imagine the energy by playing Acrobat.  or Red Hill Mining Town.  or Heartland.  the crowd will likely get the pleasure of hearing any of these and to 99.9% they aren't gonna care if it was played 10 straight shows.  but the energy from the band would be palpable. 

I am NOT suggesting they play it one and done.  but spread it out a bit.  these hidden songs need to be used sparingly.  they just need to be at least one per show.

imagine the conversation:  I was at Chicago #2.  Hey that was the Acrobat show.  I went to Charlottesville.  Aw, man.  you were lucky.  that was the Red Hill Mining Town show.

check out my post somewhere on here about the Richmond, Virginia show i went to last year to see Bruce where he played Crush on You.  the energy was off the charts and it was a song that they basically admitted sucked.  they may never play it again but it was freakin' fantastic that night. 

For the purposes of full disclosure, I will own every show from this tour (assuming each makes its way to u2start) so, yes, I am interested in variety. 

Forgive me slightly for going off topic. And please, i'm not having a go at you at all over this, I'm genuinely interested.

Would you ever listen to them? I used to collect tapes and stuff, but all I'd find was myself getting annoyed at the poor quality once an official release came out.

If it's just for havin', then good on you. I'm like that with all the vinyl I own since my record player went to heaven. But do you reckon you'll listen to these?

For the purposes of full disclosure, I will own every show from this tour (assuming each makes its way to u2start) so, yes, I am interested in variety. 

Forgive me slightly for going off topic. And please, i'm not having a go at you at all over this, I'm genuinely interested.

Would you ever listen to them? I used to collect tapes and stuff, but all I'd find was myself getting annoyed at the poor quality once an official release came out.

If it's just for havin', then good on you. I'm like that with all the vinyl I own since my record player went to heaven. But do you reckon you'll listen to these?

question is legit.  answer is yes, i'll listen.  i have hundreds of boots and i've listened to each of them at least once.  i have them all on an external harddrive so it's easy to listen to them, either on the pc or on the ipod.

Not sure I understand the reasoning here.  I'm seeing them at the Rose Bowl in October and I hope they do "The Unforgettable Fire."  And it makes no difference to me if they play that song at every concert between now and then.  The only person it might bother would be someone who slavishly collects bootlegs and doesn't want 30+ recordings of an identical setlist.

I first saw U2 on the Unforgettable Fire tour--back when there was no internet and no way to predict what songs they would be performing.  This was pretty much the case up through the ZOO TV tour.  The downside of boards like these is that it creates unreasonable expectations for a band.  Setlists are now posted in real time and analyzed, picked apart and fussed over.  The instant gratification of the internet now leads to hordes of disappointed fans who show up to a concert and feel cheated because they already know what songs will be played and in what order.

It's like sneaking a peek at your Christmas presents and then getting mad on Christmas morning because there were no surprises.

I'm going to see them for the umpteenth time because they're a fantastic band.  I'll probably know the full setlist by October and it won't make a bit of difference to me.  And I hope Bono gives a really long speech, too.  Because I want Bono to be Bono--not Bon Jovi.     

This is where I disagree.  U2 was always ahead of the times especially on Zoo TV.  But now the times aren't about the most elaborate stage set.  This is an internet age.  I hardly think its unreasonable for U2 to practice more than say the 30 or so they have practiced so far.  Actually I think its pretty sad that U2 has practiced so few songs.  I want to frankly see U2 work a little harder for their money since we all have to work harder just to afford these shows and leave their comfort zone more often because U2 shows have little or no spontaneity for the band.  What the viewer may interpret as spontaneity is rehearsed to death by U2.  It would be great to see them embrace the internet age practice more songs and rotate the set more.  Keep themselves and their fans on their toes.  Springsteen and Dave Matthews do this.  Radiohead does this.  Word of mouth travels quick and what if U2 switched up 7-10 songs a night which come on is not hard to do.  Fans at shows start telling other fans who may be casual fans who start thinking wow thats kinda cool I'm gonna go look up some shows online.

Time for U2 to take their out of the box thinking for stage design and translate that into set list design.

What would be sad is if U2 play the EXACT same songs in the EXACT same order, every night for the next 2 years : I know of one artists who did that (Roger Waters "Dark Side Of The Moon" tour) which had the same set 102 nights in a row. I could predict to the second exactly what was happening.

What would be sad is if U2 play the EXACT same songs in the EXACT same order, every night for the next 2 years : I know of one artists who did that (Roger Waters "Dark Side Of The Moon" tour) which had the same set 102 nights in a row. I could predict to the second exactly what was happening.

Billy Joel/Elton John's current Face2Face tour is basically that.  very very very little variation.

What would be sad is if U2 play the EXACT same songs in the EXACT same order, every night for the next 2 years : I know of one artists who did that (Roger Waters "Dark Side Of The Moon" tour) which had the same set 102 nights in a row. I could predict to the second exactly what was happening.

Rush did that pretty much every tour from the late '70s until their last one in '07-'08. Let me assure you: it was far from "sad". If the songs are good enough, it won't matter.

#@!

No, sorry, it is 'sad' when you can predict every song on the setlist. I like artists that do something different every once in a while.

No, sorry, it is 'sad' when you can predict every song on the setlist. I like artists that do something different every once in a while.

Again, the only reason we can predict every song on the setlist is because of our easy access to the setlists, via the internet.  I saw the Rolling Stones in Montreal several years ago and most of their setlist included songs from Exile on Main Street.  If you were a casual fan and only familiar with the band's hits, you might not have enjoyed the concert.  U2 will play many songs from NLOTH, since this is the supporting tour for the album, along with some hits and a couple of deeper cuts.  I'm sure they want to appeal to all of the concert-goers, not just us diehard fans.

I, for one, will be thrilled with whatever they play.

Unforgettable Fire is one of my favorite U2 songs, so go ahead and play it!

Overdo? It's a good song and they're playing it very well. I say play it every night.

For the purposes of full disclosure, I will own every show from this tour (assuming each makes its way to u2start) so, yes, I am interested in variety. 

Forgive me slightly for going off topic. And please, i'm not having a go at you at all over this, I'm genuinely interested.

Would you ever listen to them? I used to collect tapes and stuff, but all I'd find was myself getting annoyed at the poor quality once an official release came out.

If it's just for havin', then good on you. I'm like that with all the vinyl I own since my record player went to heaven. But do you reckon you'll listen to these?

question is legit.  answer is yes, i'll listen.  i have hundreds of boots and i've listened to each of them at least once.  i have them all on an external harddrive so it's easy to listen to them, either on the pc or on the ipod.

Cool! I suppose the days of tapes taking up 17 bedrooms worth of cupboard space are behind us. That's pretty dedicated mate.

cheers