Shuttlecock XXV: Cool Hats Club

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And thanks for sharing those Joe - I wouldn't have known about it otherwise, and missed that it also features James Murphy, Bobby Gillespie, Isaac Brock, Mary Lattimore... gonna check it out!
 
Imperor said:
Other than Hedge’s guitar cutting out the moment before the Fly solo (completely took me out of the number grid collapse sequence) and Boner quite literally sucking his thumb for half of TTTYAATW, I think that was pretty damn good.

Also… hello.
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I doubt you'll even read this but GFY, - and also congrats on the WS win, thought of you often during their postseason run.

I saw another show just over two weeks ago now. I don't have much more to say than last time and besides others have covered their experiences a lot more thoroughly and eloquently than I am ever able to. I will add a tad more but will spoiler it, not because it will give anything away, just so if you don't know me or do but don't give 2 shits about an old man babbling away, you can skip it with ease:

I'll just say that it's probably a good thing that I do not live closer to Vegas or I suspect I'd be going to way too many shows. There's just no overstating how fucking awesome it is to hear all of AB. It means a lot to me. I'll also say that this show found me focusing a little more on the stage, as well as the audience, as opposed to the Sphere itself. That was deliberate; the venue remains insane but I just wanted a slightly different experience this time. This freed my mind up a little bit and I found myself more than once thinking back to my first ever listen to AB (in my car, after work, in the mall's parking lot after having bought the CD at Sam Goody - I will NEVER forget how surreal and almost jarring it was to hear Zoo Station kick things off on the heels of albums like JT and R&H) and my absurdly off the charts excitement leading up to the first of many Zoo TV shows I'd eventually attend, including two shows at Yankee Stadium. I mean, seeing them at Yankee Stadium was joy overload for me, basically. I am not necessarily a major nostalgia guy but I don't ignore the pleasures of it either when it happens organically, and I just felt this confluence of joy while thinking about dumb-ass young me at these shows a long time ago along with gratitude that the band are still around, still sound great and that I am lucky enough to still be able to attend their concerts all these years later. I guess it was just nice to have a few hours of pure, untainted enjoyment that also served as a bridge to my past without diminishing the present by way of comparison. This of course speaks to the unique power and ability of music but that's a whole other discussion. Blah blah blah, sorry.

I stayed at the Venetian this last time so, I mean, talk about insanely convenient. It does not suck to just saunter on over to the concert on foot, and it sucks even less to be able to walk on back afterwards.

I might go again in February. I don't know.

Belated happy holiday wishes to you all, and I hope you guys have a happy and healthy New Year.

Oh, and, I just saw Ferrari. Not gonna sit here and say the film was life changing but, man, whatever mode he works in, it's just wonderful to have one more Michael Mann film out there to be enjoyed. Grateful for that, too.

Lastly, one of my favorite musical situations of the last few years has been the amazing return of Slowdive. My love of them and their peers from the 90's and after is pretty strong, and when I heard they were releasing an album in 2017 I was pleased but my expectations were mild, at best. Then I heard "Star Roving" from that album and I knew that album would be great, and it was. I like Everything is Alive even better, especially lyrically. When a band like that, or Ride, returns from a really long hiatus and it doesn't feel like a cash grab (and maybe it is/was, but it just doesn't give off that vibe) and they're actually making good or great new music and not just touring the old stuff, that's a really surprising and rewarding musical gift.
 
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I loved reading that paragraph, New South Wales. Beautiful, and I feel similar, though I obviously never saw ZooTV. How do these shows compare? There's two things I'd go back in time for - ZooTV, and to see the West Indies at their peak.

I wish I had stayed at the Venetian, but because of that fucking emo festival, prices were insane. On the day of the first concert I went to, I did a shitload of walking... I was on the strip and tried to "follow my gut" in the direction of where I thought the Sphere might be, and of course went like a kilometre in the wrong direction. Oh well, gave me more time to play Achtung Baby as I walked. I walked around the back, through the F1 track, and then spotted the Sphere. Still took fucking forever to get to, though. And I have to say, we all know that there were some major issues with the F1 race and the build, but there was something I saw in the construction area on the back straight as I walked towards the Sphere that really shocked me. I took a photo, and I'll put it in a spoiler, because it was pretty confronting. Maybe it's partly because I'm Australian and you just don't see this sort of thing here, but I was really taken aback.

backstagecoachella-copy.jpg
 
cobl04 said:
I loved reading that paragraph, New South Wales. Beautiful, and I feel similar, though I obviously never saw ZooTV. How do these shows compare? There's two things I'd go back in time for - ZooTV, and to see the West Indies at their peak.

