In honour of the two U2 concerts I'll be attending this summer, this edition of Hot! Live! Music! is dedicated to the greatest live band of all time. (Okay, this is technically just my opinion, but it's pretty objectively close to being true.) Let's stroll through past U2 tours…
* "Every Breaking Wave" from the MTV Europe Video Awards
We can't represent anything from the Innocence & Experience Tour since, y'know, it hasn't started yet, though U2 has been just killing it with this stripped-down version of EBW at several different promotional appearances. This'll be a showstopper come the next tour.
* "Hold Me, Thrill Me, Kiss Me, Kill Me" from the 360 Tour
An underrated dark-horse choice as the most popular U2 song of the last 20 years. Man, am I glad the band brought this one back out of mothballs.
* "Original of the Species" from the Vertigo Tour
As Bono said, they hadn't quite figured out how to play this one live, as the album version was so heavy on strings and keyboards. Still…man, if this was "not quite figured out" then just imagine what a version they were 100% comfortable with would've sounded like.
* "In God's Country" from the Elevation Tour
Somewhat of a forgotten gem from U2's past, and it sounds almost as good in acoustic form as it does with the entire band driving away at it.
* "New Year's Day" from the PopMart Tour
So much energy, so much drive in this song, and Bono's voice literally just soars. Ok, I'm technically misusing the word 'literally' but screw it.
* "One," by Bono, Edge, Brian Eno and an orchestra
Bit of a cheat here since it isn't really U2, it's only two of the guys teaming with Brian Eno at the Pavarotti & Friends concert. Still a gorgeous version of the song, even if Eno is completely extraneous. Hey Brian, no need for the backing vocal, Edge is already on it.
* "Where The Streets Have No Name," Zoo TV 1992
What better place to end things than with the greatest live song of all time.
* "Every Breaking Wave" from the MTV Europe Video Awards
We can't represent anything from the Innocence & Experience Tour since, y'know, it hasn't started yet, though U2 has been just killing it with this stripped-down version of EBW at several different promotional appearances. This'll be a showstopper come the next tour.
* "Hold Me, Thrill Me, Kiss Me, Kill Me" from the 360 Tour
An underrated dark-horse choice as the most popular U2 song of the last 20 years. Man, am I glad the band brought this one back out of mothballs.
* "Original of the Species" from the Vertigo Tour
As Bono said, they hadn't quite figured out how to play this one live, as the album version was so heavy on strings and keyboards. Still…man, if this was "not quite figured out" then just imagine what a version they were 100% comfortable with would've sounded like.
* "In God's Country" from the Elevation Tour
Somewhat of a forgotten gem from U2's past, and it sounds almost as good in acoustic form as it does with the entire band driving away at it.
* "New Year's Day" from the PopMart Tour
So much energy, so much drive in this song, and Bono's voice literally just soars. Ok, I'm technically misusing the word 'literally' but screw it.
* "One," by Bono, Edge, Brian Eno and an orchestra
Bit of a cheat here since it isn't really U2, it's only two of the guys teaming with Brian Eno at the Pavarotti & Friends concert. Still a gorgeous version of the song, even if Eno is completely extraneous. Hey Brian, no need for the backing vocal, Edge is already on it.
* "Where The Streets Have No Name," Zoo TV 1992
What better place to end things than with the greatest live song of all time.
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