I think the prospect of this tour sees U2 in an unusual place for a number of reasons. What I am most curious about is the 'wow' factor and where that comes from. U2 has looked to invent and innovate with each tour, and each tour has that 'wow' moment - be it the sheer scale (360), the theatrics (i&e and the 'cage' walkway) or the beauty - JT30 (when the screen came on, that was just gorgeous). I don't see where that is going to come from if e&i is going to use the same staging as i&e - for all intents and purposes it will be the same show with different songs. The problem as I see it is that as good as i&e was the cage was a bit of a one trick pony - it worked fantastically with Cedarwood Road and UTTEOTW but seeing it utilised in the same way - which is sort of inevitable if the staging remains the same is going to be a bit like deja vu.
I fear that the 'concept' of the show(s) - both i&e and e&i has the potential to overshadow the music and the sense of occasion and it doesn't leave much room for any deviation from the norm in terms of the setlist choices. I saw three shows on i&e and one on JT but my missus who came to one i&e and to the JT show said that the lack of concept on the latter - just playing the songs - was what made the show so special - and I completely agree - the JT show had much more emotional heft than i&e did - because a) let's be honest the songs are better and b) they weren't having to sell a concept.
I think perhaps one of the reasons they are struggling to sell the tour in the US (other than saturation and making the purchase of tickets almost impossible!) is that there is no differentiation and the casual fan is maybe thinking I've seen this before. And I have to say even as a huge fan I am not fussed about seeing that staging and show again and I'd much rather they parked the i&e/e&i concept and just played the songs - how good was U2 at the BBC? It was fantastic - they sounded wonderful - and there were no bells and whistles (just a massive orchestra!).
The band is often on record as saying, especially in recent years, that it is 'about the songs'. I suppose my hope is that they have more faith in the songs and their audience - we don't need to be spoon fed all of the 'extras', we each have our own stories and memories associated with the songs and i think the majority of us would be over the moon if they played those songs - and all of those ones they don't play - without too much of the rest (cages, animations, stories, concept etc.).
To the topic. As per any U2 album, they have thought about which ones are going to be played live and they've spoken in the recent promo campaign about playing some (or all) of these songs live as a band in the recording process of SOE in order to hone them. I'm guessing that every show will get (in album order) Love Is All We Have Left (perhaps similar to how Zooropa was used on i&e), Lights of Home, YTBTAM, GOOYOW, American Soul (in the US at least) and LIBTAIIW. I think then Little Things, Blackout and 13 could be fairly regular and then it's a toss-up as to what they choose out of Summer of Love, Red Flag Day, The Showman and Landlady - I'm sure they'll be a few of these in the opening sets but they'll no doubt get dropped as the tour goes on and they work out what works/doesn't work. I think I remember hearing/reading that they would revisit some of the SOI songs - if that's the case I'd imagine it would be some of the songs that were not regularly played, perhaps California and the Troubles, plus EBW which is clearly an important song for them. I think Ordinary Love might find a place in the set - again it appears to be an important song for the band (Bono at least) so now that it is 'on' an album (at least on the special edition anyway) it might get a few more airings.
When they were doing the promo for JT30 I think it was Adam who was talking about why the shows began at SBS and not IWF for example and he said it was because they'd covered that bit in the i&e shows with the opening sequence which would suggest that the earlier albums will be lightly picked from on e&i. It would be interesting if, and again I think Edge might have said something similar, they were to continue the theme and only play post JT songs on this tour. I can't see that happening - I don't think they'll drop SBS, Pride or Streets for example but a show that pulled from post JT records would be brave. However - there is the 'concept'. I think U2 have a pretty clear idea about what they 'do' and what their role is which can be summed up as 'there is no them there is only us' - it's a universal message which I think means that anything more 'personal' - i.e. a lot of AB and Pop - unless it can be made universal (One) is probably not going to fit with their theme and message of the SOE songs and where they are 'at' as a band.
So in terms of the rest of the set...All I Want Is You, One, Stay, Stuck In A Moment, Kite... that feels like the right sort of tone...plus the numbers they'll always do BD, Vertigo probably Elevation (groan!).
