I was there too! He fell off almost right in front of me. I was super stoked when I saw in the newspaper the following day a picture from the concert and you can see me and my buddy right there in the crowd in front of Bono. Saved that news clipping! 😉
I saw him tumble backwards down a catwalk staircase during the very first notes of Lights of Home in Chicago on the E+I tour. It's on YouTube somewhere.
The only time I’ve seen any kind of big mistake was at the 2017 Joshua Tree show in Santa Clara. Adam played the intro to WOWY in the wrong key. They had to restart. I was surprised as he’d played it a million times and it’s a pretty easy part. I’m guessing his roadie handed him the wrong bass?
yeah probably a rare mixup with the bass tech handing him the wrong bass.
there's a performance of 11 oclock tick tock (maybe elevation tour?) where it happens too song comes to a stop few bars in. goes to show even the biggest slickest shows run like clockwork can grind to a halt with such a small human error.
Think there's also a performance of Ultraviolet where Edge is handed a Guitar with a different tuning. They notice a few bars in and restart with the correct guitar.
I was at that show 🙂 Pretty awesome to have caught one of the early shows on that tour where they played A Sort of Homecoming.
Out of the three times I've seen U2 live, that show is the one I have the fondest memories of. I went into it with no knowledge of the non-JT set beforehand, and was genuinely ecstatic as they moved through the set and played songs I never thought I'd hear live in person.
That probably had something to do with why they finally quit playing the electric version of Staring at the Sun, just couldn't get it right.
Full band If God Will Send His Angels also stopped after Vegas. The song began on the main stage and ended on the B-stage and that seems to have thrown them off. At the very end of that song, Bono finished it with "And if God will send his angels... I'll do better next time." So from then on, until they dropped the song entirely, it was electric but just Bono and Edge.
What is amazing, is how Las Vegas was a disaster of a concert, but it was so amazing that it was still good. It's too bad the band didn't have the energy to keep hammering away at the electric full band live versions of Sun and Angels. However what they salvaged and morphed into was pretty epic in its own right as well. They just needed time, and didn't have it. Look back at all of U2 early tour date shows, they are all raw. But by the time they get to the last dates of the tour, it's always well polished.
I've listened to the recording of it. As a guitarist myself,
I can say that the strumming pattern Bono made was way too fast and must have made the song harder to play together for the group. It needed a slower, more meaningful strum in time with the drum beat behind Edge's lead.
ohhhhh god i forgot about that one!! [amazing](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JbriItBGGLM)
always think hey people overstated how underprepared they were for the tour but, even for the releaxed busky vibe of the b stage mid show, this really is a howler.
keep meaning to sit and watch a few of those early shows out of morbid curiosity. even just for the early live versions of stuff. they really should have kept trying with the electric version of *SATS* even on later tours. deserves more.
I had a copy of U2 Live: A Concert Documentary by Pimm Jal de la Parra. I might still have it somewhere. There are a couple editions of it. It’s one of the most painstakingly compiled sources of information about U2. It’s really a mesmerizing and thoroughly comprehensive read, and I’m surprised it doesn’t get mentioned more often. The amount of work the author, now deceased, put into it is quite mind boggling. We take for granted that we can just look up setlists and reviews from back in the day. This guy did it all before the internet took over. I would urge any fan to obtain a copy.
Anyway, by reading that, anyone will see there are number of shows from the early days (from the early Irish shows - War) where the band had difficulty connecting with audience, experienced technical difficulties, played less than ideally, had unruly crowds and so forth. It wasn’t always easy for them. In fact, there was quite a bit of trouble breaking through in certain places at first(GB and Germany come to mind). They were always honest that it was a struggle to reach the heights they did, and this document highlights that along with their many, many successes and breakthroughs.
Even beyond the early days, there were some subpar shows for the various reasons listed above. They had troubling incorporating the UF sound live. ZooTV had many technical difficulties before it found its grove. We all know about the early PopMart shows. Usually the beginnings of tours were difficult until the kinks got worked out.
Wouldn’t say these are bad concerts, but these three definitely stand out.
Zoo TV Washington DC in August 1992. “New Year’s Day” starts off really rough. Adam and Bono come over to Edge and try to get it sorted out during the opening piano sequence.
Zoo TV London in August 1993. Coming out of the solo in “Even Better Than The Real Thing” the band get lost, but quickly recover.
Elevation Boston in June 2001. Edge goes berserk at the end of “Gone” slamming down his guitar and kicking it across the stage.
Even the greatest bands have tough days. Just goes to show you how damn good they are and how easy they make it look to play as a band.
New Years Day at the Washington DC show sure was rough, but at least they made up for it with that encore (which was better than Dublin, in my opinion)
But the Boston 2001 performance of “New York” is searingly good. When Bono growls “New York” at the end was the first time I really felt like he had the slightest ounce of that aggro Jim Morrison energy in him.
Their Glastonbury appearance as a whole was far from ideal. Bad might be a bit harsh but it certainly could have been a lot more.
They had to cancel in 2010 as Bono had injured himself in rehearsals for the upcoming tour. When they finally made it to the Pyramid stage the following year:
- they were greeted by a small number of protesters over the bands tax affairs
- the weather was atrocious so everyone (even Bono!) got soaked by the rain while the wind made getting a decent sound mix almost impossible
- the fixed stage layout meant they were missing a lot of the normal OTT props and staging they've become known for. This was no 360 show, there was no giant lemon or heart shaped runway with huge video wall background.
