Classic or Dud: U2

Larry Mullen Jr. and the Drifters live in Las Vegas

Kinda wish they'd just have retired from touring instead of replacing Larry. It's quite astonishing how long they've gone on with just the four of them and a bit sad to break that streak

It really is impressive. What other band has managed to perform with the same exact group intact for 40+ years? I don't think there's anyone even close.

Up until the other year ZZ Top would like to have a word.

Larry Mullen Jr.'s U2 Experience

xp Ah, of course - seriously regret missing their show at the Beacon back in 2012. (Wanted to go but didn't have enough money at the time.)

(This specific question came up on Twitter a couple of years back -- other candidates could include Los Lobos, who did expand their lineup but retained the same core since the early 70s as well. Oddly enough the Fixx are a good candidate as well, if just after U2, and one member did step away for a long while, but was never officially replaced.)

Duos meantime are trickier subjects. Sparks is well over fifty years old at this point but then again it's always been Ron & Russell plus whoever else so it doesn't totally count.

If it's with Larry's blessing, cool. But if not -- as strongly implied by the Washington Post piece -- then no, they obviously shouldn't play without him. And it's less "oh, most drummers can play those parts" and more "when Bono wiggles his left earlobe, Larry knows to play ___" or whatever. I don't know if they still do this, but in the Under A Blood Red Sky video you can see Bono giving Larry signals behind his back.

If Larry's maladies are drumming-related (which, like his back surgery, it sounds like they are), I wish he'd talk more about them, and show how younger drummers can avoid bad habits.

And the Four Tops had a 44-year-run with the same lineup (1953-1997).

Larry going on the injured list for a bunch of residency gigs isn't a big thing imo, the weirder thing is the residency. but it might be cool idk, i'm into the idea of them revisiting Achtung Baby, though i'd rather they used this as a jumping off point for making actually making some forward thinking music again. aside from a bunch of NLOTH, they left that behind w/Pop.

Again I like Larry and see the virtue of waiting. However, the timing is about breaking in a new venue, so I kinda get it.

If you think you need the -ahem- WORLD'S BIGGEST ROCK BAND -ahem- to christen your stage, you're not gonna be satisfied with, like, I dunno, Semisonic. Your pristine space-age rafters need to reverberate with the bombastic belting of a Bruce or a Billy or a Bono.

For good or for ill, there are just not a lot of acts operating at that level. I can see why Team Hewson thought it needed to be them, even if they were a man short - if only to avoid it being the Stones or Elton John or REM or Green Day or T-Swizzle or whomsoever.

Compare Mr. Joel closing Shea Stadium with a marquee residency. For which he pointedly brought along a background singer named Paulrus McCartney CH MBE BLT.

In short I can see why an appetite for Iconic Event pageantry might eclipse other considerations.

R.E.M.'s never reuniting!!

Not keen on the idea of a Vegas residency, am keen on them revisiting Achtung Baby, puzzled why they're only doing it now though. The anniversary was two years ago and so was the last Achtung box set.

Also if they're doing Achtung then are they implicitly also committing more fully to the ZooTV nostalgia that they've only dabbled with over time (the Achtung mini-sets on the Vertigo tour and their 2011 performances [Glasto etc.], plus the face-filter MacPhisto from the last tour)?

Iirc, they missed the anniversary for the Joshua Tree Redux tour, too, right?

That tour was 2017 but they did an extra leg in Asia/Oz/NZ in 2019, the other side of the Experience + Innocence Tour

They did play some ACHTUNG in 2011, as noted - I loved that Glastonbury set (on BBC).

I don't know anything about this venue and generally don't like new venues or new concert ticketing practices.

It really is impressive. What other band has managed to perform with the same exact group intact for 40+ years? I don't think there's anyone even close.

Golden Earring managed 51 years, unchanged, and only split when one of them developed motor neuron disease.

ZZ Top also made it to 51 years.

Cowboy Junkies are still together with the same line-up after 38 years.

the reason they're doing achtung baby at the residency is probably just that they (correctly) thought it'd be a more interesting exercise in nostalgia than just a greatest hits show and they'd already successfully done the joshua tree a few years back

man I would kind of want to go to this; I've never seen U2 and hate everything they did after Zooropa but always regretted not seeing this tour and I love that album. But no Larry plus likely $1000 tickets means I will not go

I really do love these guys but opening Popmart with a Vegas show and 25 years later signing on for a Vegas residency is a bit
https://www.theonion.com/ironic-porn-purchase-leads-to-unironic-ejaculation-1819565403

This is not a Zoo TV reboot or anything, right?

no Larry plus likely $1000 tickets means I will not go

If Larry were there, they'd be $5000 tickets!

