Originally posted by CMIPalaeo:Had an interesting one last night: seeing a video of an old U2 show I hadn’t seen before which isn’t surprising... but the setlist was! I remember several small details about it, like it was a real show bootleg... I think it was being broadcast on TV but I definitely came here to download the audio and such so congrats, U2start — you’re literally the stuff of dreams.
Anyway, the show was from 23 April 1988, the first night of three in East Rutherford, NJ. These were the last shows of a short tour, maybe like 12-15 shows, of America that spring, continuing the Joshua Tree Tour from the year before. I guess they were playing small venues because it looked like something they’d have played in 1980 — the stage was small, almost like a tv stage, and the venue was a hall that couldn’t have been more than 1500 capacity...
The setlist was short, 14 songs I think, and I don’t know all of it, but the beginning was wild. I don’t remember the first song, but the second was the debut of a very rough early version of The Fly!! Bono must’ve been workshopping his persona to go with it, because he tried talking like Elvis before the song and his outfit was almost like a JT era take on The Fly — black leather jacket, but with studded black jeans instead of leather pants, he still had on a white tank top shirt or something similar, tall black boots... his sunglasses were just ordinary black shades instead of the wraparound ones, and his hair was of course still long and wild as it was in those days. The performance was not tight at all but golly was it enthusiastic. It was shorter than The Fly would later become, kind of devolving to the ending consisting of the band all just wailing on their instruments in a wall of clashing sounds while Bono jumped around and shouted.
They played I Still Haven’t Found next which settled things, and was a good performance. Then, the fourth song was MLK, and as I watched and anticipated The Unforgettable Fire, when they instead began to play One Tree Hill I was so surprised I almost didn’t recognize it for a minute!
OTH was an odd performance too. Bono was still “in character” as this proto-Fly, just as he would be on ZooTV and the song didn’t sound quite like it did back then. Well, mostly it did, I suppose, but the intro had a rather shrill, sharp ringing tone I’d never heard before and as the song went on Edge’s sound was definitely heavier and fuzzier. Again, the ending of this one kind of turned into the band just cutting loose, but as this wasn’t a brand new song they knew what they were doing — imagine the OTH from the first Dublin Lovetown show and combine it with one of the wilder ZooTV UTEOTW outros, but it’s still One Tree Hill. Bono chanted various exhortations as Edge completely blasted a solo to atoms. If OTH has made it to ZooTV, it’d have been like this. The ending — ‘o great ocean, o great sea’ — effortlessly transitioned into With Or Without You which seemed awful early in the set, but it sure worked after that One Tree Hill... it was a stellar performance, one of those ones where Bono is all in and can barely control himself, just singing with every fiber of his being... shine like stars was, of course, present and correct.
Unfortunately I don’t remember the rest of the setlist, though I know Streets and The Electric Co. were in the later part of the set. I wish I could remember the opener, it seemed like something really odd, but it worked really well, seems like it was another early debut?? Desire, perhaps?
Gosh, I just wish the show was real so I could go and listen to it again. I had one of those moments upon waking up where it was like “ah neat I downloaded the bootleg so of course I can just finish the rest of that show!!” and then... reality sunk in.
Originally posted by EridescoFly:[..]
Maybe in an alternative universe, this tour actually happened!
Originally posted by CMIPalaeo:Had an interesting one last night: seeing a video of an old U2 show I hadn’t seen before which isn’t surprising... but the setlist was! I remember several small details about it, like it was a real show bootleg... I think it was being broadcast on TV but I definitely came here to download the audio and such so congrats, U2start — you’re literally the stuff of dreams.
Anyway, the show was from 23 April 1988, the first night of three in East Rutherford, NJ. These were the last shows of a short tour, maybe like 12-15 shows, of America that spring, continuing the Joshua Tree Tour from the year before. I guess they were playing small venues because it looked like something they’d have played in 1980 — the stage was small, almost like a tv stage, and the venue was a hall that couldn’t have been more than 1500 capacity...
The setlist was short, 14 songs I think, and I don’t know all of it, but the beginning was wild. I don’t remember the first song, but the second was the debut of a very rough early version of The Fly!! Bono must’ve been workshopping his persona to go with it, because he tried talking like Elvis before the song and his outfit was almost like a JT era take on The Fly — black leather jacket, but with studded black jeans instead of leather pants, he still had on a white tank top shirt or something similar, tall black boots... his sunglasses were just ordinary black shades instead of the wraparound ones, and his hair was of course still long and wild as it was in those days. The performance was not tight at all but golly was it enthusiastic. It was shorter than The Fly would later become, kind of devolving to the ending consisting of the band all just wailing on their instruments in a wall of clashing sounds while Bono jumped around and shouted.
