mike7man

Very true. The whole disappearing codes thing is totally wacky, and it's really disrespectful for there to be no offical explanations/reassurances.

atu2.com said that U2 would also appear last night on Fallon's Tonight Show (in addition to the upcoming Friday show). Did anybody see this? What happened?

I agree with many of your complaints. From what U2 has said, though, I still think there will be Dublin shows this year.

On atu2.com they said that U2 would also make some kind of appearance on last night's (Monday) show. Anybody see that?? What happened?

God, yes, I hate that.

Ah, OK. But...we shouldn't get our hopes up. Edge doesn't promise anything--just says something about checking it out.

Hi Joe-- Welcome back. So which shows are you attending on the 1st leg?

I agree that there likely won't be a pit on this tour (unfortunately)--mainly because there's no indication that one exists so far. But, I think a pit actually could work with the stage setup--just have two areas in front of main stage on either side of the (perpendicular) catwalk. Seems quite unlikely, though.

Wait--are you saying that Edge said they'd be playing Acrobat? If so, wow.

Well, who knows, but it would take a major increase of people--really major--to fill up an RZ that went along the entire catwalk. For the 360 tour, it looked like the RZs actually had the number of people that U2 said it would. Now, we've been told that the RZ is only 50 per side (which also suggests RZs on both sides, not just one).

Hmm. Some further thoughts about the RZ. If the RZ is indeed along the catwalk (as it appears to be in the photos), this will lead to a strange RZ dynamic. Namely, when the band is on the main stage, RZers would crowd down to that end (indeed, in the photo, the RZ seems to extend all the way down to the front of the main stage), and vice versa when they're at the b-stage. So, as opposed to the 360 tour, there would be a lot of movement/milling around in the RZ, with various largish portions of it being essentially empty depending on where the band is. Not exactly a relaxing VIP experience, I'd say, and kind of strange optically (and wasteful of space). Also, even though it appears (?) in the photos that the RZ is only on one side, lots of venues (all?) have sold RZ1 and RZ2 tickets, which certainly would suggest two sides (as in 360). I'm also thinking that (again, if it's real) the "catwalk" RZs are (mostly) less obnoxious to regular GA than I thought at first, as they mainly give rail access to the catwalk, not the stage(s)--except, again, that the RZ does seem to go right down to the main stage (but only a piece of it). This too (the mainly catwalk rail access) would be (mostly) analogous to the 360 RZs, which basically gave RZ folks the rails of the sides of the circle/ellipse catwalk. Finally, though, again what still seems very odd/unlikely to me is how large the apparent "catwalk RZ" area is, given how few RZ tix there are. If you look at the photos, this RZ takes up maybe 1/4 or at least 1/5 or so of the entire GA floor on that side--which is going to look very sparse.

Plus, with an intermission (i.e., set break), that'll be a big help to Bono, Larry, etc.

Yeah, it's looking almost certain now that there's no opener--especially since we're so close to the shows now with still no announcement.

Good points, ddarroch. RZ access from those corners would make more sense (vs. corridors along the entire walkway). Yeah, guess we'll have to wait until the first actual date to really know for sure where the doggone things really are (unless more leaked pics come out that show the actual barriers up first). By the way, what's the "F-O-S" area?

Utwothefly just had a very interesting idea about the apparent RZ "moats" running all along the walkway--namely, that they may simply mark paths for people to get into and out of the actual RZs. If so, this would make sense w/all the prior info (the San Jose arena map, the TM maps), which clearly show the RZs only by the b-stage.

I think utwothefly's right--brilliant idea, actually. Also makes much more sense, given that the San Jose arena map (which was absolutely correct about the main stage/b-stage) clearly shows the actual RZs right by the b-stage (plus all the TM maps, which show the same). And again, there's lots of reasons to think the RZs will not run the entire length of the walkway (e.g., there's so few people in the RZs--only 50 per side).

That makes no sense at all, and doesn't jive with the picture. For many reasons, I'd bet money that the RZs will be where the TM and San Jose arena maps have always shown--on each side of the b-stage.

Don't think so. C'mon, guys, the shows will be substantially different (especially in the second half)--clearly more so than in past tours.

Hmm. That's an interesting thought--sort of a combo RZ and lottery/regular GA/inner circle thing. That would make way more sense than a quasi-empty RZ all along the rail. We'll see, but I still think the RZs won't be like this, though--I bet they're by the b-stage, as all the TM and San Jose venue maps show.

No way the presale codes won't be back. This was repeatedly promised on this site. Still seems stupid that they were removed at all, but I just can't see them not being back.

Yeah, the RZs look like that in the pic, but there's no way they'll actually be like that. For example, there's way too few RZ tix/show (only 100 in all) to actually fill up the entire rail. It would be totally weird to have a semi-deserted RZ "moat" that ran along the entire catwalk. Plus, no way that regular GA would be completely off the rail. For 360, for example, the RZs were outside the inner circle, where regular GA had direct access. Finally, the TM maps (and even the best map of all--from the San Jose venue) clearly show the RZs by the smaller, b-stage. Beats me why the "chalk lines" in the photo look like that, but I'd be shocked if the RZs are really that way.

Hi Diane-- Wow, bummer for you. But...how are you going to sell them? They're will-call the day of show--so you would have to be physically present to pick them up, and only then hand them to someone else. Mike

I think it's going too far to say that what was said before was "false advertising", that "Bono lies", etc. They said the shows would be different, sure, but nobody said anything about the shows being COMPLETELY different, setlist-wise (Bono's actual quote was: "We're going to try to have a completely different feeling..."). Myself, I always thought it was obvious that there would be significant overlap from night one to night two--especially regarding some of their core, top hits. Now, we apparently know that the 1st half will be pretty similar from show to show, but major differences in the 2nd half. That still adds up to a serious amount of show-to-show setlist change--likely considerably more than they have typically done before.

Wow--sorry to hear it. The moderators have been trying to work out some kind of solution for this, but with no luck yet. Hope it somehow works out for you.

I believe the RZ is only 50 for each side--so only 100 in all. So again, no way the whole rail--even if just on one side--is RZ. And Rhi_K is right, a super-sparse RZ right by the rail would be very weird, atmosphere-wise. Plus, no way that regular GA has no chance to be on the rail at all. For 360, for example, the RZs were outside, not inside, the ellipse that regular GA had access to. And again, both the San Jose map and all the TM maps have the RZs only just by the b-stage. Beats me why the apparent RZ labels are the way they are in those pictures, but doing the RZs that way just doesn't make sense.