except for when I got off stage and Bad came on

    We should petition a tour where they actually take the fans advice!!!! Most of us agreed on a lot of the same songs
  2. Did you play the LP that Edge just recently sold for charity? I never thought of it that way, but if that was the one, that only makes NJ 05-18 all the more awesome!

    And I understand your disappointment with Vertigo Tour. I'd just like to add this thought: have you considered that this is the first tour where the vast majority of the fans have had unfiltered, high-speed internet access 24/7? Maybe we had Napster / Gnutella P2P during the Elevation Tour but we were nowhere near as spoiled.

    I believe that U2 was no less spontaneous on Vertigo than on any other tour. Sure they use relatively consistent setlists in the short term, like usual, but I see magic in each show. Look at typical Leg 1, for instance:
    -The COBL opener
    -Stories for Boys snippet at the end of Vertigo
    -The old-school couple of songs: An Cat Dubh / Into The Heart, Electric Co, Gloria, The Ocean were not played once in the 1990s (except for the Gloria last 2 weeks of Lovetown).
    -Bono drumming into Sunday Bloody Sunday
    -CoeXisT, Jesus, Jew, Mohammed, it's true
    -Bullet / Hands That Built America / When Johnny Comes Marching Home
    -Running To Stand Still / Hallelujah (the traditional piano version for the first time since Lovetown)
    -Where The Streets Have No Name: I like the red backdrop and "heavenly moment" better, BUT... because they saved the blinding lights for the end, the crowd had so much pent-up energy that they would cheer at deafening volume, routinely for a good 60-90 seconds after, not allowing the band to continue. Download & listen to 2005-11-22 MSG, leg 3, for evidence of this.
    -The ZooTV trilogy tribute for encore 1.
    -40, also for the first time since Lovetown.
    -More fans being brought onstage, even full bands, during encore 2, than any other tour (as you know even better than me)

    So, when I look at it that way, I see a tremendous show that holds up with the rest of U2's landmark touring history.

    However, we are so spoiled by our internet access that we get to see pictures of each show, YouTube clips, complete setlists, heck even U2tours.com uploaded the complete Anaheim 2 show (although crappy quality). Remember U2radio.net? A different Vertigo boot streaming every week!

    I believe that because we U2-obsessors were allowed to STALK U2 at such a high level, we all went a little overboard, which resulted in us feeling a little sick and tired of the Vertigo Tour long before it ended.

    If you think about it, it's hard to keep track of a Major League baseball team, from April to October, the whole season through without getting bored at some point. And the average U2 tour is way longer than a baseball season plus the playoffs.

    I will say though, that on 2005-05-18 when the backing track for Bad came on I think I screamed myself hoarse within 5 seconds (whatever was left of my voice by then). I was shocked and did not expect it in the least.

    Anyway, I think the petition tour would be a fantastic idea. (And U2start would be an awesome forum for them to take advantage of. Who knows? Maybe they WILL check this and use some of our crazy ideas, but keep it a secret)
  3. I understand where you are coming from, BUT you cannot say it was just as spontaneous as the previous tours. It all seemed fake and rehearsed. I saw 8 shows and every one of the shows was exactly the same...I mean from what Bono said prior to Miracle Drug to Streets. What Bono would talk about in between songs just seemed rehearsed. What I guess I'm trying to say...the Bono we all know and love is pure spirit. The guy goes off and take the whole band and audience with him. Even when he talks...this tour was just too rehearsed therefore always one step behind. God was never in the house as Bono always says. Even streets was the worst I've heard it. They didn't try anything new and better yet didn't do the snippets that we all know and love. Coming lord and the end of One. Hallelujah at the end of Running was NOTHING like it was on Zoo TV. Miss Sarejevo's "note" was strong every night but it wasn't enough to win me over. The song was dull and out of place. I like what they were doing thematically however. Every few songs were from a different era spanning throughout their career. The boy songs were cool, but where's POP. Where are the good songs from Unforgettable Fire and War. Exit is soooo dark and haunting and one of their best live songs..where was that? One Tree Hill is my least favorite song off Joshua Tree. It just seems like they really played the worst songs off each album besides their hits. It seemed like Vertigo was a tour to please the press and trendy fans. The fans who hear Beauitful Day and spend out the ass to see them live. If I were one of those fans, I would love it. They still bring more than any other band can or ever will!! But for us diehards like you were saying....I thought it was very very subpar. Elevation had magic every night and that was simple in the same sense as Vertigo. I was at the MSG show...I was at every MSG show on the tour...and the 5 nights in a row were all the same!?!?!?! How, being in New York, do you play the same show 5 times. It doesn't make sense to me. They threw in Party Girl and Crumbs one of the nights but again...not good enough songs. Party girl is great and Bono opened Champagne like he always does..and they seemed to be having fun...but I didn't really enjoy the tour as a whole. As far as us being spoiled...yeh sure we were, but that has nothing to do with the tour. I think that gives them all the more reason why they should change it up everynight. They have a catalogue of almost 1000 songs. Dont play only 25 of them. Im afraid they are heading in the path of the Rolling Stones. A band that would play a different set every night but as the demand grew their trendy fans paid more money to see them as diehards and now the past few tours have been identical. This is a band that has way more songs than U2 and has been known to jam every song out for 10 minutes longer than the original. This is a band who knows blues and such and now every song and every tour are identical. That would be awful!!! By the way, I believe it was the same guitar that Edge just auctioned off!!!!
  4. Originally posted by Jcbasket
    Elevation had magic every night and that was simple in the same sense as Vertigo. I was at the MSG show...I was at every MSG show on the tour...and the 5 nights in a row were all the same!?!?!?! How, being in New York, do you play the same show 5 times.


