U2 07-11-2009 Paris

Setlist:

1. Breathe
2. No Line On The Horizon
3. Get On Your Boots
4. Magnificent
5. Beautiful Day / Blackbird (snippet)
6. I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For / Movin' On Up (snippet)
7. Desire / Billie Jean (snippet) / Don't Stop 'Til You Get Enough (snippet)
8. In A Little While
9. Unknown Caller
10. The Unforgettable Fire
11. City Of Blinding Lights
12. Vertigo
13. Let's Dance (snippet) / I'll Go Crazy If I Don't Go Crazy Tonight
14. Sunday Bloody Sunday
15. Pride (In The Name Of Love)
16. MLK
17. Walk On / You'll Never Walk Alone (snippet)
18. Where The Streets Have No Name / All You Need Is Love (snippet)
19. One

encore(s):
20. Ultra Violet (Light My Way)
21. With Or Without You / Rain (snippet)
22. Moment of Surrender


It's getting a little tiresome thumbing over all these nostalgia films of yesteryear, so I decided to crank up the time machine a little and see what is going on with the dinosaurs of today. It's pretty fascinating, really. What is the bootleg world like for one of the biggest rock and roll acts in the world? Lets take a look. As of September 2009, U2 is in the middle 0f the 360 tour. (U2 360 tour presented by Blackberry, to be exact ) The second leg of this tour is gearing up for North America, and I'm sure many fans are curious what to expect. The 360 part of the name refers to this tremendous round video screen that is situated above the band on a giant tripod. Apparently, it takes a couple of days to set the damn thing up and the neighborhoods of various cities have gotten a little peeved at all the racket. Of course, people are coming and money is being made. You can't have it both ways. U2 set an attendance record at Wembley- upwards of 80K a night two nights running.



So how is it? Thanks to a torrent file I found on the storm cloud laden Pirate Bay, I managed to get a look at some audience taper's Paris show. He's at more than a bit of a distance...but damn does his little Panasonic have a fucking ace 30X zoom on it. The sound is OK, it distorts on the vocals a bit, but it's rarely painful...I'd say it's likely that somebody with a better audio recording (looks like two audio tapers were also in the crowd) will find their work flown into this video before too long. And there seems to be another audience cam version out there as well. Some U2 fan with some extra time on their hands might end up cobbling it together into something that is very watchable. Not to say that that the video I got isn't worth viewing by itself, but it's certainly fan only.

The man with the cam has posted the description of his efforts at a really ace U2 boot site. He says it's his first bootleg, and you know what, buddy? My hats off to you. In my eyes, you're a star. As for U2 boot sites, there are at least a couple of them, and they are the future of popular bands- bands should just step in here and merge these with the official fan clubs and music delivery systems...Is there money to be made this way? Everybody that obsesses over what the best all time live version of "where the streets have no name" is gonna buy every official DVD that the band puts out. Even if it's a DVD of stuff they already have. Witness the Kissology release- package it right, and they will buy... I'm gonna rent that Beastie Boy Dude I Shot This and have a look at it, because bootleggers will evolve to productions like this as time passes. There is already a seven (!) camera mix of a U2 show- made entirely by audience members collected and edited together by an industrious fan. Of course, next time they should chat each other up beforehand and coordinate which band member they are gonna follow with the camera...


That's it for this blog for a while, I'm a little burnt. Ill be back with posts on Led Zeppelin, The Beatles, Bob Dylan, Pink Floyd and whomever else is famous enough to bring this blog some traffic. If you have any advice on how I can draw attention to this crap, please speak up and fill me in. This internet thing is still a little novel to me. I wonder if it's really gonna last?