One of the joys of being a U2 fan is having a plethora of songs to pick from to carefully construct their dream setlist at a fictional U2 concert. Since no one person has that kind of power, we can hope, suggest and perhaps predict what U2 will play next in the upcoming European leg of the 2010 U2360 Tour.
It is my belief that there are two methods to predict what U2 will pick for their setlist changes: the 'logical' way, and what I am going to call the 'indicative' way. You may be wondering what these mean, as I have recently coined the phrases myself.
A 'logical' setlist change would consist of the addition (or removal) of a song based on the trends of previous tours. An example of a logical setlist addition for the U2360 Tour would be the Unforgettable Fire or Ultraviolet. It is logical that the band would add these songs to the setlist because U2 are consistently bringing songs to each album tour that fans would love to hear and they are most notably songs that miss the majority of the tours--sometimes even the particular tour for the album of that particular song (Ultraviolet missed many tour dates on ZOO TV). The Unforgettable has over 20 years of shelf life to make up for, and Ultraviolet has almost 20 itself.
What song would U2 'logically' remove from the setlist? Well I think the perfect example would be Bullet the Blue Sky. Bullet the Blue Sky has been played on EVERY tour since the song was released in March of 1987, and in a sense it has run it's 'live' course. In order to accommodate for song additions to the setlists, songs must be (sadly) removed to compensate.
Some songs however, are added that aren't as easy to predict based simply on U2's live trends. All the hopeful rumors and hints that U2 provoke prior to a leg of tour would fall into this category. Bono said that on the U2360 Tour the band would play songs they've never played live before. Perhaps Bono said it best when he said that "we've got old songs, we've got new songs, we've got songs that we can barely play!" Perhaps he is referencing the difficulty of the songs to transpose to a live setting, or maybe its for the songs they've never played live before.
What would be an 'indicative' addition to U2's setlist? Your Blue Room and Electrical storm would be two examples, perhaps because nobody really saw it coming. Maybe some did, but most only proposed the idea of these songs being played live based on provocative sources such as interpreting U2's quotes and applying them to foreshadow changes in the upcoming dates, and also from the band's rehearsals days before a concert.
It's difficult to predict what U2 is going to 'indicatively' remove from their setlists for U2360, but I think that on U2's Vertigo tour, 'With or Without You' and 'I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For' were often interchangeably used from one another and many dates missed both--despite being arguably their two most popular songs. THAT isn't very logical in my opinion.
So after this (perhaps unnecessary) tangent on setlist changes, you might be asking what would be some changes U2 might (either logically or indicatively) make on U2's 2010 European leg?
I believe that U2's next logical setlist addition is going to be 'Even Better than the Real Thing' to Europe's setlists. They stopped playing it after Popmart in 1997, and it's a great song that gets the fans pumped--very similar to Until the End of the World which might be U2's next logical setlist removal :[
What about indicative? Well I think Drowning Man will make its appearance live--but I don't think it will be until 2011 in North America, and here's why: U2 brought some old trophys out in the later tour dates of the Vertigo tour in 2006 because, like the North American leg of 2011, they rescheduled dates and vowed to make up for it. They did so by playing songs like One Tree Hill, Bad, Walk On and The Saints Are Coming. U2 already tested out Drowning Man at Barcelona's rehearsal last summer, and the band were pumped to play it--rumor has it that they just couldn't find a good spot or perhaps segue in the setlist. I believe they will find that spot next summer.
I haven't heard about any rumors of songs being removed, but I predict it would be songs like In A Little While or Stuck in a Moment. Both are great songs and translate very well under the 'Claw,' which would not make it logical to remove (hence why it would be 'indicative'!).
I guess for now we'll wait and see and keep dreaming out loud for our own setlist changes!
-A. Kennedy
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