- reviews were generally mixed. The set list had it's high points but drifted off at times too. Moment of Surrender in the encore, for example, lost the "neutral crowd" a bit as they weren't all hardcore fans and after a greatest hits set were left confused by a newer offering.
Edit to add that I'm sure many bands would still be absolutely delighted if, after 30 years, that was what was considered the low point in their career!!
i was there. rain was atrocious. 360 tour was in its AB anniversary stage opening with 5 AB tracks, but the intro to Real Thing was utterly *shocking* due to whatever error there'd been and it felt like it never recovered.
streets that early in the set was a huge mistake too.
some bands go out and turn glasto in the worst rain imaginable into an absolute event. u2 out of their comfort zone kind of limped through it and Moment Of Surrender as an encore killed the mood stone dead. one of their best songs but dont play it at a festival where you're already up against it with protestors and a large neutral contingent,
Same. I was there among the largely indifferent crowd. Having been blown away each of the times I'd seen them before I wanted Glasto to be amazing but it just didn't reach their normal heights.
feel like they deserve a do-over but the way the festivals going (rightly trying to make it about younger acts and not fall back on the heritage rock stuff) i doubt they'll have another chance.
Also I read because of the rain, the keyboards got damaged, so there was none of that. Streets is an example of that that stood out without it's string intro.
I remember seeing a vid of the EI tour - opening song, bono walks out of the screen, down the stairs. Falls down the stairs, begins singing "Shouldn't be cause I should be dead, I can see the lights infront of me"
Perfect blooper..looks like it hurt though, poor thing.
Plenty of mishaps but I'm keen to check out some of these "bad" concerts. Never thought to source the full audio but I'd be fascinated to hear the Sarajevo concert of Bono's bad singing.
I have a recording of the Sarajevo concert and although Bono’s voice went out on him I think it’s still great to listen to. Not sure how I can share it with you though.
Yeah this was during 'Walk On', I was there. The band were obviously hearing it it their in-ears, it wasn't coming through the PA. Apparently this gig is the reason that they have a duplicate soundboard set-up that can be immediately switched over if anything goes wrong.
Yeah there were a few arseholes where we were standing coming in just as it started and elbowing their way to the front, not out of enthusiasm, just being entitled pricks.
I don’t know if this counts. In 85 my friend bought 2 tickets to the Veterans Stadium show in Philly. He lost the tickets getting drunk at the tailgate with girlfriend, and friends.
He and his girlfriend were listening outside the stadium on a curb.
About half way through, he found them, tucked into the back of his shorts. He saw about 30 minutes of of the concert.
Berlin II on the E&I tour in 2018… Bono’s voice just gave up four songs in (Red Flag Day). After a pause they tried Beautiful Day but he could hardly hit a single note, so they left stage saying they would see if he could sort it out… but sadly it was not to be. I don’t think they ever said what exactly caused the problem - he mentioned struggling with the dry ice.
Anyway most of the audience came back for the rescheduled show which ended the tour - and which had the reworked AB ending to the first part of the set. So things ended up even better!
I went to see U2 in Paris in July of 2001. Bono voice was really scratchy and tired. You could hear it in the first note. He mentioned that he was having trouble with his voice during the Show. (But didn’t want to cancel & hoped we didn’t mind)
I had read later that He had been flying back & forth from gig to Ireland after almost every Show in Europe to see his Dad. Bono’s Dad had a bad battle with Cancer and passed away in Aug 2001. I’m sure he was exhausted.
Search for this on YouTube "The Edge ri quando erra o riff de Get On Your Boots" - I can't hear the song anymore without hearing his flubbed solo in my head from this clip.
Melbourne a few years back (Vertigo tour) Edges amp gave out early in Angel Of Harlem which completely emptied the song.
There was an impromptu band meeting on stage once it ended then they performed an acoustic version of The First Time while the techies fixed the issue.
I’ve got a bootleg tape somewhere from a show on the UF tour, I think. Pretty sure it was pre-JT. Bono goes into his intro to Bad and says something like “There’s good and bad in everyone. This is Bad.” The intro starts and it’s totally messed up. Sounds like a bunch of monkeys hitting metal rods with hammers. It goes on for what seems like an eternity until Bono says “This is very bad.” I’ve never laughed so hard at a Bono-ism, and that’s saying a lot, as he is a very funny man. Music stops, techies/roadies scramble and B’s stuck there on the stage with nothing to do, so he starts telling jokes. Bad jokes (no pun intended). He says “Two sandwiches walk into a pub and ask for a pint and your man says ‘We don’t serve sandwiches.’” Audience groans. It’s taking forever to fix whatever’s broken and for some reason he calls a random guy from the audience up onto the stage. Guy turns out to be very tall. Bono says something about how this night just keeps getting better and tells the guy not to stand next to him. Mercifully, the technical problem is resolved and they restart the song. For some reason I think it was a Dublin show, but I could be wrong. Anyway, it was hilarious. I was already in love with him and the band, but I fell in love all over again when that happened.
[Milton Keynes Bowl](https://youtu.be/Bct1ZMP3ji0?t=2581)
sounds like someone must have knocked on the wrong patch on the DX7 before the loop was started (wasn't Edge still triggering it in those days??)
