**The Offical U2 Fan Thread**

[Axver]

I'm, sure the boys have done other great performances, but Slane is just astounding!

Yeah, I'd love to get the bootleg with nothing edited. I don't think it's their best performance, but it's still amazing. The two I say are the best are 5 June 1983, Denver and 23 September 1997, Sarajevo.

Awesome. Where can I get that?

You can get the 11 June 1992 Bullet here in the section 'Concert of the Month: Joshua Tree Live'. It's amazing. Don't know where you could get 5 March 1992, though.

and I like that icon! You've got some nice pics there. The one with Edge jumping up and down is funny.

Thanks! I love making icons, I'm trying to think of something new to make now. Probably something using the 'Shine like stars' WOWY verse. Hmmm ...

 

[Neenie]

I'm listening to it now, very cool. Bono's speech beforehand is good! Personally, I prefer it when they end with the 'Do you hear us coming?' verse, and I was surprised to hear the quote of My Sweet Lord. Their cover of that in Atlanta, 30 November 2001 is really good.

It's defiantly my favorite version of one, I love the hallelujah part at the end along with the do you hear us coming lord bit, and the guitar arrangement. I've listened to it about a thousand times to and from work, and I'm still not sick of It.

I wish it had been one of those songs! I think Popmart had the worst Bullet (though it was still brilliant!), and I'm not a Streets fanatic like some, but I think that rendition of Please is one of the greatest things ever. I routinely rank it as third on lists of best songs, behind two performances of 11 O'clock Tick Tock. Sarajevo had a lot of songs that creep onto that list: Mofo, Please, Discotheque, One.

I'm a little surprised you have please on a higher rank, and how you think Popmart had the worst version of Bullet (though you still think it's brilliant, and i respect that) Sarejevo has the best version of please I have ever heard, I agree. And a question,was Sarejevo U2's most best and important show of all time, Or was It Joshua Tree Dublin

Yeah, it'd be awesome. Maybe it hints at a combined arena/stadium tour, like what the Rolling Stones did. Bono did come onstage once during that tour and he's known to follow what works for other bands ....

Well, I'm looking to forward to it whatever they do, Just as long as they still play streets!

Oh yes, I heard about that. If I remember correctly, he said single in September, album in October/November, tour in February, and the album would be "their first rock and roll album."

Well, It's about time...

 

[Axver]

It's defiantly my favorite version of one, I love the hallelujah part at the end along with the do you hear us coming lord bit, and the guitar arrangement. I've listened to it about a thousand times to and from work, and I'm still not sick of It.

It's a very good version, I agree, but I still prefer Popmart Sarajevo and similar performances with "Do you hear us coming Lord?" rather than My Sweet Lord. I don't think One feels right with the hallelujahs, they seem to suit Walk On better.

I'm a little surprised you have please on a higher rank, and how you think Popmart had the worst version of Bullet (though you still think it's brilliant, and i respect that) Sarejevo has the best version of please I have ever heard, I agree.

I think it's the most amazing, passionate rendition of Please, some of their best work. I think that compared to other versions of Bullet, the Popmart one lacks a bit. Joshua Tree and Lovetown were loud and powerful, an even more emphatic version than the album. ZooTV had the best Bullet - Edge's solo was mindblowing and some of them had very aggressive endings (5 March 1992, anyone?). Elevation was pretty good, I don't understand why some people don't enjoy it because I reckon it sounds similar to ZooTV. Popmart, however ... I find that sometimes, the ending gets boring. It doesn't pick up, it just dies. However, it flowed extremely well into Please and I'm not saying I dislike it at all, because I do think it's wonderful. It's just compared to the rest, I think it's the worst.

And a question,was Sarejevo U2's most best and important show of all time, Or was It Joshua Tree Dublin

Best? I'd say it's equal with 5 June 1983, Denver. Most important? Hm, depends how you define that. It was definitely their most infamous and memorable and it meant a lot to the people of Sarajevo. I think it was very important in the healing process of that nation after the horror and warfare they went through.

Well, I'm looking to forward to it whatever they do, Just as long as they still play streets!

I think they HAVE to return to opening with Streets. Nothing beat that for an opener.

Hm, would anyone object if I posted some concert setlists I've devised?

 

[oldrooster]

Go right ahead........