That PopMart Vegas show was also marred by probably their biggest ever on-stage problems. Careful now U2!

This is not a Zoo TV reboot or anything, right?

Maybe it'll be like Twin Peaks season 3, set in Vegas and things...happen.

This is not a Zoo TV reboot or anything, right?

i'd expect they'll be playing achtung baby in full and the stage setup will be heavily referencing zoo tv, so basically?

I always said I'll see them if they ever reprised Zoo TV properly so it would be nice (if probably very unlikely) that this is the testing ground for a worldwide tour.

So Cruel, TTTYAATW and Love Is Blindness haven't properly appeared on their setlists since Zoo TV (apart from one impromptu LIB in 2006). Even then So Cruel was only played four(?) times. Acrobat was never played until 2018.

not that i would have paid $$$$ to see the vegas show but no larry is a real kick in the dick

like that’s a real wtf decision

I've always wanted to see them play "The Fly", but can Bono still hit those notes?

It's not Zoo TV, it's Zoo TV+

Bono hit the high notes on the album version of the fly but the edge has always done them live iirc

can Bono still hit those notes?

Gonna say no. Here they are in 2018, and it sounds like some pre-recorded backing tracks are in the mix:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9LY_uxUhap0

Which is fine, U2 has long used backing tracks, plus people off-stage triggering stuff, adding additional instruments, etc.

I saw some clip of them doing "With Or Without You" some years back, and Bono struggling with the high notes actually really underscored for me what a singer he can be. For sure, he used to sing the hell out of songs like that, but there's no way I'd expect him to be able to keep it up. I think the same thing about someone like Springsteen. For years he was operating at 120%; dropping down to, like, 85% is still more than the work most people are doing.

xp Someone I know who absolutely hates U2 used to say "they're playing to f***ing machines!" which always cracked me up.

Bono hit the high notes on the album version of the fly but the edge has always done them live iirc

Ah that actually makes sense, given how Bono would need to sing the 'a man will beg' part

So my next question is, can Edge still hit those notes?

I saw them on the Joshua Tree tour in 2019, Bono's voice was fucked then

based on that 2018 video it sounds like the edge still does an alright job of it, just they've got a backing track of a choir or something in there too to make it sound fuller

The band sounded great and it was a really good show. I'd go and see an Achtung Baby/Zooropa show in a heartbeat.

That PopMart Vegas show was also marred by probably their biggest ever on-stage problems. Careful now U2!

I guess Edge falling off the stage isn't technically an on-stage problem.

Fortunately Bono took over the falling-off-the-stage department on the next tour (I was there).

A friend who helps:

https://external-preview.redd.it/nzTdgnDim6TidIX266eBGFSqYmediJcO6kOadAKzT5E.jpg?auto=webp&s=f690df8368033ed2a01e84a22154ece5e0aaf4c9

There's being clumsy where you step and then there's

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JbriItBGGLM

Gonna say no. Here they are in 2018, and it sounds like some pre-recorded backing tracks are in the mix:

As with “Even Better Than The Real Thing, “The Fly” was apparently always played in a different key for live performances. Which prompts the question, how many bands lowered the keys of brand-new songs (as opposed to older songs the singer may struggle with) in order to play them live?

It was said long ago that U2 didn't play 'Red Hill Mining Town' for long in 1987 for this reason (and didn't release it as a 45 because they couldn't play it live? - despite Neil Jordan having made a video?). Presumably it's never been played since.

I have an idea that 'The Unforgettable Fire' posed Bono a problem also, but then again I have a DVD of them playing that in USA 1987. It's exciting to see, but they can't really replicate the instrumental thrills in the middle.

"Just What I Needed" by the Cars is pitched sharp on the record because Roy Thomas Baker sped it up, but it was always played live in a different, lower key.

I have an idea that 'The Unforgettable Fire' posed Bono a problem also, but then again I have a DVD of them playing that in USA 1987. It's exciting to see, but they can't really replicate the instrumental thrills in the middle.

When I saw them in 1985 they didn’t seem to struggle with it, though Bono didn’t attempt the highest falsetto notes. The instrumental midsection worked well with Edge doing the string parts on slide guitar against a sequencer. But since so much of the chorus is at the absolute top of Bono’s range, I can see why they may not have played it live much.

how many bands lowered the keys of brand-new songs (as opposed to older songs the singer may struggle with) in order to play them live?

Would Friday I'm in Love count? The studio version of which was pitched up.