[Purple Haize]

As the self appointed concert reviewer of FlamesFans.com, I figured I would let everyone know what a great show they missed last nite!!
For starters, the opening band was MUSE and they were pretty dog gone good!! They really got the crowd fired up.
As for U2, they solidified their spot as a great concert band. I am one of the many who think the majority of stuff after Rattle and Hum is not that good. Sure there have been songs here and there but just not as good. HOWEVER, when those songs are played live (Elevation, Breathe, Vertigo and Magnificent) they are amazing. For instance, I was able to find the set list and made an iPod playlist. After the concert we were still jacked up and looking forward to jamming on the way home, but as soon as the songs started, they just didn't have it.
They did not play anything from BOY OCTOBER RATTLE AND HUM or POP. When they played the "older" stuff the crowd went nuts!!! The crowd was really great. There were two debates I got into about the crowd: 1. Was it more impressive that Amazing Grace was sung at UVA or that so many people knew the words? 2. Great tribute to the Burmese prisoner (not attmepting the name) but how many in the stadium could point out Burma on a map let alone know how it fits in with Mirinmar.
This is the greatest rock band of all time IMO. Here is why I say that. Usually, people say bands like the Beatles, The Who, Led Zepplin, or the Rolling Stones. However, U2 is the ONLY band to have all of the original members play together for so long. The other's have had tragic deaths, break ups and "replacements".
Finally, I was VERY disappointed in some of the song omissions. I will list the play list and then what songs I would have swapped:

Breath
Get on Your Boots
Mysterious Ways
Beautful Day
No Line On The Horizon
Magnificent
Elevation
Your Blue Room(I Will Follow)
New Years Day
I Still Havent Found
Stuck In A Moment (Desire)
Unforgettable Fire - L love this song but not as good live (Bad)
City of Blinding Lights(2 Hearts Beat as One)
Vertigo
I'll Go Crazy....
Sunday Bloody Sunday
MLK
Walk On(All I Want Is You)
One
Amazing Grace
Where the Streets
Ultraviolet (Electric CO)
With or With out you (HATED this)
Moment of Surrender (Pride)

[ALUmnus]

A friend of mine was there and he thought it was amazing. He said something about there being a satellite feed from the Intl Space Station during one of the songs?

I thought it was odd for Muse to be opening for U2, completely different band, but this is the perfect way for them to get exposure.

Thought this article was very interesting: http://www.reuters.com/article/entertai ... 7Q20090923

because whether we're playing or not, the overhead is about $750,000 daily. That's just to have the crew on payroll, to rent the trucks, all that. There's about 200 trucks. Each stage is 37 trucks, so you're up to nearly 120 there. And then the universal production is another 50-odd trucks, and there are merchandise trucks and catering trucks.

[Hold My Own]

I'm in NC right now going tomorrow! Very excited!

[belcherboy]

I'll see em Tuesday in Atlanta! Can't wait!

[El Scorcho]

Breath
Get on Your Boots
Mysterious Ways
Beautful Day
No Line On The Horizon
Magnificent
Elevation
Your Blue Room(I Will Follow)
New Years Day
I Still Havent Found
Stuck In A Moment (Desire)
Unforgettable Fire - L love this song but not as good live (Bad)
City of Blinding Lights(2 Hearts Beat as One)
Vertigo
I'll Go Crazy....
Sunday Bloody Sunday
MLK
Walk On(All I Want Is You)
One
Amazing Grace
Where the Streets
Ultraviolet (Electric CO)
With or With out you (HATED this)
Moment of Surrender (Pride)

I saw them on 10/19/2005. Here was the setlist then:

Wake Up (recorded by Arcade Fire)
City of Blinding Lights
Vertigo
Elevation
I Will Follow
The Electric Co.
I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For
Beautiful Day
Miracle Drug
Sometimes You Can't Make It On Your Own
Love and Peace or Else
Sunday Bloody Sunday
Bullet the Blue Sky
Miss Sarajevo
Pride (In The Name of Love)
Where the Streets Have No Name
One
The First Time
Stuck in a Moment
With or Without You
All Because of You
Yahweh
40

I enjoyed that show quite a bit, but I did not enjoy Ziggy Marley as the opening act at all. Ugh.

[LUconn]

Seems like everybody tries to do their own version of Wake Up. What a depressing song.

[El Scorcho]

Seems like everybody tries to do their own version of Wake Up. What a depressing song.