I wish I had stayed at the Venetian, but because of that fucking emo festival, prices were insane. On the day of the first concert I went to, I did a shitload of walking... I was on the strip and tried to "follow my gut" in the direction of where I thought the Sphere might be, and of course went like a kilometre in the wrong direction. Oh well, gave me more time to play Achtung Baby as I walked. I walked around the back, through the F1 track, and then spotted the Sphere. Still took fucking forever to get to, though. And I have to say, we all know that there were some major issues with the F1 race and the build, but there was something I saw in the construction area on the back straight as I walked towards the Sphere that really shocked me. I took a photo, and I'll put it in a spoiler, because it was pretty confronting. Maybe it's partly because I'm Australian and you just don't see this sort of thing here, but I was really taken aback.


backstagecoachella-copy.jpg
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Thanks!

I mean, so much time has passed and so my memories of the Zoo TV shows I attended are no longer real, they're just memories of my memories if that makes sense. That being said - god bless the shows at the Sphere, they've really been a joy and will be until the residency is over, but, Zoo TV for me represented the band at their absolute peak, and you're talking to someone whose favorite album is JT and who saw them on that tour as well. I just feel like Zoo TV found them firing on all cylinders and that in my experience in life up to that point, I'd never seen anything even close to the spectacle of the outside broadcasts. Plus NYD was being played nightly if memory serves and Bad was being played sporadically so for me that's a major thing too. I hate comparing and contrasting with so much time having passed between the shows but there you have my brief thoughts,

As for the image you included - you'll be hearing from my attorney.
 
Does anyone have data on app vs web use? Seems like a large assumption that the app being gone means the death of the website.
 
in addition to the giant obtrusive ads, the mobile web version requires a ton of side-scrolling, and i despise side-scrolling with the blazing fury of a trillion suns, so i don't visit the forums on my phone ever anymore.
 
Headache in a Suitcase said:
the main issue is that the current web version sucks - it's clunky and has giant ads all over it.

there's supposed to be an update but... well... nothing. can't get an answer.

and the place is dead since the app was pulled. it was finally seeing a teeny but of life, and now.. dead.
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Hopefully when shows start back at end of month this place will see some increased traffic.
 
cobl04 said:
I can't remember the last time I saw an ad? :shrug:
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Same here.
I only use Interference when I'm on a laptop. So with an Ad-Block installed there are no annoying ads. Never used the app. I don't like it when I need to use a separate app for every little thing on my phone.
 
Going again to the Sphere on February 18th. GA. Taking my older brother with me this time around, without whom I would not have been listening to Achtung Baby when I was 5 years old.

Of course, I expect those rumoured 5 Zooropa tracks this time around. Lemon, Dirty Day, Stay, The Wanderer and The First Time will suffice. I am not greedy. I won't request Daddy's Gonna Pay for Your Crashed Car.
 
djerdap said:
Going again to the Sphere on February 18th. GA. Taking my older brother with me this time around, without whom I would not have been listening to Achtung Baby when I was 5 years old.

Of course, I expect those rumoured 5 Zooropa tracks this time around. Lemon, Dirty Day, Stay, The Wanderer and The First Time will suffice. I am not greedy. I won't request Daddy's Gonna Pay for Your Crashed Car.
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Have fun, of course U2 scheduled these last round of shows when I'm in Costa Rica, but oh well. Maybe I'll catch them if they come around to Chicago again.
 
djerdap said:
My review for the October 5th show:

Well, for somebody who is an Achtung Baby / ZooTV fanatic, and who was too young to see that tour, this show was in many ways a dream come true. It was an ideal combination of intimacy and spectacle. I should emphasise as to how much of a small club experience that GA feels like, which was just as impressive as the bombastic production. Standing very close to Edge while he was playing his Love is Blindness solo - his greatest in my mind - is easily my U2 concert highlight.

A lot has been said about the venue and it truly is an intimidating, colossal and dystopian monstrosity. In a good way. I do think the band smartly utilized the screen, not letting it to overshadow and overpower the music. One random impression - I love the fact that the Achtung Baby sound effects followed you through those black hallways all the way to the bar or the toilet.

