Set List Thoughts

Alastair Warren ([email protected])
Sat, 06 Feb 1999 18:52:59 +1100

        Just listening (?) to all the talk about what should be on the set
list of the next tour, and I felt the need to come out of lurk-mode. I
really think that U2 should spice up the set lists more. They all tend to
be the same songs done the same way. I mean, look at UTEOTW and New Year's
day. I was surprised when these made it into the PopMart shows in the same
order as in ZooTV. Even the "Edge-baiting" bit of Bono duelling with Edge
down through the crowd was identical! And there was no real difference
between old and new versions of New Year's Day.
        This just irritates me a bit. They have so many really good songs
that they never seem to play! There are many old and not so old songs that
they have played live many times in the past that they seem content to just
leave in the archives! Just to draw a comparison with an Australian band,
that probably no-one else will have heard of, but the Hunters and Collectors
regularly pulled out older songs and performed them. In the last tour (Last
as in they broke up) they pulled out no less than three songs that I had
never even heard of! Why can't U2 do this? Frankly, I think they could
just go a little further than a truncated version of I Will Follow.
        Basically, the whole point of this extended whinge, is I would like
to see some of the "classic" songs like Pride, ISHFWILF and some others they
play often replaced with something else, not necessarily old, but just
different. This is my wish list:

                1) A Kind of Homecoming - I HATE the Unforgettable Fire
album! There are about three songs on it I don't hate, but this is a
classic song. The MUST play it again.
                2) In God's Country - Just a great, song. I LOVED the
version out of Rattle 'n Hum
                3) Exit - I really think that this is one of their most
powerful songs. Live, its just incredible.
                4) Surrender - Lots of people seem to dislike this song,
but every version of it I've heard I love. It just goes off! A great rocker.

        Now for the songs I'd like to seem them avoid, at least for the time
being.

                1) Pride - I know it's one of their most popular songs,
but I think that its just been done to death. The play it every single
time! I hate the song anyway, but I think that it just needs a rest. I
don't really think that it's one of those songs that must be played because
the band will get lynched otherwise.
                2) UTEOTW - Great song, but two identical versions in
tours back to back, I think it just needs a rest.
                 

        Anyway, that's got the whining out of my system, so, to all
Wirelings out there, Have a powerful day!

                 
                                                                        Al
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        "There is infinite hope, but not for man" - Franz Kafka
          
         "I belive in the third world war, I belive in the atomic bomb"
- A Celebration

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