They actually just played the record before they came out to get the crowd singing. I love that song, but that was actually the worst part of that show for me. I mean, you're U2 and I know that at the time Arcade Fire was really hot, but come on. You're U2! I can think of many better ways to get a crowd worked over than just playing a clip of someone else's song. It was kind of lame.

[Purple Haize]

Yeah, they had the ISS guy read something, but I think they were supposed to be able to converse with him but there was a technical glitch

[Hold My Own]

Google U2 Traffic I-40



It was freaking nuts.....4 hours to go 10 miles...every parking lot within 3 miles was full....prob a thousand cars parked along the interstate.


Schorchy....sounds like you went...tell me that that screen isnt a Techy nightmare....how do you even build something like that???? WOW it was crazy cool.



Great show all in all very happy I went

[Purple Haize]

The above article actually talks about the screen. That thing was great. The only problem was I caught myself watching that instead of the band, and I was close enough to watch the band!!!
On a side note does anyone know a good place to get a photo made into a poster? I have a couple of good shots and I wouldn't mind getting one done since they ran out of concert posters!!
I would post some here but don't know how

[El Scorcho]

Schorchy....sounds like you went...tell me that that screen isnt a Techy nightmare....how do you even build something like that???? WOW it was crazy cool.

Nah, I saw them in DC in 2005 on the Vertigo tour. That's what the setlist I posted was from and I feel like it was a little stronger since it was able to avoid the newest album. (I didn't care for it.) That was fresh enough for me not to want to return. However, the stage from this tour is definitely a few steps up from Vertigo. I've read that this is the last tour they'll be doing with the full on epic stages they're known for. I can understand why.

I did catch that there were a few last-minute tickets available once they got the stage setup, though. I was briefly tempted to go.

[Hold My Own]

U2 must not care for their new album much either b/c they only played a few....but listen to this....it's a 360 degree LED board that can lower from the top of the stage to the bottom...not only that but from the top of the stage they can lower each individual LED board (each section is about 3 feet of LED's) so it looks like diamonds of LED's playing videos yet can see through the section without the LED...I've never seen anything like it...I'll try to post a picture or maybe Purple has one...it was the craziest thing I've ever seen in my life.

[El Scorcho]

U2 must not care for their new album much either b/c they only played a few....but listen to this....it's a 360 degree LED board that can lower from the top of the stage to the bottom...not only that but from the top of the stage they can lower each individual LED board (each section is about 3 feet of LED's) so it looks like diamonds of LED's playing videos yet can see through the section without the LED...I've never seen anything like it...I'll try to post a picture or maybe Purple has one...it was the craziest thing I've ever seen in my life.

I've seen it. It's pretty impressive.

However, NIN's last stage setup was far more technically impressive than U2's stuff. Not nearly as big, but they had similar video screens that could be seen through. They'd layer them to achieve different effects, but the craziest part was that the screens interacted with the band on stage. They had custom software running on a Linux box that monitored their movements and actions. It was crazy crazy good.

(Skip to about 2:00 and start watching from there)

U2 always has cutting edge stuff, though. They had giant strands of LED lights in 2005 that could interact with each other form a giant video board or run as individual lights. They'd roll them up onto spools and back down as they were needed. It was pretty cool for the minimal stage setup they were running at the time.

[ALUmnus]

The stage was just a giant distraction so you wouldn't notice how bad their new songs are.

[Sly Fox]

Anybody planning on staying up late to catch the YouTube concert tonight? I'm trying to decide if it will be worth the time investment and lack of sleep on a work night.

[Sly Fox]

About to begin in a few minutes ... the live feed is already up:

http://www.youtube.com/U2official

[Purple Haize]

Sly,
Give me the feedback? I have to figure out how this Internet TV thing works so I can talk myself into buying one!! It probably would have been GREAT on the Big Screen w/surround sound as opposed to my puter speakers

[Sly Fox]

It ran off the standard website but the broadcast audio mix was superb and the video quality was by far the best I have seen in a stream on the web. I stayed up late and didn't get much sleep last night but it was most certainly worth it.

If YouTube is able to sign more deals like this it could sabotage the plans of reworking MySpace into the primary music portal.

PS - Interesting to hear Bono give a shout out to Rick Warren. Yeah, I know he drops by Saddleback when in L.A. but it is still strange hearing him reference him on stage in such a huge venue.