 

[KristianJ]

As long as they're good ones, Ax!

 

[Neenie]

I think it's the most amazing, passionate rendition of Please, some of their best work. I think that compared to other versions of Bullet, the Popmart one lacks a bit. Joshua Tree and Lovetown were loud and powerful, an even more emphatic version than the album. ZooTV had the best Bullet - Edge's solo was mindblowing and some of them had very aggressive endings (5 March 1992, anyone?). Elevation was pretty good, I don't understand why some people don't enjoy it because I reckon it sounds similar to ZooTV. Popmart, however ... I find that sometimes, the ending gets boring. It doesn't pick up, it just dies. However, it flowed extremely well into Please and I'm not saying I dislike it at all, because I do think it's wonderful. It's just compared to the rest, I think it's the worst.

I think Elevation bullet sounds very similar to the Zootv version as well. Though I personally like the Popmart version better, but your right that It does get quite boring halfway through the song. But I even like popmart streets over the others, because it has a different feel to it. But Discotheque sounds better on Elevation. 5 March 1992? I'll have to check it out.

Best? I'd say it's equal with 5 June 1983, Denver. Most important? Hm, depends how you define that. It was definitely their most infamous and memorable and it meant a lot to the people of Sarajevo. I think it was very important in the healing process of that nation after the horror and warfare they went through.

Yes it was, I have a few pics around the stadium and it looks pretty bad. I heard They had to go through bit of trouble to get the concert there, but It did mean quite a bit to the people, It was a move into the future.

I haven't got the Denver show yet, must download it when I get the chance. I'm still downloading the Sao polo DVD, and a seven CD collection of the Hansa studio outakes from 91 in SHN. It's supposed to have extra songs.

I think they HAVE to return to opening with Streets. Nothing beat that for an opener.

Hm, would anyone object if I posted some concert setlists I've devised?

I don't object, Just keep to your word about streets!

Btw...I would love to know who these guests are. Everytime I come to this thread, there Is always one or more guests lurking around. If your a U2 fan, join this thread!

 

[KristianJ]

Neenie, I noticed you've got "God's phone number" as your signature!

I would enlist on this thread if my knowledge of Mr Hewson and co. was to the extent of you and Axver! I am a fan, but I would be drowned in your encyclopaedic knowledge of specific gigs. Although I can agree that Streets is a quintessential opener for a U2 concert. When they did it at the Superbowl a couple of years ago they were simply awesome.

 

[Neenie]

Hi KristianJ

Yeah, the superbowl show was awesome, they had quite a large audience! If you want some more knowledge of U2 just read over this whole thread a few times, It might take a while

BTW I got the "Gods phone number" sig from on the front cover of their last album, It had J-333 On It, So I put it on my sig!

 

[KristianJ]

I was rereading an entry in a music encyclopedia that I have and I was reminded of the J-333 on the cover of "All That You Can't Leave Behind". If I had the time I could spend ages reading the whole thread or just save it as text if it's possible.

By the way I created a unit measuring the level of U2 support that one has. It's in the Best Bands thread here if you want a bit of a giggle.

 

[Neenie]

LOL I just saw that, I'm probably a 0.8 Axver

Cool You have a music encyclopedia! I'll have to invest in one of those.

 

[KristianJ]

LOL I just saw that, I'm probably a 0.8 Axver

Cool You have a music encyclopedia! I'll have to invest in one of those.

It was a Christian music encyclopaedia as well. Quite an interesting write up about them.

 

[Axver]

Woo, lots of posts to reply to! Fun!

I think Elevation bullet sounds very similar to the Zootv version as well. Though I personally like the Popmart version better, but your right that It does get quite boring halfway through the song. But I even like popmart streets over the others, because it has a different feel to it. But Discotheque sounds better on Elevation. 5 March 1992? I'll have to check it out.

A lot of Popmart songs had very different feels to them - I Will Follow is a very notable one, I didn't like it when I first heard the distortion running on it, but now I love it. Discotheque Elevation is better than MOST Popmart performances, but I reckon the performances at Mannheim and Sarajevo are just amazing. Edge's grinding, screaming guitar is just amazing. On Bullet on 5 March 1992, Bono starts screaming "shut the f*** up" at the end, it's very aggressive. Accentuates the flow into RTSS very nicely.

