Tour Name Thoughts
I love being married to a mathematician. I just told him that the U2 World Tour’s name has changed to “U2360″ according to Billboard and he looks at me and says “Why not call it U2*Pi?” And I look at him with this confused expression. He then informs me that 2Pi is 360-degrees in radians. I would have never thought of this in a million years. With The Edge as the band’s resident scientist, I’m sure even he didn’t think of it in terms like this. Although, it does give an interesting idea for the tour’s merchandise.
Earlier rumors about the tour’s name being from a song lyric had my friends and I enjoying a guessing game of which lyric it would be. The lyric we would have had the most fun with was “And sing whatever song you wanted me to” from “Magnificent” – wouldn’t it be cool for the band to take requests either from the stage or like what David Bowie did a few years ago and invited fans to make suggestions through is web site?
All this just has me more excited for the tour’s announcement on Monday.
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I’m just glad it’s not the “Kiss The Future Tour” any more. “The future needs a big kiss” is an embarrassing lyric and there’s no need to call even more attention to it.
It’s really not that bad of a lyric. In fact, it’s rather good and entirely too true.
I’d name it the “I wouldn’t kiss just anybody’s cockatoo” Tour.
I like the sound of The “Loose Electricity” Tour.
I didn’t like Kiss the Future at all, but I don’t especially care for 360 either. I was hoping for Let Me In The Sound.
I think the idea of online requests are good, though you’d have to keep it limited to a certain number of songs and a certain number of setlist entries. An anything and everything approach would be a nightmare to rehearse and though I pretend not to know the specifics of Bowie’s arrangement, I doubt that was the case there either. Besides, the band need to play what they want to keep them fired up and at their interested best. Of course, that includes new, old and a few hidden gems or sorely forgotten stonkers along the way – personally I’d love Lady With the Spinning Head to boom across Hampden Park in Glasgow as the encore opener. As awesome and immortal as the likes of Pride and Streets are, there’s only so many times the band can play them in the same way, in the same slot until even they collapse of boredom, after all.
As for the name, I think I agree with Beth. “Let me in the Sound” would have worked on all levels, it’s catchy, not overly-pretentious and relevant (both lyrically and otherwise.) “Loose Electricity” would have worked well too Erika, while “Kiss the Future” would have been rather toe-curling, indeed. I can’t say I’m mad on U2360, though. I can see why they’re using it, and wanting to promote that very promising aspect of the show, but it just seems a bit up its own arse – “We’re U2 and we’re now a fantastic 360 degrees!” “360″ on its own at least, I feel would have worked better. The idea of “Pi” was interesting and while I think most people would have related it to the whole circular aspect on that simple connection alone, it wouldn’t have worked for a second. It would have seemed very anorakish and while anything to do with radians is, I think, above the vast majority of most people’s O-level maths (certainly including my own), that would have seemed even more anorakish still for those who got it.
It’ll also be interesting to see how the field level seating will work with general admission, or have I interpreted that wrongly from the Billboard article? Will the GA be seated also – not standing pit is worrying. Maybe someone could fill me in. At any rate, I don’t like the idea of the random general admission upgrade though, which would seem to suggest standing. There’s a certain morality and fairness in allowing the most dedicated fans to the front of the crowd simply, by turning up early which also means those most into it are right in front of the stage – a huge boost to the band’s performance and general atmosphere of the show.
I must say I’m also surprised at U2 deciding to play stadiums in America during this credit crunch bollocks than play it safe and boring with arenas for profit reasons. But I really like the fact they’re trying to keep prices low and even more the fact they’ve decided to go for this original outside affair. Your average stadium rock ‘n’ roll fest rocks the balls off most sports hall shows anyway, and this set-up should be especially awesome. Rock on!
Dave, you may not have to worry about the random GA in Europe. So far they’ve restricted that lousy idea to the U.S.
As for taking requests, it wouldn’t work with U2. It does work with Springsteen and I suspect Bowie had a top notch band. U2 is not a top notch band in the traditional sense. They’re a great live band as long as they stick to the script, but they take a long time to learn songs and for the most part, they don’t seem to know there songs, aside from those that they play over and over and over and over and over and over and over again.
I’ve seen artists/bands that play over 100 songs throughout the course of a tour. You’d probably have to have started going to U2 concerts in 87 (or even 84) to get to 100 songs (not counting snippets). My first show was Indoor Zoo. I’ve seen them probably 30-35 times (which is more than any other artist I can think of) and my song count is roughly 80. In the end, the best we’re ever going to get is the best of u2 with an occasional rarity and 5 or 6 new songs/show….if we’re lucky, they’ll trade new songs in and out. Last tour they did play some really old tracks (not my favorite period….but I appreciated the nod to their oldest fans) and it was definitely nice to hear Gloria and Electrico. Also liked Miss Sarajevo a lot more than I remembered, but aside from those songs, it was mostly best of U2 + a few new songs. I expect a best of set this time as well…especially since they’re playing stadiums, where they have far more non-diehard fans.
The bigger the venue, the less adventurous the set is.
>>The bigger the venue, the less adventurous the set is.
I have to agree here. I think shows this tour will consist mainly of 2 types of songs. 1. Hits and 2. New album material.
I do think U2 fans are lucky tho- U2 really cares about the new material whereas many artists don’t. I remember seeing Mellencamp at Red Rocks back in ’99 and hoping that he would play a bunch from his new album but all we got was 2 new songs. Same with Tom Petty a couple years ago and many more. I go to U2 concerts to see the new songs. Yes I would love to hear the old stuff, but I wouldn’t want a new song sacrificed to make way for it.