They played I Still Haven’t Found next which settled things, and was a good performance. Then, the fourth song was MLK, and as I watched and anticipated The Unforgettable Fire, when they instead began to play One Tree Hill I was so surprised I almost didn’t recognize it for a minute!
OTH was an odd performance too. Bono was still “in character” as this proto-Fly, just as he would be on ZooTV and the song didn’t sound quite like it did back then. Well, mostly it did, I suppose, but the intro had a rather shrill, sharp ringing tone I’d never heard before and as the song went on Edge’s sound was definitely heavier and fuzzier. Again, the ending of this one kind of turned into the band just cutting loose, but as this wasn’t a brand new song they knew what they were doing — imagine the OTH from the first Dublin Lovetown show and combine it with one of the wilder ZooTV UTEOTW outros, but it’s still One Tree Hill. Bono chanted various exhortations as Edge completely blasted a solo to atoms. If OTH has made it to ZooTV, it’d have been like this. The ending — ‘o great ocean, o great sea’ — effortlessly transitioned into With Or Without You which seemed awful early in the set, but it sure worked after that One Tree Hill... it was a stellar performance, one of those ones where Bono is all in and can barely control himself, just singing with every fiber of his being... shine like stars was, of course, present and correct.
Unfortunately I don’t remember the rest of the setlist, though I know Streets and The Electric Co. were in the later part of the set. I wish I could remember the opener, it seemed like something really odd, but it worked really well, seems like it was another early debut?? Desire, perhaps?
Gosh, I just wish the show was real so I could go and listen to it again. I had one of those moments upon waking up where it was like “ah neat I downloaded the bootleg so of course I can just finish the rest of that show!!” and then... reality sunk in.
Originally posted by CMIPalaeo:Had an interesting one last night: seeing a video of an old U2 show I hadn’t seen before which isn’t surprising... but the setlist was! I remember several small details about it, like it was a real show bootleg... I think it was being broadcast on TV but I definitely came here to download the audio and such so congrats, U2start — you’re literally the stuff of dreams.
Anyway, the show was from 23 April 1988, the first night of three in East Rutherford, NJ. These were the last shows of a short tour, maybe like 12-15 shows, of America that spring, continuing the Joshua Tree Tour from the year before. I guess they were playing small venues because it looked like something they’d have played in 1980 — the stage was small, almost like a tv stage, and the venue was a hall that couldn’t have been more than 1500 capacity...
The setlist was short, 14 songs I think, and I don’t know all of it, but the beginning was wild. I don’t remember the first song, but the second was the debut of a very rough early version of The Fly!! Bono must’ve been workshopping his persona to go with it, because he tried talking like Elvis before the song and his outfit was almost like a JT era take on The Fly — black leather jacket, but with studded black jeans instead of leather pants, he still had on a white tank top shirt or something similar, tall black boots... his sunglasses were just ordinary black shades instead of the wraparound ones, and his hair was of course still long and wild as it was in those days. The performance was not tight at all but golly was it enthusiastic. It was shorter than The Fly would later become, kind of devolving to the ending consisting of the band all just wailing on their instruments in a wall of clashing sounds while Bono jumped around and shouted.
They played I Still Haven’t Found next which settled things, and was a good performance. Then, the fourth song was MLK, and as I watched and anticipated The Unforgettable Fire, when they instead began to play One Tree Hill I was so surprised I almost didn’t recognize it for a minute!
OTH was an odd performance too. Bono was still “in character” as this proto-Fly, just as he would be on ZooTV and the song didn’t sound quite like it did back then. Well, mostly it did, I suppose, but the intro had a rather shrill, sharp ringing tone I’d never heard before and as the song went on Edge’s sound was definitely heavier and fuzzier. Again, the ending of this one kind of turned into the band just cutting loose, but as this wasn’t a brand new song they knew what they were doing — imagine the OTH from the first Dublin Lovetown show and combine it with one of the wilder ZooTV UTEOTW outros, but it’s still One Tree Hill. Bono chanted various exhortations as Edge completely blasted a solo to atoms. If OTH has made it to ZooTV, it’d have been like this. The ending — ‘o great ocean, o great sea’ — effortlessly transitioned into With Or Without You which seemed awful early in the set, but it sure worked after that One Tree Hill... it was a stellar performance, one of those ones where Bono is all in and can barely control himself, just singing with every fiber of his being... shine like stars was, of course, present and correct.
Unfortunately I don’t remember the rest of the setlist, though I know Streets and The Electric Co. were in the later part of the set. I wish I could remember the opener, it seemed like something really odd, but it worked really well, seems like it was another early debut?? Desire, perhaps?
Gosh, I just wish the show was real so I could go and listen to it again. I had one of those moments upon waking up where it was like “ah neat I downloaded the bootleg so of course I can just finish the rest of that show!!” and then... reality sunk in.
You gotta love what your mind comes up with in dreams sometimes..