I have a few pics around the stadium and it looks pretty bad. I heard They had to go through bit of trouble to get the concert there, but It did mean quite a bit to the people, It was a move into the future.

Yeah, I've seen some of those photos too, some shocking stuff happened there, that U2 concert was really what they needed. I once read about how some people there would speak of time as before or after the U2 gig.

I haven't got the Denver show yet, must download it when I get the chance. I'm still downloading the Sao polo DVD, and a seven CD collection of the Hansa studio outakes from 91 in SHN. It's supposed to have extra songs.

You need to get the full Denver bootleg - it's so much better than the UABRS video! There's footage of most of the songs not on UABRS, I have poor quality WMV files of most of them. I Fall Down is the only song for which no footage exists. I just finished downloading a DVD of 20 August 1983, St Goarshaussen, the concert that supplied tracks 3 and 5-8 on the UABRS CD, and WOW! AMAZING! I love it! I'd say it's better quality than the official release. I ramble on about it in my latest LiveJournal entry. I hear the 7CD Axtung Beibi Out-takes just includes more instrumental stuff. Should be interesting.

I would enlist on this thread if my knowledge of Mr Hewson and co. was to the extent of you and Axver! I am a fan, but I would be drowned in your encyclopaedic knowledge of specific gigs. Although I can agree that Streets is a quintessential opener for a U2 concert. When they did it at the Superbowl a couple of years ago they were simply awesome.

Come in here and expand your U2 knowledge! Hehe. I just listen to way too many bootlegs myself. The Super Bowl performance of Streets is one of my favourites, especially because of the snippet of MLK and the prayer during the intro. I have a VCD of that and it's awesome.

Now for some setlists ...

 

[Axver]

I really don't feel these are any good. Things just aren't flowing today.

1. Where The Streets Have No Name
2. I Will Follow
3. 11 O'clock Tick Tock
4. Twilight
5. An Cat Dubh --> Into The Heart
6. Surrender
7. I Threw A Brick Through A Window --> A Day Without Me
8. With A Shout (Jerusalem)
9. Sunday Bloody Sunday
10. The Cry/The Electric Co.
11. Bullet The Blue Sky
12. Running To Stand Still --> MLK
13. The Unforgettable Fire
14. In God's Country
15. Exit
16. Bad

17. Beautiful Day
18. Until The End Of The World
19. New Year's Day
20. Pride (In The Name Of Love)
21. Do You Feel Loved
22. Seconds

23. Gone
24. Kite
25. One
26. 40

---

I'm now going to try something where I split up songs that are regularly together.

1. Where The Streets Have No Name
2. Gloria
3. I Threw A Brick Through A Window
4. With A Shout (Jerusalem)
5. I Will Follow
6. Even Better Than The Real Thing
7. Until The End Of The World
8. In God's Country
9. MLK --> October
10. Running To Stand Still
11. Please --> Tomorrow
12. She's A Mystery To Me
13. A Day Without Me
14. Sunday Bloody Sunday
15. Desire (Lovetown version)
16. God Part II

17. The Unforgettable Fire
18. All Along The Watchtower
19. All I Want Is You
20. Bad

21. Exit
22. Wire
23. Discotheque --> Hold Me, Thrill Me, Kiss Me, Kill Me
24. Mysterious Ways
25. Walk On
26. 40

---

And another!

1. Bullet The Blue Sky
2. Running To Stand Still
3. MLK --> The Unforgettable Fire
4. In God's Country
5. Exit
6. Silver And Gold
7. Desire
8. All Along The Watchtower
9. All I Want Is You
10. Where The Streets Have No Name
11. 11 O'clock Tick Tock
12. Out Of Control
13. Sunday Bloody Sunday
14. Gone
15. Kite
16. Heartland
17. Beautiful Day

18. Daddy's Gonna Pay For Your Crashed Car
19. Lemon
20. Acrobat
21. Love Is Blindness

22. Discotheque --> If God Will Send His Angels
23. I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For
24. 40

---

How about U2 decides to play an acoustic concert?