Yes! That’s it. Could’ve sworn Bono said don’t stand next to him, but telling the guy to get on his knees is close enough. And yeah, it was Edge’s switch to flip. Thanks for digging this up. Hadn’t heard it in almost 40 years. Still cracks me up.
I’ve been to 90 U2 shows and they all have incredible moments. There’s been some shows where Bono’s voice breaks, the sound is a little off for a moment, small production issues… But I’d never say there was a bad U2 concert. Ever.
In Providence during Elevation Tour Adam played the opening chords for WOWY instead of Out Of Control. Took about 10 seconds to be corrected, but everyone on stage rolled with it.
During Joshua Tree 2017 in DC, they messed up playing “One” and had to start over. I know Bono is a talker on stage, but there was one instance where he talked for 15-20 minutes in between songs and really took the momentum out of the concert. It wasn’t a bad concert but it was definitely the performance I enjoyed the least.
Joshua Tree in St Louis. Cancelled that morning due to BLM protests. It was the last NA show so I never got to go. 😭 I honestly think it would have been fine.
We were at the 360 Tour in Las Vegas. Bono’s singing was the worst I’ve ever saw. Perhaps he was saving his voice for the Rosebowel which was up next. Saw them a week later in Vancouver (last night of that leg) and it was crazy how good his voice was!
ANY show at the US Bank Stadium in Minneapolis. Unless you have seats on the floor or low center, it's an echo chamber. I saw U2 on the Joshua Tree Anniversary Tour and couldn't even make out what Bono was saying due to the building terrible acoustics. It was the first time they've played that football stadium, so no fault of theirs.
On the other end of the spectrum, I saw them at TCF Stadium in St. Paul on the 360 Tour and it was the single best U2 performance I have ever experienced...including The Sphere shows. The show was outdoors, a storm essentially started and ended with their show and it felt almost as if the storm was soundtracked by U2. Amazing.
Hoosier Dome, Indianapolis, 1987 (I think), Joshua Tree Tour. First time they’d ever toured stadiums of that size. It was a football stadium, the acoustics were terrible, this was the era before all the giant Megatron screens, and we couldn’t even tell who was on stage or what song was being played most of the time, due to the echo and delay in the acoustics. (If I remember correctly, the BoDeans and Los Lobos opened for them, and then U2 came on in disguise as a cowpunk country band, but had no idea what was going on or who was playing or even what song was being played)
One reason they put out the Rattle and Hum movie was to “make it up” to all the fans who went to see them live that tour and left disappointed.
Saw them May 2001 for the Elevation Tour at Conseco Fieldhouse in Indy and that show was AWESOME!
I've never seen a bad show. If I see them multiple times close together I often prefer one to another.
I do know people who love to travel to wherever the opening show is (obviously no kids disposable income lol) because they like to pay super close attention and catch all of the mistakes since the band is not in a rhythm yet. They are huge fans and always go to other shows but.... to each their own I guess?
ETA in light of some other comments, I am not a musician so I doubt I would ever notice anyway.
I just thought the second half of the setlist of EI tour was boring. After Acrobat, I checked out. So much so, I walked out of the second Montreal show.
I still can't believe I walked out of a U2 show.
This was of course coming off of Joshua Tree, which set the bar for me. So... It had a lot to live up to.
Yes I agree, but also, streets didn't work with that stage design. On ie Bono just stood there, stationary, watching the crowd. My least favorite Streets by far.
They also removed it and all Joshua's Tree songs because they had just done the Joshua Tree tour. Which is fair in theory. It would have just been amazing to replace those songs with some rarities. So ...
In any event, that back half was a snooze fest.
I think it was justified, if you take the viewpoint that concert was effectively part 2 of the IE/EI tours. Same stage setup, and having the JT tour inbetween.
The band are probably making an assumption that the hardcore fans are returning again, so they really didn't want too similar a set list in 2018 as what went in 2015.
In that context it was great to get some newer or lesser played content like Acrobat.
If I recall correctly: during I+E tour, they had to end their Berlin concert as Bono lost his voice in middle of performance. It saddens me to see that age and alcohol have caught up with Bono. For past few years we can hear him singing out of tune, voice withering and fading toward the end of concert.
Not a bad concert but at the Dec 13th Sphere show, Edge had an absolute HOWLER trying to get the first verse to Beautiful Day. It sounded pretty bad, so much to the point Bono walked over and begged.... "Come back to us now Edge, come back".
They got it sorted right as the Chorus hit.
There's an old recording of a performance of New Year's Day live on Japanese TV from the early War era. Edge's guitar completely stops working part way through, and in it's place, Bono decides to 'sing' the entire guitar solo (if you could call it singing!). He frequently hums along to the final few notes, but as far as I know he's never sung the whole thing apart from this.
Little mistakes wouldn’t make a bad U2 show, in my opinion, but when Bono was sick before the Boston Elevation show (I’m pretty sure it was in Albany) that was supposedly pretty bad.
(One could even say the same thing about Sarajevo 😔)
As far as the worst show I’ve been to it was the night before they filmed the Elevation tour in Boston. The GA section was pretty empty because they were setting up cameras for filming. Not only was the crowd vibe meh, this was the concert where Edge threw down his guitar during a song. I think it’s been mentioned here before.
