Thighs Wide Shut

U2
Giants Stadium II
June 28th

Lets get one thing clear – The Joshua Tree is a fantastic album… but it’s not even close to being my favorite U2 album (hello Achtung Baby).  So when the JT tour was announced, I was going regardless, and knew I had some brushing up to do.  Probably re-listened to the album 50+ times since I secured tickets, and while I certainly liked what I heard and rediscovered, I wasn’t exactly jumping up and down in anticipation of the show.  Which is strange, cause I usually am for a U2 show – as this would be my 9th time seeing them (previously on U2TWS – 2015 / 2011 / 2009 / 2009 again)

I was 10 when the album was released, and not of concert going age.  The album is now 30 years old, and the concert experience put on to celebrate it is probably a better show than the original one was.  Obviously I cannot say that for certain, but just by looking at one of the shows from the ’87 tour, it looks like a primitive caveman staged it!!!!  U2 of today could never go back to those sparse good old days of yesteryear – their INCREDIBLE Zoo TV tour cinched that, ensuring all future tours would be a visual spectacle, each trying to top the previous, but U2 could at least go back and revisit the music, and refresh our memories of their past greatness, while dazzling our eyes with their current greatness

Surrounding the full run-through of the album, in order, U2 played a collection of greatest hits – all lovely choices, but I felt the non-JT songs (especially the modern ones in the encore) should have also had a more throwback feel.  How about a few more songs from the proceeding The Unforgettable Fire?  Or why no love for the follow-up/continuation of where Joshua left off – Rattle & Hum?  I think I could have forgone hearing ‘Vertigo’ and ‘Beautiful Day’ for an 8th time to hear me some ‘Van Diemen’s Land’!!  Well, at least the JT tour gave me one of the things I’ve always wanted to hear live – ‘In God’s Country’.  Next wish – Zoo TV 2 tour, 2021.  Make it happen lads!

While the theatrics have certainly changed, Bono, Edge, Adam and Larry are still the same 4 blokes we’ve always loved and admired, and perhaps we love them and admire them even more than we ever have.  Sure, they aren’t the Beatles, but the Beatles couldn’t stay together beyond a decade.  OK, so the Rolling Stones have never stopped rocking/touring, but they’ve also never stopped making albums more forgettable than the 2nd Vanilla Ice album.  U2 have carried and inflamed the torch of those rock gawd forefathers, and perhaps have even given us more than they ever have, and hopefully continue to do so.  New, old, newish-old – U2, you keep showing us what we’re looking for, even if we don’t know what it is we’re looking for!

https://www.instagram.com/p/BV6OEx6jt8y/

Setlist – Sunday Bloody Sunday /  New Year’s Day / Bad / Pride (In the Name of Love)

The Joshua Tree - Where the Streets Have No Name / I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For / With or Without You / Bullet the Blue Sky / Running to Stand Still / Red Hill Mining Town / In God’s Country / Trip Through Your Wires / One Tree Hill / Exit / Mothers of the Disappeared

Encore – Miss Sarajevo / Beautiful Day / Elevation / Vertigo / Ultraviolet (Light My Way) / One / The Little Things That Give You Away

U2
Madison Square Garden
July 19th

It was my 8th time seeing U2 (and 3rd time at MSG), and apparently the first time I had ever heard ‘October’ or ‘Gloria’ live!!!!!!!!!!  How do I know this, well you see, a week ago, I decided to create a profile on the incredible site – setlist.fm – to keep track of what concerts I’ve been to, and also to add shows I’ve been to that aint listed on the site (you should do the same and help make a better tomorrow!!!).  Well, they have a handy little statistics thing and you can see what songs a band has played at the shows you’ve attended.  Here are my U2 stats.  I haven’t heard a single song played at all 8 shows, but have heard ‘Beautiful Day’, ‘Mysterious Ways’  and ‘Vertigo’ at 7 of them!  Sadly, I’ve only heard my favorite, ‘Even Better Than The Real Thing’ at 3 of the shows.  What’s the point?  U2 are awesome, and have way TOO many songs to play, and sadly they don’t have time to play them all, so I have to keep going back, and improve my stats!

Btw – that new album that was thrown onto everyone’s tHighphones and caused mass hysteria and hate-aria – Songs of Innocence – is pretty fcuking awesome.  Of course it is – it’s a U2 album, and any U2 album sounds like U2, and thus instantly becomes a part of their prolific awesome back catalog.  ‘Vertigo’ is from an album that’s 11 years old, and yet it seems as vital and important as anything from their 80s or 90s output.  I already feel that ‘The Miracle (Of Joey Ramone)’ is a song that I want to hear them play at every show I see of theirs going forward.  That’s no miracle – it’s U2, and it’s me 3!

Btw 2 – nice frosted hair Bono.  You look like Philip as Clark on The Americans

Setlist

Set 1 - The Miracle (Of Joey Ramone) / Gloria / Vertigo / I Will Follow / Iris (Hold Me Close) / Cedarwood Road / Song for Someone / Sunday Bloody Sunday / Raised by Wolves / Until the End of the World / The Fly / Invisible / Even Better Than the Real Thing / Mysterious Ways / Volcano / Stuck in a Moment You Can’t Get Out of / October / Every Breaking Wave / With or Without You / City of Blinding Lights / Bullet the Blue Sky / Pride (In the Name of Love) 

Encore – Beautiful Day / Bad / Where the Streets Have No Name / I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For