1. Desire
2. All Along The Watchtower
3. People Get Ready
4. Angel Of Harlem
5. When Love Comes To Town
6. All I Want Is You
7. The First Time
8. The Ground Beneath Her Feet
9. The Sweetest Thing
10. I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For
11. Stay (Faraway, So Close!)
12. One
13. Unchained Melody
14. Stuck In A Moment You Can't Get Out Of
15. Wake Up Dead Man
16. The Wanderer
17. Drowning Man
18. Seconds

19. Hawkmoon 269
20. In God's Country
21. Please
22. 40

 

[Axver]

More setlists! I'm going for something more modern this time.

1. Zooropa
2. I Will Follow
3. 11 O'clock Tick Tock
4. Mysterious Ways
5. Numb
6. Lemon
7. With Or Without You
8. Miss Sarajevo
9. One --> The Playboy Mansion
10. Until The End Of The World --> Wild Horses
11. Tryin' To Throw Your Arms Around The World
12. Babyface
13. Miami
14. Bullet The Blue Sky
15. Please --> Tomorrow (OR Streets, but I prefer Tomorrow)
16. Pride (In The Name Of Love)

17. Daddy's Gonna Pay For Your Crashed Car
18. Staring At The Sun (full band)
19. Kite
20. Stay (Faraway, So Close!)
21. Dirty Day

22. Hold Me, Thrill Me, Kiss Me, Kill Me
23. Elevation
24. Beautiful Day
25. Grace --> Walk On

---

Let's get that Lovetown feeling!

1. Hawkmoon 269
2. Desire
3. All Along The Watchtower
4. All I Want Is You
5. Where The Streets Have No Name
6. Bullet The Blue Sky
7. Running To Stand Still
8. I Fall Down
9. October --> New Year's Day
10. Gloria
11. When Love Comes To Town
12. Drowning Man
13. Heartland
14. Mothers Of The Disappeared
15. MLK --> The Unforgettable Fire
16. God Part II

Edge solo
17. Van Diemen's Land
18. Seconds
19. The Ocean

Whole band
20. Angel Of Harlem
21. I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For
22. Love Rescue Me
23. She's A Mystery To Me
24. 40

 

[Axver]

Give me an inch, I'll take a mile. I just got an idea. Bullet The Blue Sky, Popmart-style, but instead of dying at the end, Adam's bass flows into Exit. And we go from there ...

1. Bullet The Blue Sky
2. Exit
3. In God's Country
4. Desire
5. Two Hearts Beat As One
6. Party Girl
7. Spanish Eyes
8. Elevation
9. Beautiful Day
10. Kite
11. My Time Hasn't Come
12. Angel Of Harlem
13. I Fall Down
14. Running To Stand Still (Edge solo)
15. October (Edge solo)
16. New Year's Day

17. Where The Streets Have No Name
18. Trip Through Your Wires
19. Luminous Times (Hold On To Love)
20. Indian Summer Sky
21. Seconds

22. One --> Wake Up Dead Man --> The First Time
23. Dirty Day
24. Love Is Blindness

I'm sure you're all getting quite bored ... and I'm peeved neither Mofo or Zoo Station made it into any of the setlists ...

 

[oldrooster]

The hansa bootleg really ticked them off. According to an article that I read at the time they were considering not releasing Achtung Baby because of it. By the way those are some great setlists.

 

[Axver]

The hansa bootleg really ticked them off. According to an article that I read at the time they were considering not releasing Achtung Baby because of it.

Yeah, I've heard similar reports like that. Paul McGuinness apparently took out full page ads urging people not to buy them, but I understand a few years later, Edge confessed to having bought a copy for himself! Reminds me of the incident when a couple of fans got Adam to sign a copy of the Popmart Santiago (or was it Sao Paulo?) audio bootleg. All he did was calmly sign it, observing that "Not even I have this one!"

By the way those are some great setlists.

Thanks!

 

[oldrooster]

They realize that if you are going to spend money on bootlegs you already have the commercial product x 10.

 

[Axver]

They realize that if you are going to spend money on bootlegs you already have the commercial product x 10.

Yes, that's true. People who get bootlegs tend to be those who have a stack of official releases - a copy of JT for the car, another for the stereo in the living room, a third as an alarm clock, and you can't forget the mint vinyl copy locked in a safe deposit box! How I wish I had that ...

I love the statement where U2 say they invite people to bootleg and share their shows, but "if you're making a profit, we'll find out where you park your car."

 

[oldrooster]

That is pretty good....Grateful Dead were that way, they had places you could plug your recorder into the sound board so you could get the best sound....