Stories Of Surrender tour (November 2022 + April-May 2023)

Originally posted by LikeASong:Dear Friends…

On Saturday evening I will end my Songs of Surrender tour with a performance at the Teatro San Carlo. This means the world to me. I am attempting to live a dream, in fact a series of dreams. The dream of all opera singers (and I am not one), a dream of mine, and most of all a dream to honour my late father, Brendan Robert Hewson, who was a fine tenor.

We are making a film of this dream and I would ask for your help in bringing the fantasy to life. I invite you, the best-dressed Europeans, to step out in style and dress up for our night at the opera. Formal wear if you have it. Black tie if you can swing it. Pearls and tiaras welcome. Fancy dress. Dark suits. Somewhere between Amadeus and 007. And yes, it’s your chance to look flash on the big screen.

Anyhow, do as you will. If you’ve only a black t-shirt that’s OK. But if you have a top hat and tail coat in the closet, consider busting them out.

This is going to be a big night. Come as you aren’t.

See you Saturday,

Bono

Originally posted by LikeASong:Dear Friends…

On Saturday evening I will end my Songs of Surrender tour with a performance at the Teatro San Carlo. This means the world to me. I am attempting to live a dream, in fact a series of dreams. The dream of all opera singers (and I am not one), a dream of mine, and most of all a dream to honour my late father, Brendan Robert Hewson, who was a fine tenor.

We are making a film of this dream and I would ask for your help in bringing the fantasy to life. I invite you, the best-dressed Europeans, to step out in style and dress up for our night at the opera. Formal wear if you have it. Black tie if you can swing it. Pearls and tiaras welcome. Fancy dress. Dark suits. Somewhere between Amadeus and 007. And yes, it’s your chance to look flash on the big screen.

Anyhow, do as you will. If you’ve only a black t-shirt that’s OK. But if you have a top hat and tail coat in the closet, consider busting them out.

This is going to be a big night. Come as you aren’t.

See you Saturday,

Bono

Originally posted by haytrain:Wow, what a day yesterday....Having never seen Bono's solo show before, I was expecting a straight run-through of the regular show (similar to what I saw at the Rose Bowl in 2009 when they recorded the concert), but once we got in, I saw 7 cameras up on the stage with him around, blocking my view of Jackknife Lee and the harpist/vocalist. This wasn't going to be a 'normal' show.

Someone from the production came on stage and explained that they'd be doing some of the songs from this perspective, repeating them as necessary, and then moving the cameras to the back of the room and running through a longer version of the show....Bono would be giving us direction along the way, which made us all cheer. We waited, waited some more, and eventually he came on-stage singing COBL. Again, not having seen the show, I don't know how much of the "stories" I missed, but it was an unforgettable experience seeing the music performances in this way. I was dead-center, 7 rows back, and while I've been on the rail for several live performances, this one felt different. Way more intimate than anything I'd ever seen with him, and he was very personable throughout the whole thing. Sure, he interacts with the crowd when playing a stadium of 60,000 people, and you know he's probably telling the same stale anecdotes night after night. But this felt different. It felt like he was there, genuinely there and having a great time and wanted it to be an incredibly special night for all of us. What a showman.

Looking at the setlist for 4/13/23, the only song I don't remember hearing was WOWY. I think everything else was played, and usually 2-3 times. Sometimes, Bono would finish the song and then hear from the director in his in-ear monitor, then tell us "okay, guys....we're gonna do that one again" and they'd run through it again. Two cringe-worthy moments to share: While singing Iris when the song ends with just Bono's voice ringing out, some woman let out an incredibly inappropriate yell/scream that KILLED the moment. We repeated that one right away and she learned her lesson: you could hear a pin drop the second time through. Later in the day, the man seated next to us forgot to turn his phone off, and so his really annoying alarm clock started ringing out. Everyone around us heard it, but he refused to do anything about it (keep in mind, it was locked away in the little pouch thing). My friend leaned over and said "I think that's you, man..." and he said "Yeah, I'm not sure what to do." It went on for another 60-90 seconds before he finally carried it out into the lobby area.

I can't wait to see what this release looks like. I imagine that most of the "stories" part has already been recorded by Bono in an empty theater, and they wanted the crowd there for the songs yesterday. I'm not sure what the mood/attitude was during the normal tour, but we stood the entire time, and sang along to all of the songs. It felt more like a subdued acoustic rock concert than it did a one-man book tour. It will be really exciting to see how it all comes together. Bono wasn't sure if he was supposed to share the plan with how they incorporate what we filmed yesterday with what they're recording in Italy (I would imagine it's probably already been posted on other forums or somewhere), but it sounds cool, and in theory will be a great moment on the release.

I said to my wife afterwards, "I feel like I just got to hang out with Bono for 4 hours today..." Truly an unforgettable experience.

Originally posted by haytrain:Wow, what a day yesterday....Having never seen Bono's solo show before, I was expecting a straight run-through of the regular show (similar to what I saw at the Rose Bowl in 2009 when they recorded the concert), but once we got in, I saw 7 cameras up on the stage with him around, blocking my view of Jackknife Lee and the harpist/vocalist. This wasn't going to be a 'normal' show.

