when did U2 start to suck?

[JohnnyLingo]

Bono along with 100,000 singing

You broke the bonds
You loosed the chains
You carried the cross of my shame
You took the blame

with Edge's heavenly guitar riff going in the background

How can you faithless bastards not be touched by that??

Isn't it The Edge? I heard it was The Edge.

[jay santos]

Bono along with 100,000 singing

You broke the bonds
You loosed the chains
You carried the cross of my shame
You took the blame

with Edge's heavenly guitar riff going in the background

How can you faithless bastards not be touched by that??

[Surfah]

I just never ever cared of U2. Bono has turned me off to the band in recent years. I also felt like they were every Mormon's favorite band at some point.

[jay santos]

If you guys can stop patting yourself on the back for being too cool for U2 for a minute, check out a couple moments from the concert. You'll be rewarded.

At the 51:30 mark they start with In a Little While. Bono changes one of the lines to space travel turns me on and then has an astronaut in space read the last verse.

Right after that at the 55:00 mark they start in with Unknown Caller. This is from the new album. It's a confusing song but listen to it with this in mind and you might be able to catch its emotion. It's a song about a junkie who is reborn in Christ as he receives a phone call from God at 3:33 am. The verse is the narrative. The chorus sung in harmony is God speaking. God is telling him to come to him and be reborn in him and restart his life, using Macintosh language (restart and reboot yourself, etc.). It's a bit odd at first but the intimacy Bono's showing in this song is very emotional. Then after God is done speaking, the song goes into an organ section playing the Christian hymn "My Savior's love" (oh how marvelous oh how wonderful is my Savior's love to me) while Bono kind of butchers it going blah blah blah blah blah. That segues into a cool Edge guitar solo set to the same tune. The album version is better. Bono's voice was struggling in this concert.

By the way, both these songs are post 2000. And there are a lot of other good finds in these last three albums.

[MartyFunkhouser]

Having huge popularity and winning awards is a pretty good indication that it doesn't suck. NOT having anybody buy your records or attend your shows is a better indication that you do suck.

I couldn't disagree more. I would rank selling records and winning awards right up there with the color of socks that a band wears in determining the quality. There are plenty of bands that cannot sell records and don't win awards that are great bands. Very few people know who Skerik is but the guy is flat out one of the best saxophone players and musicians playing right now, same goes for John Zorn. It isn't like Coltrane was that popular or even got critical praise, in fact, he was blasted by a lot of critics. There are also a lot of bands that are popular that are good. It just isn't an indicator of quality or lack of quality at all.

[il Padrino Ute]

Achtung Baby was great. Who do you listen to?

I prefer listening to 80s alternative stuff.

Unforgettable Fire is one of my 5 favorite albums of all time, but I hated Achtung Baby. I bought is, listened to it, then traded it at Gray Whale CD for J. Geils Band Freeze Frame, IIRC.

No matter how much I try, I just can't get into anything after Unforgettable Fire.

[creekster]

I find this thread very, very amusing. It's like some fat old man (guilty!) sitting in the basement posting on line about how some model has ugly knees. WHatever.

Music is so subjective. Concerts not about the spectacle? Perhaps. But then maybe we should all go and listen to yo yo ma every time out. He is pretty dang handy with the cello you know. BEsides, if we say a concert is NOT about showmanship, then what is it? Do you wnat a note for ntoe recreation of the CD? Then why not just listen to the CD? and I find the notion that improvisation is nto about showmanhsip to be very amusing. Very amusign indeed. Thta is EXACTLY what to ios about. Improvising doenst exist in a vaccum. They play off each other and try to outdo each other. Jimi Hendrix burning his guitar on stage: showmanship and so he sucked? that is pretty laughable, don't you think? Pete Townsend's windmill? Man I wish he would just sit still and show off his technical mastery of the guitar, don't you?

Does U2 suck? You might think so, btu if they do it is not becasue they like to put on a show and sell some tickets at a concert, and it shouldn't be because you want to demonstrate that your tastes are superior than most of the rabble that buys popular music.

IMO, they are a great band. Their creative output has slipped, but everything through Achtung Baby was pretty darn good, IMO, and some or most of the stuff since then has been good. Bono can be tiresome, I think, wtih his preachy hoo-ha, but the band is still pretty good.

[RC Vikings]

We'll have to agree to disagree, as IMO, Achtung Baby sucked beyond the realm of sucktitude. Joshua Tree had a couple of good songs, but that album was the beginning of the rapid decent into the category of "you guys should have quit while you were ahead".