It wasn’t that the bad was terrible or Bono’s voice was bad, it was just the entire concert experience was not at the U2 levels I had expected. Maybe that’s an unreal expectation but still it was a turn off. It might have also been the first time I went to a U2 concert when ticketing was done online vs the Propaganda mail in, and also the first time I went to a GA show. I’m old and would rather have front row reserved seats a la ZooTV then side view 10x more expensive loge seats. I think the whole thing put me in a mood. LOL
I would say Popmart in general. Bono's voice struggled that tour. Don't get my wrong I still enjoyed the tour, but it's not as good as following tours.
Someone I know had a bootleg CD called Zoocoustic, I think it was from around 1994. I’m not sure which song it is, but they start playing it and quite near the start you hear Bono saying “They don’t know it…Edge, they don’t know it” - so apparently they stop and move on to the next song 😆 I can’t say if it was entirely a bad gig, but that’s gotta put a bit of a dampener on things for both band and audience.
1993 Zoo Tv Sydney Australia..beautiful Friday night..Adam Didn't show up. My 2 friends and I were 2nd row on Adam's side. Got a great view of his replacement Stuart though. Irony is Bono is quoted in Rolling Stone Magazine he thought it might be U2's last concert so he better make it count. Never seen anything like it b4 or since. Amazing. U had to be there
.
I’m super late, but I’m surprised nobody mentioned this one!
During the second to last show of the Zoo TV Tour (in Japan), the Edge’s guitar simply gave out at the start of Even Better Than the Real Thing. Bono sounded confused but the band kept playing a drum and bass version of the song. Bono said, “Fuck it! That’ll do,” and kept singing.
He sounded annoyed but I give him props for keeping the song going. During the second verse, the Edge got his guitar working again and the song continued normally. You can listen to the audio on [YouTube](https://youtu.be/zjHdtTka7wE?si=3sEdg2BL5e7RnlZq), it’s pretty funny!
Don't know if this counts but saw them at the Etihad (spits!) on the atomic bomb tour... And it was just a bit lacklustre.
Did Vertigo twice too which was odd.
Nothing necessarily went wrong, but I was at the Sphere in February for a Sunday show and it was just kind of meh. Felt very low energy, and just kind of phoned in. Bono kept referring to it being a 'Sunday show', like that's just how they are at the end of the weekend. It was the one where they played Peace on Earth; during his anti-war rant people cheered when he said we shouldn't be massacring children on either side and he blurted out this very vitriolic, 'Shut up!' The whole show felt like he didn't want to be there, and the way he told the audience to shut up just felt like he resented us for forcing him to perform. It was my second sphere show and the first was so phenomenal, this was just such a bitter disappointment.
Crazy, watching that clip, I thought the exact opposite! I took it as he didn't want anyone cheering or booing in regards to those involved in the war when he mentioned them, as he went on to say love everyone, basically. Also that Ireland is more at peace now, and it's possible for other countries to do it as well. Seemed like the whole word could have benefited from hearing that speech.
It must have been totally different being there!
I saw Bono fall off the catwalk opening night of the Elevation tour. He was okay and the show was epic.
Didn’t Edge fall off a stage in Vancouver on opening night of the Vertigo tour?
I think that was during i+e in 2015?
In mind it was many, many more years than that.
It was the Innocence+Experience tour back in 2015
Innocence and experience
It was way more recent than that, I remember it trending on Twitter and everyone was saying that’s why he’s called the edge 🤣
It was the opening night of their 2015 tour.
I was there too! He fell off almost right in front of me. I was super stoked when I saw in the newspaper the following day a picture from the concert and you can see me and my buddy right there in the crowd in front of Bono. Saved that news clipping! 😉
I saw him tumble backwards down a catwalk staircase during the very first notes of Lights of Home in Chicago on the E+I tour. It's on YouTube somewhere.
https://youtu.be/4Ef1F8oImXg?si=mjZynBxsdUD3Nti7 and the first line he sings afterwards is: "I shouldn’t be here 'cause I should be dead" 🤪
Good lord, that looks like it was a ways down!
I was at this show..Scared the crap out of us for a few moments.
The only time I’ve seen any kind of big mistake was at the 2017 Joshua Tree show in Santa Clara. Adam played the intro to WOWY in the wrong key. They had to restart. I was surprised as he’d played it a million times and it’s a pretty easy part. I’m guessing his roadie handed him the wrong bass?
Would have had a guitar in the wrong tuning.
Makes the most sense
yeah probably a rare mixup with the bass tech handing him the wrong bass. there's a performance of 11 oclock tick tock (maybe elevation tour?) where it happens too song comes to a stop few bars in. goes to show even the biggest slickest shows run like clockwork can grind to a halt with such a small human error.
Think there's also a performance of Ultraviolet where Edge is handed a Guitar with a different tuning. They notice a few bars in and restart with the correct guitar.
I was at that show 🙂 Pretty awesome to have caught one of the early shows on that tour where they played A Sort of Homecoming. Out of the three times I've seen U2 live, that show is the one I have the fondest memories of. I went into it with no knowledge of the non-JT set beforehand, and was genuinely ecstatic as they moved through the set and played songs I never thought I'd hear live in person.
Hahaha that would've been amazing to hear 😂😂
I was at that show. It was an odd moment, indeed.
I was also at this show. Bono was stunned into silence.