    My point is just that: you saw U2 5 nights in a row. I think if you saw U2 on any tour, 5 nights in a row, I'm 99% confident you'd feel like it was the same show. Unless you were at all the Elevation MSG shows as well? I believe this is true for 5 consecutive nights of PopMart, ZooTV, Elevation, JT, you name it.

    (Plus, ask one of our European or South American friends here at U2start: many of them are lucky if they get U2 TWICE per tour in their entire country. We spoiled New Yorkers shouldn't complain in that department)

    Anyway, try Elevation Tour: download 5 consecutive shows from U2start, and try to sit through them, one every night or every other night. I haven't done this yet but I'll give it a shot.

    I also felt more surprised on 2001-06-17 MSG, but the only reason is that I went into the show absolutely blind. I didn't know the band would come out with the lights on, I didn't know the lights would go out mid-Elevation, Bono was gonna yell "goal is soul!" (which he did every single night), etc. I wasn't procrastinating schoolwork by studying U2tours.com and YouTube.com every day the way I was for Vertigo.

    My uncle went into 2005-05-18 NJ absolutely blind, and I did not. He's just as diehard as any of us here, since Boy came out, but he didn't study the Vertigo Tour online, and he was absolutely floored by Stories for Boys, Bono drumming, the SBS encore abruptly replaced by Bullet, etc. I, on the other hand, was only surprised by Still Haven't Found and Bad.

    Originally posted by Jcbasket
    I like what they were doing thematically however.


    This makes sense. If the element of surprise is taken out, only the grand themes & ideas remain. I agree the songs were grouped & ordered thematically better than ever.

    Originally posted by Jcbasket
    Even streets was the worst I've heard it.


    Vertigo Streets for me is a close 2nd behind PopMart. The band is tight as it's ever been: Larry's drum beat is nothing short of tribal, Adam's bass hooks during the chorus are phenomenal, and Edge's guitar tone is hotter than on any other tour. JT is a close 3rd. I'm sorry, although Elevation Streets's intro blinding-lights buildup was the #1 greatest moment of my life, the rest of the song is just way too slow and boring. It trudges along, and I can't listen to it all the way through on boot. Admittedly, I'm one of the few infidels who's not totally mesmerized by RTSS-Streets.

    Originally posted by Jcbasket
    It just seems like they really played the worst songs off each album besides their hits. It seemed like Vertigo was a tour to please the press and trendy fans. The fans who hear Beauitful Day and spend out the ass to see them live. If I were one of those fans, I would love it. They still bring more than any other band can or ever will!! But for us diehards like you were saying....I thought it was very very subpar.


    My opinion on the "diehards vs. trendy fans" dilemma is at the bottom of Page 1 of this thread:
    http://www.u2start.com/topic/1361/

    Basically, my point is that It's also a trade-off between "Night 1 - Night 2 variability" (DMB, PJ, Springsteen) VS. "Long-term career time-capsulation" (which U2 has going for it but most other bands do not.)

    Originally posted by Jcbasket
    A band that would play a different set every night but as the demand grew their trendy fans paid more money to see them as diehards and now the past few tours have been identical.


    But aside from Lovetown and the pre-War days, U2 has never been that band who plays a different set every night. They're not Springsteen or Pearl Jam. They prefer to build each tour (or more accurately, each leg of the tour) into an all-encompassing show.
    -Elevation, as an example, was also the same exact show night after night. Look at Leg 1: Boston 06-05 = Boston 06-06 = Beautiful Night In Cleveland / Ring Those Bells 05-03 = MSG New York Love Affair 06-17. Check out the setlists.
    -However, Boston DVD (leg 1) is fundamentally different from Slane DVD (leg 2) or NYC (leg 3).
    -Likewise, Vertigo Chicago and Milan are different as night and day.
    ***Also keep in mind, Elevation coincided with Bob's passing AND 9/11. Vertigo had no such external events to raise U2's game from merely "World's Greatest Band" up a notch into "God Himself Is In The Building."

    Originally posted by Jcbasket
    I think that [constant Internet access] gives them all the more reason why they should change it up every night.


    I agree with you 100% here. AND I honestly believe U2 are savvy enough that they'll recognize the general diehard discontent and this will indeed pressure them to vary it up a little more on future tours.
  5. you make a great arguement! I understand your side...hopefully you understand mine..if not..I still stand strong. Them as people are and have always been the greatest most humble guys I've ever met/seen/heard. For a band to last 26 years in all of today's political bull it takes some strong sensibility...and I don't think Larry is the only one who keeps them in check. However Larry is just a badass! But...they still take time to take to each and every fan. They still walk in public..Bono still loves getting recognized and hearing people's thoughts. I really felt like I knew them growing up. Just from watching them on tv or listening to them talk. And they really do act like that. Its just surreal and their friendships definatly transcend into their music one making it so special and two making it different.