Gigantic screen notwithstanding, what matters is the playing and I think the band has approached this smartly. It is good to see Bono truly focused on the songs. Scripted Broadway speeches are thankfully gone. Long-ass political or campaign introductions are gone. A song like One sounded fresh because the focus was on the song and only the song. The Hear Us Coming verse was sadly missing, but Bono made up for it in trying to replicate the album falsetto climax. Sure, the Boner was talkative, especially during the acoustic set, but I never had the feeling it derailed the show, and it felt like it was honestly reflecting his enthusiasm.

As soon as that I Could Have Lost You intro started, I knew the show was going to be special. A minor flub or two notwithstanding, the band went through that first Achtung Baby set with tremendous power. The visuals were insane, especially during The Fly and Even Better Than the Real Thing. My one big complaint is Mysterious Ways should always, always have the slide guitar solo. Bram van den Berg was being faithful and respectful to Larry's drum parts, and what was possibly missing in Larry's unique groove was made up by his energy. Those drums were punished severely during the night.

Tryin' to Throw Your Arms Around the World was always a big live favourite for me and I was happy to see that this live version was similar to the ZooTV one. While Bono was doing his bit with the fan, Edge was doing some nice guitar improv parts. The only nitpick was that his guitar felt a bit low in the overall mix. The sound was in general very crisp and clear, even though the band might have overhyped the quality a bit in the promotional campaign. At least in the GA, it did not sound that revolutionary as advertised. But excellent sound nonetheless. Maybe some of you who had a seat had a different impression?

The acoustic set was the best one of the U2 acoustic sets I've seen (not there is that much competition there), simply because it was full band. I have enjoyed listening to Angel of Harlem for the first time live, and Bono dedicating All I Want is You to Eddie Vedder - who was having a lot of fun on the balcony with his wife and Javier Bardem - makes this a delight, since Pearl Jam is my other favorite band. It was bizarre to hear and see Love Rescue Me - possibly my least favourite pre-2000 track - but it was a nice little version, and it is cool to see Edge on bass. In terms of pacing, this part of the set might have been a tad too long. But I still vastly prefer that to I Still Haven't Found / Pride / MLK alternative. This was my first show without Pride and I have not missed it at all.

What followed was likely the highlight. So Cruel was done very well, and the masterful transition to a very powerful Acrobat showed that the band's moody and heavy dark side is one of its strongest. This culminated in a masterful version of Love is Blindness. I was trepidatious they might neuter the song a bit, but no, this was the ZooTV arrangement in its full glory, and Edge was just demolishing that guitar. I was never as emotional on a U2 show as during that song.

The encore was expectedly a crowd pleaser, just like the JT '17 tour. As much as I would like to hear anything other than Elevation as the encore opener (I think Hold Me, Thrill Me, Kiss Me, Kill Me would be ideal here), one has to admit it gets the people going, and the casuals probably deserved it after being subjected to the set from Love Rescue Me to Love is Blindness. The visuals during With or Without You were downright stunning. I did not mind Streets coming after Vertigo - as in the case of One, I think the song itself was in the foreground, and it is an excellent song even without a big intro or segue. Closing the show with Beautiful Day might seem weird, but it does make sense when you are there and you see that crazy screen doing its thing.

Overall, it was a special show and it made me far less cynical about the band. Those Achtung Baby songs are always incredibly powerful live and one can see how exquisite of a talent The Edge is in particular. If Larry was there, I would call it easily my favourite U2 show I've been to so far. Maybe it is anyway.
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Finally able to read this my friend, so glad you enjoyed the show so much, and I echo your sentiments on pretty much all of it.
Hope your brother has as much fun with you in a couple weeks.
 
Hewson said:
Finally able to read this my friend, so glad you enjoyed the show so much, and I echo your sentiments on pretty much all of it.
Hope your brother has as much fun with you in a couple weeks.
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Thanks a lot for the kind wishes
(Sphere GA is a birthday present for the brother, so he better like it!)
, and I'm really glad you enjoyed the show as much as I did, especially since you seem to find it comparable to ZooTV (I read the review in the other thread).

And yes, get Edge away from the acoustic guitar, and give him a piano only when New Year's Day, The Unforgettable Fire or October are being played!
 
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