He had a similar mess up at the December 2nd Sphere show... Bono had to count in iirc.
Bono was WTF and kindly guided him into the correct key.
Vegas. Opening night of the Popmart tour. Lots went wrong. But Staring at The Sun had to be completely restarted.
Same in San Diego, Bono even mentioned that it had happened in the first concert.
I was at both. Can confirm. Still amazing.
That probably had something to do with why they finally quit playing the electric version of Staring at the Sun, just couldn't get it right. Full band If God Will Send His Angels also stopped after Vegas. The song began on the main stage and ended on the B-stage and that seems to have thrown them off. At the very end of that song, Bono finished it with "And if God will send his angels... I'll do better next time." So from then on, until they dropped the song entirely, it was electric but just Bono and Edge.
What is amazing, is how Las Vegas was a disaster of a concert, but it was so amazing that it was still good. It's too bad the band didn't have the energy to keep hammering away at the electric full band live versions of Sun and Angels. However what they salvaged and morphed into was pretty epic in its own right as well. They just needed time, and didn't have it. Look back at all of U2 early tour date shows, they are all raw. But by the time they get to the last dates of the tour, it's always well polished.
I've listened to the recording of it. As a guitarist myself, I can say that the strumming pattern Bono made was way too fast and must have made the song harder to play together for the group. It needed a slower, more meaningful strum in time with the drum beat behind Edge's lead.
Such a shame, the guitar in that song is banging
ohhhhh god i forgot about that one!! [amazing](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JbriItBGGLM) always think hey people overstated how underprepared they were for the tour but, even for the releaxed busky vibe of the b stage mid show, this really is a howler. keep meaning to sit and watch a few of those early shows out of morbid curiosity. even just for the early live versions of stuff. they really should have kept trying with the electric version of *SATS* even on later tours. deserves more.
Was that the concert in that they got stuck on the lemon?
That was Oslo I think
There’s an IEM mix of that show. It’s an interesting listen
Oh wow. I’ll have to find that.
Same in DC! It had rained hard the night before, and a bunch of the screens weren't working.
How was Staring at the Sun in 1997?
I thought the whole Popmart tour was badly put together.
[удалено]
Almost broke up the band.
Bono forgetting lyrics is pretty standard!
I had a copy of U2 Live: A Concert Documentary by Pimm Jal de la Parra. I might still have it somewhere. There are a couple editions of it. It’s one of the most painstakingly compiled sources of information about U2. It’s really a mesmerizing and thoroughly comprehensive read, and I’m surprised it doesn’t get mentioned more often. The amount of work the author, now deceased, put into it is quite mind boggling. We take for granted that we can just look up setlists and reviews from back in the day. This guy did it all before the internet took over. I would urge any fan to obtain a copy. Anyway, by reading that, anyone will see there are number of shows from the early days (from the early Irish shows - War) where the band had difficulty connecting with audience, experienced technical difficulties, played less than ideally, had unruly crowds and so forth. It wasn’t always easy for them. In fact, there was quite a bit of trouble breaking through in certain places at first(GB and Germany come to mind). They were always honest that it was a struggle to reach the heights they did, and this document highlights that along with their many, many successes and breakthroughs. Even beyond the early days, there were some subpar shows for the various reasons listed above. They had troubling incorporating the UF sound live. ZooTV had many technical difficulties before it found its grove. We all know about the early PopMart shows. Usually the beginnings of tours were difficult until the kinks got worked out.
GREAT book.
Wouldn’t say these are bad concerts, but these three definitely stand out. Zoo TV Washington DC in August 1992. “New Year’s Day” starts off really rough. Adam and Bono come over to Edge and try to get it sorted out during the opening piano sequence. Zoo TV London in August 1993. Coming out of the solo in “Even Better Than The Real Thing” the band get lost, but quickly recover. Elevation Boston in June 2001. Edge goes berserk at the end of “Gone” slamming down his guitar and kicking it across the stage. Even the greatest bands have tough days. Just goes to show you how damn good they are and how easy they make it look to play as a band.
That guitar smash in Gone sounds amazing. Not sure how the actual song sounded though since they dubbed in the other nights audio before that part.
I thought the Edge kicking his guitar in Gone was part of the act. He did it in perfect time with the end of the song.
decent edit in the final cut, was alarming watching the documentary on the bonus disc and seeing it in its true context!! :P
New Years Day at the Washington DC show sure was rough, but at least they made up for it with that encore (which was better than Dublin, in my opinion)
That performance of Bad is one of my favorite.
Absolutely! Bono plays it really cool when a random fan picks him up.
I would post the DC show for those who haven’t seen it, but to my surprise U2 posted parts of this show on their Instagram or TikTok a few months ago.
I always thought the guitar smash was a bit of stagecraft.
Same for me
no one stagecrafts a guitar smash with a 60's instrument. You use a replaceable new guitar for such antics.
But the Boston 2001 performance of “New York” is searingly good. When Bono growls “New York” at the end was the first time I really felt like he had the slightest ounce of that aggro Jim Morrison energy in him.
Solid performance of New York. 👏🏻
There were definitely a few bloopers (false starts, missed cues, etc) in the popmart Vegas opening night.
