I still think its a mistake to end this tour in Dublin. Despite what Adam has said, maybe they will come to their senses and extend the tour in 2019 to places like Australia, New Zealand, Japan and other places in North America and Europe.
I don’t think it’s a mistake. I think they’re tired of touring and need a looooooonnnnggggg break. People argue “why can’t u2 come to our country” when u2 could argue “why don’t you come see us in a country we’re playing”
I don’t think it’s really a case of Aussies being pi**ed off, & saying “you guys don’t need a rest, come visit us”. It’s more of a case of “what’s the obsession with the US? We haven’t had a single show down under in about the last 8 years, while the US has had 4 tour legs in the last 3 years!”
If the band is feeling their age, & only feel like they have a limited number of shows in them, you’d like they’d be trying to reach the largest possible audience for those limited shows. Which of course means stadiums. If they want to play arenas (which offer a better quality, more immersive experience), you’d think they’d at least try to play in cities which would sell out, with arenas full of fans. Not over saturated markets & BF towns in the mid-west, where we get unsold seats, curtained off sections, free ticket handouts & a portion of the crowd that are really not too fussed to be there.
But alas, Live Nation has to scrape the bottom of the barrel.
I’m Australian, but have seen U2 on 3 continents. My overseas shows have been Elevation & i+e in Europe, & 2 legs of 360 in the US. But I’d love to see an arena show (or even a stadium) with my Aussie friends, they’ve only ever seen U2 in stadiums. But not everyone can take a transcontinental flight of between 14 & 24 hours, just to see a band. It’s expensive, plus you have to spend weeks overseas to justify the expense & time it takes to fly. It’s not like Scottish fans that have been complaining about catching a train for 2 or 3 hours.