    I also feel Vertigo's statemen't was weak. I understand "peace on earth" and "coexist" jesus jew mohamned its true but it wasn't strong enough to captivate me. Keep your activism seperate. One too many times has Bono crossed the gap and even Adam Edge and Larry were getting frustrated by the end of the tour.

    Another stupid issue..Bonos hair. Horrible during Vertigo until he shaved it off for the last 10 shows like popmart. At one point he looked like Predator..I just couldn't take him seriously

    I don't know how much longer they will be able to tour though because of vocals. Bono just keeps losing his voice more and more each year. They aren't going to be able to tour when their 60 nor would they want too. So in a way...time is running out, especially when they tour once every 4 years. They just got back from Morocco though with Eno and Lanois so hopefully we shall be hearing some stuff about a possible record. I think Rick Rubin is a fucking moron. Ruined both those songs Windows and Saints. Windows was just such a filler song. Nothing great about it. Bono's voice was actually quite annoying I thought. Good thing they are going back to the guys who actually know them best. Mercy is said to be on the record. That will be interesting considering Bono said one of the best U2 songs ever created. I loved it the first time I heard it..its been soo long though that I forgot what it sounds like.

  6. Originally posted by JcbasketI understand your side...hopefully you understand mine.


    I absolutely do. You make great arguments as well. I think we represent opposite sides of the same U2 fan coin: You bring up a lot of the concerns that an intelligent, rational fan would... I resemble more of an apologist!
  7. Originally posted by Jcbasket
    Another stupid issue..Bonos hair. Horrible during Vertigo until he shaved it off for the last 10 shows like popmart. At one point he looked like Predator..I just couldn't take him seriously


    Predator, haha! I rejoiced quite intensely when I saw Bono's "PopMart reprise" haircut. Vertigo-long looked really bad.

    Originally posted by Jcbasket
    I don't know how much longer they will be able to tour though because of vocals. Bono just keeps losing his voice more and more each year. They aren't going to be able to tour when their 60 nor would they want too. So in a way...time is running out, especially when they tour once every 4 years. They just got back from Morocco though with Eno and Lanois so hopefully we shall be hearing some stuff about a possible record. I think Rick Rubin is a fucking moron. Ruined both those songs Windows and Saints. Windows was just such a filler song. Nothing great about it. Bono's voice was actually quite annoying I thought. Good thing they are going back to the guys who actually know them best. Mercy is said to be on the record. That will be interesting considering Bono said one of the best U2 songs ever created. I loved it the first time I heard it..its been soo long though that I forgot what it sounds like.


    I enjoyed Windows, personally. But I'm glad U2 are going back to Eno / Lanois. In terms of "process," sticking to a formula / not fixing what ain't broken will usually lead to artistic stagnation. Not when it comes to working with people, though. For instance, U2 = same four guys + Paul McGuinness over 30 years.

    Rick Rubin : RHCP :: U2 : Eno / Lanois. Each band should stick to the production team that knows how its bring out their a-game.

    PS: If you wanna stream Mercy, go to www.RadioBlogClub.com and search for it. I usually find it there.
  8. haha. I just read your post about U2 dvd's. I'm the same way. Especially pop muzik into mofo into I will Follow...thats just a "bad" combination. Trying to immitate bono as a boxer. Perfect work out set. So how many dvd's/bootlegs do you have? I've got about 15 videos and about 20 audio bootlegs. Videos....Germany in 83. War tour, Syracuse Joshua Tree, Zoo TV Philadelphia, Sydney, Boston Popmart mexico city, Giants Stadium, Elevation MSG pre 9/11 (the show post 9/11 is supposed to be one of their best..not just because narrator on Boston said so)..my aunt was there said she can't even begin to describe what was in the arena that night. Ive seen clips..Out of Control and a few others and it looks amazing when all the firefighters come on stage. boston and slane of course and a few others from other tours. Audio..I have a bunch, about 3 from each tour and 6 from Popmart. Can't get enough of that era. Don't know what it is..I think it was the overall tone of the shows. That very distant ambients that was constantly flowing throughout the set. It just really seems like they were in a stadium yet in your living room at the same time if that can make sense. Bono's voice was the best Ive ever heard it. Not strongest but best. He had the raspy and rugid aspect to it but it was so sentimental and smooth at the same time. Just really gives me chills. From 95-2001 Id have to say...my favorite u2 years. From Pavorotti and friends version of ONE (best version of that song there is) too Miss Sarajevo too Ground Beneath Her Feet and Electrical Storm. I'm also really into a band called Thrice. Not anything like U2 but nonetheless amazing in their own right. Anyway, Dustin (singer) came through NJ on an acoustic tour and covered ONE...and I sang the pavorotti and friends harmonies with him toward the end. You can check it out here.....


    How long have you been in New York for