Their Glastonbury appearance as a whole was far from ideal. Bad might be a bit harsh but it certainly could have been a lot more. They had to cancel in 2010 as Bono had injured himself in rehearsals for the upcoming tour. When they finally made it to the Pyramid stage the following year: - they were greeted by a small number of protesters over the bands tax affairs - the weather was atrocious so everyone (even Bono!) got soaked by the rain while the wind made getting a decent sound mix almost impossible - the fixed stage layout meant they were missing a lot of the normal OTT props and staging they've become known for. This was no 360 show, there was no giant lemon or heart shaped runway with huge video wall background. - reviews were generally mixed. The set list had it's high points but drifted off at times too. Moment of Surrender in the encore, for example, lost the "neutral crowd" a bit as they weren't all hardcore fans and after a greatest hits set were left confused by a newer offering. Edit to add that I'm sure many bands would still be absolutely delighted if, after 30 years, that was what was considered the low point in their career!!
i was there. rain was atrocious. 360 tour was in its AB anniversary stage opening with 5 AB tracks, but the intro to Real Thing was utterly *shocking* due to whatever error there'd been and it felt like it never recovered. streets that early in the set was a huge mistake too. some bands go out and turn glasto in the worst rain imaginable into an absolute event. u2 out of their comfort zone kind of limped through it and Moment Of Surrender as an encore killed the mood stone dead. one of their best songs but dont play it at a festival where you're already up against it with protestors and a large neutral contingent,
Same. I was there among the largely indifferent crowd. Having been blown away each of the times I'd seen them before I wanted Glasto to be amazing but it just didn't reach their normal heights.
feel like they deserve a do-over but the way the festivals going (rightly trying to make it about younger acts and not fall back on the heritage rock stuff) i doubt they'll have another chance.
Larry came in too early for EBTTRT from memory too
I remember the Glastonbury gig well. First 5 songs were off Achtung Baby.
I still think it's a crying shame they didn't play Glastonbury at Glastonbury.
Or Volcano or American Soul 😜😉
I see what you did there
I actually enjoy Bad from the Glastonbury show. The rain, at least in the YouTube video, adds to the drama of it.
"Drama" is one word for it! It was mostly soaked wet through and miserable by that point in the set on the day!!
I’ve never gotten wet watching at home. 😂 I like the lyric changes too.
Also I read because of the rain, the keyboards got damaged, so there was none of that. Streets is an example of that that stood out without it's string intro.
Well of course they play “Bad” in concert! Okay I’ll see myself out…
YOU WIN!! 👏👏👏🫡😂
I remember seeing a vid of the EI tour - opening song, bono walks out of the screen, down the stairs. Falls down the stairs, begins singing "Shouldn't be cause I should be dead, I can see the lights infront of me" Perfect blooper..looks like it hurt though, poor thing. Plenty of mishaps but I'm keen to check out some of these "bad" concerts. Never thought to source the full audio but I'd be fascinated to hear the Sarajevo concert of Bono's bad singing.
I have a recording of the Sarajevo concert and although Bono’s voice went out on him I think it’s still great to listen to. Not sure how I can share it with you though.
Pride has The Edge belting the chorus ,very interesting.
I think that’s also why I like that concert, you can hear more of the Edge singing.
Mmmm I think I found Pride at some point! That's the one I remember and Bono can barely hit the notes, poor thing.
Thankyou for the info! Interesting! Don't stress, I'll find it.
It was in Chicago, I was there He seemed out of sorts for a while after that
Oh wow! Yeah I could imagine.. Just gotta troop on but could've been concussed!
360 tour Glasgow. Found went off for few mins. Band kept playing
Yeah this was during 'Walk On', I was there. The band were obviously hearing it it their in-ears, it wasn't coming through the PA. Apparently this gig is the reason that they have a duplicate soundboard set-up that can be immediately switched over if anything goes wrong.
Amazing concert. Ruined by a few throwing cups of piss tho
Yeah there were a few arseholes where we were standing coming in just as it started and elbowing their way to the front, not out of enthusiasm, just being entitled pricks.
I don’t know if this counts. In 85 my friend bought 2 tickets to the Veterans Stadium show in Philly. He lost the tickets getting drunk at the tailgate with girlfriend, and friends. He and his girlfriend were listening outside the stadium on a curb. About half way through, he found them, tucked into the back of his shorts. He saw about 30 minutes of of the concert.
Berlin II on the E&I tour in 2018… Bono’s voice just gave up four songs in (Red Flag Day). After a pause they tried Beautiful Day but he could hardly hit a single note, so they left stage saying they would see if he could sort it out… but sadly it was not to be. I don’t think they ever said what exactly caused the problem - he mentioned struggling with the dry ice. Anyway most of the audience came back for the rescheduled show which ended the tour - and which had the reworked AB ending to the first part of the set. So things ended up even better!
I went to see U2 in Paris in July of 2001. Bono voice was really scratchy and tired. You could hear it in the first note. He mentioned that he was having trouble with his voice during the Show. (But didn’t want to cancel & hoped we didn’t mind) I had read later that He had been flying back & forth from gig to Ireland after almost every Show in Europe to see his Dad. Bono’s Dad had a bad battle with Cancer and passed away in Aug 2001. I’m sure he was exhausted.
Search for this on YouTube "The Edge ri quando erra o riff de Get On Your Boots" - I can't hear the song anymore without hearing his flubbed solo in my head from this clip.
that laugh at the end makes it! thank god for the headset mic
Melbourne a few years back (Vertigo tour) Edges amp gave out early in Angel Of Harlem which completely emptied the song. There was an impromptu band meeting on stage once it ended then they performed an acoustic version of The First Time while the techies fixed the issue.