Someone from the production came on stage and explained that they'd be doing some of the songs from this perspective, repeating them as necessary, and then moving the cameras to the back of the room and running through a longer version of the show....Bono would be giving us direction along the way, which made us all cheer. We waited, waited some more, and eventually he came on-stage singing COBL. Again, not having seen the show, I don't know how much of the "stories" I missed, but it was an unforgettable experience seeing the music performances in this way. I was dead-center, 7 rows back, and while I've been on the rail for several live performances, this one felt different. Way more intimate than anything I'd ever seen with him, and he was very personable throughout the whole thing. Sure, he interacts with the crowd when playing a stadium of 60,000 people, and you know he's probably telling the same stale anecdotes night after night. But this felt different. It felt like he was there, genuinely there and having a great time and wanted it to be an incredibly special night for all of us. What a showman.

Looking at the setlist for 4/13/23, the only song I don't remember hearing was WOWY. I think everything else was played, and usually 2-3 times. Sometimes, Bono would finish the song and then hear from the director in his in-ear monitor, then tell us "okay, guys....we're gonna do that one again" and they'd run through it again. Two cringe-worthy moments to share: While singing Iris when the song ends with just Bono's voice ringing out, some woman let out an incredibly inappropriate yell/scream that KILLED the moment. We repeated that one right away and she learned her lesson: you could hear a pin drop the second time through. Later in the day, the man seated next to us forgot to turn his phone off, and so his really annoying alarm clock started ringing out. Everyone around us heard it, but he refused to do anything about it (keep in mind, it was locked away in the little pouch thing). My friend leaned over and said "I think that's you, man..." and he said "Yeah, I'm not sure what to do." It went on for another 60-90 seconds before he finally carried it out into the lobby area.

I can't wait to see what this release looks like. I imagine that most of the "stories" part has already been recorded by Bono in an empty theater, and they wanted the crowd there for the songs yesterday. I'm not sure what the mood/attitude was during the normal tour, but we stood the entire time, and sang along to all of the songs. It felt more like a subdued acoustic rock concert than it did a one-man book tour. It will be really exciting to see how it all comes together. Bono wasn't sure if he was supposed to share the plan with how they incorporate what we filmed yesterday with what they're recording in Italy (I would imagine it's probably already been posted on other forums or somewhere), but it sounds cool, and in theory will be a great moment on the release.

I said to my wife afterwards, "I feel like I just got to hang out with Bono for 4 hours today..." Truly an unforgettable experience.

Originally posted by iamcrazytonight:Do we know where this taping will be broadcast? The NY show on 9 May (or the Naples one if it's gonna be taped as well) ?

Originally posted by haytrain:Wow, what a day yesterday....Having never seen Bono's solo show before, I was expecting a straight run-through of the regular show (similar to what I saw at the Rose Bowl in 2009 when they recorded the concert), but once we got in, I saw 7 cameras up on the stage with him around, blocking my view of Jackknife Lee and the harpist/vocalist. This wasn't going to be a 'normal' show.

Someone from the production came on stage and explained that they'd be doing some of the songs from this perspective, repeating them as necessary, and then moving the cameras to the back of the room and running through a longer version of the show....Bono would be giving us direction along the way, which made us all cheer. We waited, waited some more, and eventually he came on-stage singing COBL. Again, not having seen the show, I don't know how much of the "stories" I missed, but it was an unforgettable experience seeing the music performances in this way. I was dead-center, 7 rows back, and while I've been on the rail for several live performances, this one felt different. Way more intimate than anything I'd ever seen with him, and he was very personable throughout the whole thing. Sure, he interacts with the crowd when playing a stadium of 60,000 people, and you know he's probably telling the same stale anecdotes night after night. But this felt different. It felt like he was there, genuinely there and having a great time and wanted it to be an incredibly special night for all of us. What a showman.

Looking at the setlist for 4/13/23, the only song I don't remember hearing was WOWY. I think everything else was played, and usually 2-3 times. Sometimes, Bono would finish the song and then hear from the director in his in-ear monitor, then tell us "okay, guys....we're gonna do that one again" and they'd run through it again. Two cringe-worthy moments to share: While singing Iris when the song ends with just Bono's voice ringing out, some woman let out an incredibly inappropriate yell/scream that KILLED the moment. We repeated that one right away and she learned her lesson: you could hear a pin drop the second time through. Later in the day, the man seated next to us forgot to turn his phone off, and so his really annoying alarm clock started ringing out. Everyone around us heard it, but he refused to do anything about it (keep in mind, it was locked away in the little pouch thing). My friend leaned over and said "I think that's you, man..." and he said "Yeah, I'm not sure what to do." It went on for another 60-90 seconds before he finally carried it out into the lobby area.

I can't wait to see what this release looks like. I imagine that most of the "stories" part has already been recorded by Bono in an empty theater, and they wanted the crowd there for the songs yesterday. I'm not sure what the mood/attitude was during the normal tour, but we stood the entire time, and sang along to all of the songs. It felt more like a subdued acoustic rock concert than it did a one-man book tour. It will be really exciting to see how it all comes together. Bono wasn't sure if he was supposed to share the plan with how they incorporate what we filmed yesterday with what they're recording in Italy (I would imagine it's probably already been posted on other forums or somewhere), but it sounds cool, and in theory will be a great moment on the release.

I said to my wife afterwards, "I feel like I just got to hang out with Bono for 4 hours today..." Truly an unforgettable experience.

Originally posted by hoserama:Seeing as the NYC Beacon run is coming to an end (ignoring the one-off Italian show for moment), here's a nice multiple IEM/AUD recording of the 5th show on 4/26/2023.

Will be torrenting in a bit.

[YouTube Video]

Originally posted by hoserama:Seeing as the NYC Beacon run is coming to an end (ignoring the one-off Italian show for moment), here's a nice multiple IEM/AUD recording of the 5th show on 4/26/2023.

Will be torrenting in a bit.

[YouTube Video]