They've always been damn integral to The Fly, and 2023 is really damn good but...

There's always this one...

As awesome as The Sphere is U2 (or anyone) will never top ZOO TV.

Zoo Station and it's opening (for the stadium tours especially) was brilliant and beyond anything that hack Roger Waters could come up with.

The Fly was complete overload.

Until The End Of The World was Mozart on steroids with video screens and a wah-wah pedal.

ZOO TV was just a complete change of the medium. Chaotic upheaval with mind numbing pace/content that has become normal.

Somehow U2 predicted and predicated, unknowingly, how the future, since then until now, and for however longer, how technology + attention span + volume/size + sound + vision/content all being slammed together, would be.

Because ever since ZOO TV, media, in general, has been of that chaos; prior to ZOO TV it was grampa's slow version of about to snooze TV.

I've been to quite a few ZooTV shows back in 1992/93 and never before or after I have been to a concert where the setlist was as perfectly structured and paced as on those ZooTV and Zooropa shows in 1992/93, with Dublin 28/08/93 being the absolute perfect concert.
The sensory overload of it all added to the experience and did not take away from the music, it all felt like a huge piece of art, but immersive.
Absolutely mindblowing.

Zoo Tour(s) were also my favorite, although the later ones were technically advanced. Wondering with this tour they're thinking of a return of sorts.

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frankotero
Zoo Tour(s) were also my favorite, although the later ones were technically advanced. Wondering with this tour they're thinking of a return of sorts.

After the Sphere shows it seems like they're going to record a new album and then in 2025 tour (if they're smart they'll do stadiums but if they're really smart they'll do arenas). They've still got quite a few years left to go so this next album probably won't be their last one.

For whatever reason, they abandoned SONGS OF ASCENT. No actual idea if they recorded anything for it. Perhaps they were going for a trilogy but changed their mind.

I doubt they'll follow in the Stones' footsteps and just keep going for years without anything new, original or not, and playing the same old songs over and over and over for years between a decade of hits comps being released.

Yeah yeah, they don't need the money, just like the Stones, but to keep going, well, they need the money: can you imagine the amount they pay (like the Stones) to rent various stadiums and arenas for one or four shows? They eat that. So they like to make it up, hence sponsors and promoters getting a guarantee.

The Stones rented out the Louisiana Superdome in 1994 for 3 days at something like $100,000 a day and only about 32,000 out of 65,000 or whatever were purchased. I was there and was completely blown away at how empty the Supe was. They certainly made a profit but nowhere close to any other show on the VOODOO tour.

It's no wonder they didn't come back to New Orleans until the summer of 2019 after their first failed Jazz Fest attempt.

I like the song "Mercy". If the album "Songs of Ascent" were any indication of this type material it's a real shame. But yeah, I know their moniker is to keep changing and not live in the past. Although they're doing it right now.

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frankotero
I like the song "Mercy". If the album "Songs of Ascent" were any indication of this type material it's a real shame. But yeah, I know their moniker is to keep changing and not live in the past. Although they're doing it right now.

Apparently SONGS OF ASCENT is finished, or almost finished, depending on what you find (haven't read anything about it for a while until today LOL) but will most likely be released after their as-yet-recorded noisy rock album.

Cool, good news. I'm curious to hear the album. I suppose the "noisy" album will include Atomic City. It's not a bad track in my opinion. Funny, my Wife immediately said is that Blondie like many others.

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frankotero
Cool, good news. I'm curious to hear the album. I suppose the "noisy" album will include Atomic City. It's not a bad track in my opinion. Funny, my Wife immediately said is that Blondie like many others.

Atomic City is nowhere near what they're considering in regard to a noisy guitar driven rock album.

Atomic City sounds like a leftover from SOI. They've never released a song that sounded like any prior song to anything else until Atomic City (with exception to their B-sides).

That's probably inevitable. The Stones have done that, to various degree, at times. Mick has been very vocal about not doing that, not verbatim, exactly, yet it's in what he says that he doesn't say that gives it away that they do, even if he has nothing to do with it, which, of course, is a total flip from Keith not having to do with anything sometimes, which has been 100% true, outside of "writing" it.

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GasLightStreet
As awesome as The Sphere is U2 (or anyone) will never top ZOO TV.

Zoo Station and it's opening (for the stadium tours especially) was brilliant and beyond anything that hack Roger Waters could come up with.

The Fly was complete overload.

Until The End Of The World was Mozart on steroids with video screens and a wah-wah pedal.

ZOO TV was just a complete change of the medium. Chaotic upheaval with mind numbing pace/content that has become normal.

Somehow U2 predicted and predicated, unknowingly, how the future, since then until now, and for however longer, how technology + attention span + volume/size + sound + vision/content all being slammed together, would be.

Because ever since ZOO TV, media, in general, has been of that chaos; prior to ZOO TV it was grampa's slow version of about to snooze TV.

Well said! I hate to admit but I would not be very interested in watching every gig the Stones did on, let's say, the Voodoo Lounge tour but I would definitely watch all concerts from the Zoo TV/Zooropa Tour -- and that was a long tour. I would even add the Pop Tour gigs that were just as good, even if less revolutionary...

I also recommend revisiting Live From Red Rocks. That one gets better with each viewing...

I don't dig Bono's "new" hairdo, though. Reminds me of the hair on Michael Myers' mask.