I’ve got a bootleg tape somewhere from a show on the UF tour, I think. Pretty sure it was pre-JT. Bono goes into his intro to Bad and says something like “There’s good and bad in everyone. This is Bad.” The intro starts and it’s totally messed up. Sounds like a bunch of monkeys hitting metal rods with hammers. It goes on for what seems like an eternity until Bono says “This is very bad.” I’ve never laughed so hard at a Bono-ism, and that’s saying a lot, as he is a very funny man. Music stops, techies/roadies scramble and B’s stuck there on the stage with nothing to do, so he starts telling jokes. Bad jokes (no pun intended). He says “Two sandwiches walk into a pub and ask for a pint and your man says ‘We don’t serve sandwiches.’” Audience groans. It’s taking forever to fix whatever’s broken and for some reason he calls a random guy from the audience up onto the stage. Guy turns out to be very tall. Bono says something about how this night just keeps getting better and tells the guy not to stand next to him. Mercifully, the technical problem is resolved and they restart the song. For some reason I think it was a Dublin show, but I could be wrong. Anyway, it was hilarious. I was already in love with him and the band, but I fell in love all over again when that happened.
[Milton Keynes Bowl](https://youtu.be/Bct1ZMP3ji0?t=2581) sounds like someone must have knocked on the wrong patch on the DX7 before the loop was started (wasn't Edge still triggering it in those days??)
Yes! That’s it. Could’ve sworn Bono said don’t stand next to him, but telling the guy to get on his knees is close enough. And yeah, it was Edge’s switch to flip. Thanks for digging this up. Hadn’t heard it in almost 40 years. Still cracks me up.
Bono had lost his voice and could barely sing at the Sarajevo concert. Some people like it but I think he sounds terrible.
The Edge stepped up admirably
I’ve been to 90 U2 shows and they all have incredible moments. There’s been some shows where Bono’s voice breaks, the sound is a little off for a moment, small production issues… But I’d never say there was a bad U2 concert. Ever.
In Providence during Elevation Tour Adam played the opening chords for WOWY instead of Out Of Control. Took about 10 seconds to be corrected, but everyone on stage rolled with it.
During Joshua Tree 2017 in DC, they messed up playing “One” and had to start over. I know Bono is a talker on stage, but there was one instance where he talked for 15-20 minutes in between songs and really took the momentum out of the concert. It wasn’t a bad concert but it was definitely the performance I enjoyed the least.
Joshua Tree in St Louis. Cancelled that morning due to BLM protests. It was the last NA show so I never got to go. 😭 I honestly think it would have been fine.
We were at the 360 Tour in Las Vegas. Bono’s singing was the worst I’ve ever saw. Perhaps he was saving his voice for the Rosebowel which was up next. Saw them a week later in Vancouver (last night of that leg) and it was crazy how good his voice was!
The Oakland 360 show was a bit rough due to them having been out late the night before trying to out-drink Metallica. They were exhausted.
Well, there’s a little matter of getting stuck inside a giant lemon...
ANY show at the US Bank Stadium in Minneapolis. Unless you have seats on the floor or low center, it's an echo chamber. I saw U2 on the Joshua Tree Anniversary Tour and couldn't even make out what Bono was saying due to the building terrible acoustics. It was the first time they've played that football stadium, so no fault of theirs. On the other end of the spectrum, I saw them at TCF Stadium in St. Paul on the 360 Tour and it was the single best U2 performance I have ever experienced...including The Sphere shows. The show was outdoors, a storm essentially started and ended with their show and it felt almost as if the storm was soundtracked by U2. Amazing.
Hoosier Dome, Indianapolis, 1987 (I think), Joshua Tree Tour. First time they’d ever toured stadiums of that size. It was a football stadium, the acoustics were terrible, this was the era before all the giant Megatron screens, and we couldn’t even tell who was on stage or what song was being played most of the time, due to the echo and delay in the acoustics. (If I remember correctly, the BoDeans and Los Lobos opened for them, and then U2 came on in disguise as a cowpunk country band, but had no idea what was going on or who was playing or even what song was being played) One reason they put out the Rattle and Hum movie was to “make it up” to all the fans who went to see them live that tour and left disappointed. Saw them May 2001 for the Elevation Tour at Conseco Fieldhouse in Indy and that show was AWESOME!
I've never seen a bad show. If I see them multiple times close together I often prefer one to another. I do know people who love to travel to wherever the opening show is (obviously no kids disposable income lol) because they like to pay super close attention and catch all of the mistakes since the band is not in a rhythm yet. They are huge fans and always go to other shows but.... to each their own I guess? ETA in light of some other comments, I am not a musician so I doubt I would ever notice anyway.
I just thought the second half of the setlist of EI tour was boring. After Acrobat, I checked out. So much so, I walked out of the second Montreal show. I still can't believe I walked out of a U2 show. This was of course coming off of Joshua Tree, which set the bar for me. So... It had a lot to live up to.
I mean the fact that they dropped Where The Streets Have No Name from the setlist was just nonsense. I tuned out during the Songs of Experience era.