Achtung Baby was great. Who do you listen to?

[il Padrino Ute]

That is a complete lie. They started to suck sometime between the filming of Rattle and Hum and the release of Achtung Baby.

Achtung has some good songs...but after that, none of the albums is completely good. There is a song here and there save a couple of albums that totally suck.

Actually, I was pleasantly surprised by All That You Can't Leave Behind. A couple of dud songs, but most of them were pretty good. Not War or Joshua Tree or Boy. Or Unforgettable Fire. But a very good album.

What the hell was with Bono giving shout outs to coporate sponsors during the waning moments of With or Without You last night? GOOD HELL!

I'd like to love these guys, because I was once a huge fan. I considered U2 my favorite band. I only caught the last few songs of the concert, but it sounded awful. Bono's voice is shot, he was singing out of tune and he has lost his ability to connect with an audience and create emotion. He now comes off as something between a used car salesman and a late night preacher stealing money from sick and the old.

We'll have to agree to disagree, as IMO, Achtung Baby sucked beyond the realm of sucktitude. Joshua Tree had a couple of good songs, but that album was the beginning of the rapid decent into the category of "you guys should have quit while you were ahead".

[RC Vikings]

So I pulled up the concert and have been watching it for the last hour. I will say that Bono seems very uninterested in what he is doing and the concert lacks some energy. When I saw them in SLC about four years ago it was very good. I'm glad I didn't put out big bucks for this. They still don't suck.

[Portland Ute]

U2 started to suck after The Unforgettable Fire.

That is a complete lie. They started to suck sometime between the filming of Rattle and Hum and the release of Achtung Baby.

Achtung has some good songs...but after that, none of the albums is completely good. There is a song here and there save a couple of albums that totally suck.

Actually, I was pleasantly surprised by All That You Can't Leave Behind. A couple of dud songs, but most of them were pretty good. Not War or Joshua Tree or Boy. Or Unforgettable Fire. But a very good album.

What the hell was with Bono giving shout outs to coporate sponsors during the waning moments of With or Without You last night? GOOD HELL!

I'd like to love these guys, because I was once a huge fan. I considered U2 my favorite band. I only caught the last few songs of the concert, but it sounded awful. Bono's voice is shot, he was singing out of tune and he has lost his ability to connect with an audience and create emotion. He now comes off as something between a used car salesman and a late night preacher stealing money from sick and the old.

[jay santos]

I'm listening now. It's not Bono's best night. Most of what I've heard so far has been a little disappointing. Still Haven't Found was awesome, though.

[RC Vikings]

Are you going to see Spiderman the musical?

I might

So do these guys... 25 years and going strong. Clearly, suckage is no respecter of the Almighty Dollar.

cheers.

Rednecks are the ones buying these tickets and they love things that suck.

Having huge popularity and winning awards doesn't mean that something doesn't suck. Whenever anyone uses popularity or awards to prove that something doesn't suck, I kindly remind them that Everybody Loves Raymond won awards and had a huge following.

Having huge popularity and winning awards is a pretty good indication that it doesn't suck. NOT having anybody buy your records or attend your shows is a better indication that you do suck.

[MarkGrace]

soundtrack/score for commercially popular children's cartoon/Pixar type franchise movie ($$$)
greatest hits tour (perhaps they have already done this, Im not sure)
one of them moves to NYC or LA
some sort of bizarre foray into crossover music....maybe a U2 rap/hip hop collaboration or a U2 christmas release

Speaking of, can someone please tell Weezer to quit before we forget that they made two great albums early on and were a band most of us liked.

[MartyFunkhouser]

ha. I have to laugh at your example because ELR scarred me permanently.

Several years ago, my wife and I were staying in the 'Tah with the in-laws. I can't remember the exact facts, but basically all of us were out somewhere, except my FIL. My MIL forgot something back at the house, so my little BIL and I popped back to the house to get something out of my FIL/MIL's bedroom. I open the bedroom door and walk right in and I hear this voice: "HELLO?"

I look over and see my FIL in the bathtub. The tub is filled with bubbles and he is watching an Everybody Loves Raymond DVD on a small TV set in his bathroom.

I won't ever watch Everybody Loves Raymond again.

I have also been permanently scarred by Everybody Loves Raymond. I was once flipping through the channels and watched 5 minutes of an episode. It was a horribly traumatic experience.