GEN
Active topics
  1. This is another one of those moments, love him as a bass player but can't quite understand that he doesn't hear this. Fist Edge tells him and then the tribute band bassist is aking to hand him a bass in the right tuning. From the onwards he's fine btw

  2. Both absolute howlers, I want to look away but can't stop myself from watching
  3. Yeah, dreamforce and this atu2 party are really bizarre in that he doesn't even seem to notice it. I would understand it if this happened during a 2 hour show where he might be in auto pilot so to speak - and that has nothing to do with his songwriting and his performance; his live delivery is pretty great and he is actually a great entertainer, always smiling and interacting both with the crowd and a lot with Bono. Since I mentioned the songwriting, I wonder how much of the basslines he is writing completely by himself, how much is Edge's work (like The Blackout) or whether it is usually a combination.
  4. There are very few bass players who could salvage a song once given a bass with the incorrect or alternate tuning. It is possible.

    I could see how both gigs had extenuating circumstances. Dreamforce being a 'one-off' and the @U2 party being with different fellow musicians (whom he probably had never met). But yeah, wow.
  5. When you're used to having an instrument handed to you in the proper key, I could see how these instances could happen.. seems to be more of a tech issue than an Adam one. The IEM feeds of his sound like he's up front in the mix, but maybe given a concert environment, etc, maybe hard to make out? Either way it doesn't happen often, and although he may not be the most virtuosic or technical player, he is solid, as is Larry.. they're the perfect married couple
  6. Maybe he’s tone deaf.

    Which would honestly be insane given his career haha.
  7. Originally posted by bonoschild:When you're used to having an instrument handed to you in the proper key, I could see how these instances could happen.. seems to be more of a tech issue than an Adam one. The IEM feeds of his sound like he's up front in the mix, but maybe given a concert environment, etc, maybe hard to make out? Either way it doesn't happen often, and although he may not be the most virtuosic or technical player, he is solid, as is Larry.. they're the perfect married couple
    It could be that he wasn't hearing himself, was handed the wrong guitar and just went by the frets. Still strange that others around him did notice
  8. Honestly it’s like he’s (tone) deaf in those videos lol. I don’t mean that to be funny, I mean it’s literally like he can’t hear (physically or as in, “realize”) that he’s completely out of key.

    I’d wager 99% of professional musicians would instantly realize that.

    I suppose it’s possible that his attitude is just “I'm doing MY job, someone else fucked up here”.
  9. Yes to everything, yet I have to quote a musician I interviewed some years ago:

    "The bass is that instrument that no-one hears much of the time, no-one cares about most of the time, but when a bass player fucks up, everybody else think it's their own fault and all is prone to go south".

    Adam is not really skilled musically -none of them are- but after watching the OOC video above I tend to agree with Alex: he might very well be tone deaf or have developed some kind of amusia with age - because you just CAN'T unhear when a bass is out of tune like that. It's just impossible, not only for a musician: also the audience notices. They might not know what exactly is wrong but they know something's going on. But Adam just goes on without noticing anything. It's hard to swallow.

    Don't want to boast or show off, but I was playing a concert with my band a couple of weeks back; the bass was out of tune for the last song because the bassist had hit his amp by accident while finishing the previous song, and I went and tuned it right on the spot while he was playing. And I don't have perfect pitch or anything - I just have a trained ear. You can see it here, bass comes in at 00:30, we both realize but we can't stop the song (this was a band talent contest), so I go and tune it around 01:30. (For reference, a good performance of the song with all instruments properly tuned can be heard here).

    I'd like to think if I can do it, a professional bassist can do it. And if he can't, I'd like to think he suffers some kind of physical problem rather than just absolute ineptitude, or worse, carelessness.
  10. What an awesome video. Love your band and your interplay
  11. One thing about Adam’s playing that has always impressed me in his stage presence; he’s a master of walking and playing at the same time. He makes it look so easy. He might not have the super-impressive technical chops but he’s got charisma in spades.

    I’ve been playing for almost two decades and whilst I’m a very capable player, I still find it really tricky to move around and play at the same time. Every single time I’ve seen U2 play, Adam has been walking around the stage with a huge smile on his face. He seemed to really come out of his shell around the time of the Vertigo tour.
  12. Originally posted by cyborgninja117:One thing about Adam’s playing that has always impressed me in his stage presence; he’s a master of walking and playing at the same time. He makes it look so easy. He might not have the super-impressive technical chops but he’s got charisma in spades.

    I’ve been playing for almost two decades and whilst I’m a very capable player, I still find it really tricky to move around and play at the same time. Every single time I’ve seen U2 play, Adam has been walking around the stage with a huge smile on his face. He seemed to really come out of his shell around the time of the Vertigo tour.
    yeh this is probably a bass thing as usually they're picking out notes rather than playing chords

    i play guitar and moving around playing chords is easy enough for me but when i'm soloing - even though i can do it behind my head (learnt doing that young so it's nothing special) - i can't march around, i have to concentrate

    thing with soloing is that one bum note and you spoil the whole solo