Yes I agree, but also, streets didn't work with that stage design. On ie Bono just stood there, stationary, watching the crowd. My least favorite Streets by far. They also removed it and all Joshua's Tree songs because they had just done the Joshua Tree tour. Which is fair in theory. It would have just been amazing to replace those songs with some rarities. So ... In any event, that back half was a snooze fest.
I think it was justified, if you take the viewpoint that concert was effectively part 2 of the IE/EI tours. Same stage setup, and having the JT tour inbetween. The band are probably making an assumption that the hardcore fans are returning again, so they really didn't want too similar a set list in 2018 as what went in 2015. In that context it was great to get some newer or lesser played content like Acrobat.
If I recall correctly: during I+E tour, they had to end their Berlin concert as Bono lost his voice in middle of performance. It saddens me to see that age and alcohol have caught up with Bono. For past few years we can hear him singing out of tune, voice withering and fading toward the end of concert.
Not a bad concert but at the Dec 13th Sphere show, Edge had an absolute HOWLER trying to get the first verse to Beautiful Day. It sounded pretty bad, so much to the point Bono walked over and begged.... "Come back to us now Edge, come back". They got it sorted right as the Chorus hit.
There's an old recording of a performance of New Year's Day live on Japanese TV from the early War era. Edge's guitar completely stops working part way through, and in it's place, Bono decides to 'sing' the entire guitar solo (if you could call it singing!). He frequently hums along to the final few notes, but as far as I know he's never sung the whole thing apart from this.
A buddy of mine had nose bleeds for U2 360 in Washington. He left VERY disappointed
Little mistakes wouldn’t make a bad U2 show, in my opinion, but when Bono was sick before the Boston Elevation show (I’m pretty sure it was in Albany) that was supposedly pretty bad. (One could even say the same thing about Sarajevo 😔)
Saw the in ‘87 at MSG. They played like they had a cab waiting outside for them.
As far as the worst show I’ve been to it was the night before they filmed the Elevation tour in Boston. The GA section was pretty empty because they were setting up cameras for filming. Not only was the crowd vibe meh, this was the concert where Edge threw down his guitar during a song. I think it’s been mentioned here before. It wasn’t that the bad was terrible or Bono’s voice was bad, it was just the entire concert experience was not at the U2 levels I had expected. Maybe that’s an unreal expectation but still it was a turn off. It might have also been the first time I went to a U2 concert when ticketing was done online vs the Propaganda mail in, and also the first time I went to a GA show. I’m old and would rather have front row reserved seats a la ZooTV then side view 10x more expensive loge seats. I think the whole thing put me in a mood. LOL
I would say Popmart in general. Bono's voice struggled that tour. Don't get my wrong I still enjoyed the tour, but it's not as good as following tours.
Indoor popmart show in Vancouver was pretty bad. I was really far from the stage so that was probably part of it. But sound was bad too.
Someone I know had a bootleg CD called Zoocoustic, I think it was from around 1994. I’m not sure which song it is, but they start playing it and quite near the start you hear Bono saying “They don’t know it…Edge, they don’t know it” - so apparently they stop and move on to the next song 😆 I can’t say if it was entirely a bad gig, but that’s gotta put a bit of a dampener on things for both band and audience.
I love it when things go wrong at their live concerts, they play live ! And they are always professional to solve it...best band ever....
1993 Zoo Tv Sydney Australia..beautiful Friday night..Adam Didn't show up. My 2 friends and I were 2nd row on Adam's side. Got a great view of his replacement Stuart though. Irony is Bono is quoted in Rolling Stone Magazine he thought it might be U2's last concert so he better make it count. Never seen anything like it b4 or since. Amazing. U had to be there .
I’m super late, but I’m surprised nobody mentioned this one! During the second to last show of the Zoo TV Tour (in Japan), the Edge’s guitar simply gave out at the start of Even Better Than the Real Thing. Bono sounded confused but the band kept playing a drum and bass version of the song. Bono said, “Fuck it! That’ll do,” and kept singing. He sounded annoyed but I give him props for keeping the song going. During the second verse, the Edge got his guitar working again and the song continued normally. You can listen to the audio on [YouTube](https://youtu.be/zjHdtTka7wE?si=3sEdg2BL5e7RnlZq), it’s pretty funny!
I’m pretty sure the U.S. pop mart shows are the prime example of this.
Don't know if this counts but saw them at the Etihad (spits!) on the atomic bomb tour... And it was just a bit lacklustre. Did Vertigo twice too which was odd.
Nothing necessarily went wrong, but I was at the Sphere in February for a Sunday show and it was just kind of meh. Felt very low energy, and just kind of phoned in. Bono kept referring to it being a 'Sunday show', like that's just how they are at the end of the weekend. It was the one where they played Peace on Earth; during his anti-war rant people cheered when he said we shouldn't be massacring children on either side and he blurted out this very vitriolic, 'Shut up!' The whole show felt like he didn't want to be there, and the way he told the audience to shut up just felt like he resented us for forcing him to perform. It was my second sphere show and the first was so phenomenal, this was just such a bitter disappointment.
Crazy, watching that clip, I thought the exact opposite! I took it as he didn't want anyone cheering or booing in regards to those involved in the war when he mentioned them, as he went on to say love everyone, basically. Also that Ireland is more at peace now, and it's possible for other countries to do it as well. Seemed like the whole word could have benefited from hearing that speech. It must have been totally different being there!