World live premiere of U2′s Your Blue Room
U2 finally, FINALLY, premiered “Your Blue Room” at their second show in Chicago on the 360 tour. The band had been rehearsing this song at soundchecks very early on during the European leg of this tour. (I am pretty sure I heard bits of it during the Paris soundcheck, but there are more certain accounts from later shows.)
Enjoy this video which features the full song, including the spoken word bit by the astronauts of the ISS crew. Too bad Adam – who spoke on the original – didn’t get his big live vocal debut for this.
“Your Blue Room” was written for the Michelangelo Antonioni-Wim Wenders film Beyond the Clouds, and was originally supposed to be the 2nd single off the Passengers (1995) album, but that never came to pass. However, a rare promo disc of the song exists and two years later, the song featured as a B-side on the “Staring at the Sun” single.
For a lot of the Chicago crowd this must have been a WTF moment (a.k.a. ‘toilet break’, a.k.a. ‘beer run’), but it must have been a brilliant experience for connaisseurs. We know who you are.
And we’re not jealous. Not jealous at all.
*gnashes teeth*
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Love those space and ISS visuals….this video also provides a good view of ISS crew part: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FZOegQUc7tk
Love those space and ISS visuals….this video also provides a good view of ISS crew part: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FZOegQUc7tk
As live U2 experiences go, this probably beat out Chicago twelve years ago, when Bono invited a MacPhisto impersonator from the crowd to dance with him during WOWY. The opening chords started, and my friends and the other couple of big fans in our area couldn’t quite figure out what we were hearing — my first thought was that it was “Miss Sarajevo,” simply because I’d heard that live before.
My second thought was that it was just recorded music being used for a transition. But then I got on tippy-toes and peered up at the stage (visibility in GA for those of us not stalwart enough to show up hours ahead of time was at times questionable), and Larry was drumming! And then Bono started singing! And dawn finally broke on Marblehead, and we listened, enraptured.
The visuals were gorgeous, and it was quite a surprise when the astronaut did the spoken word at the end — we were all braced to hear Adam. And it was totally a bathroom break for a bunch of the folks around us, but wasn’t like the lackluster response they got on the Vertigo Tour when I saw them play “Fast Cars”: The mood was so haunting that the more subdued applause that followed felt right — and of course it was broken up by no small number of fans like us cheering our hearts out.
After they finished, we all turned to each other and said, “Have they ever played that before? I don’t think they’ve ever played that before!” We weren’t quite ready to believe it was a real premiere, until we got home and checked u2log.com.
But it absolutely made the show for me. Here’s hoping it stays in the set, at least from time to time, so that everyone else can see it, too.
As live U2 experiences go, this probably beat out Chicago twelve years ago, when Bono invited a MacPhisto impersonator from the crowd to dance with him during WOWY. The opening chords started, and my friends and the other couple of big fans in our area couldn’t quite figure out what we were hearing — my first thought was that it was “Miss Sarajevo,” simply because I’d heard that live before.
My second thought was that it was just recorded music being used for a transition. But then I got on tippy-toes and peered up at the stage (visibility in GA for those of us not stalwart enough to show up hours ahead of time was at times questionable), and Larry was drumming! And then Bono started singing! And dawn finally broke on Marblehead, and we listened, enraptured.
The visuals were gorgeous, and it was quite a surprise when the astronaut did the spoken word at the end — we were all braced to hear Adam. And it was totally a bathroom break for a bunch of the folks around us, but wasn’t like the lackluster response they got on the Vertigo Tour when I saw them play “Fast Cars”: The mood was so haunting that the more subdued applause that followed felt right — and of course it was broken up by no small number of fans like us cheering our hearts out.
After they finished, we all turned to each other and said, “Have they ever played that before? I don’t think they’ve ever played that before!” We weren’t quite ready to believe it was a real premiere, until we got home and checked u2log.com.
But it absolutely made the show for me. Here’s hoping it stays in the set, at least from time to time, so that everyone else can see it, too.
Thanks Josh, that was cool to read!
Thanks Josh, that was cool to read!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UokIkqhLbnk
Here’s a version of the song that I filmed from the inner circle, next to the bridge – if you’re interested in seeing the song from another perspective! I could see both Bono and the ISS visuals at the same time, and I have good footage of the astronaut. I love the two versions posted above, as well. It was an amazing concert!! – my first GA experience – and Your Blue Room was the blue cherry on the top. Unfortunately I missed the first 10 sec. or so of the song, since I was realizing what the song was and yelling to the people around me “They’re playing Your Blue Room!”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UokIkqhLbnk
Here’s a version of the song that I filmed from the inner circle, next to the bridge – if you’re interested in seeing the song from another perspective! I could see both Bono and the ISS visuals at the same time, and I have good footage of the astronaut. I love the two versions posted above, as well. It was an amazing concert!! – my first GA experience – and Your Blue Room was the blue cherry on the top. Unfortunately I missed the first 10 sec. or so of the song, since I was realizing what the song was and yelling to the people around me “They’re playing Your Blue Room!”
This must’ve been so cool!
This must’ve been so cool!
Could not believe we were so blessed to be hearing it live and for the first time. Such a gorgeous song, used to play it in a continuous loop along with “Slug” back in the darkroom in college. “Slug” is the perfect track to develop photos to (dating myself here ;o)
Sunday’s crowd rivaled European crowds in their volume, chanting and overall enthusiasm. Saturday was good as well, but Sunday’s crowd left me with ringing ears.
Both shows…best since Zooropa Tour.
Could not believe we were so blessed to be hearing it live and for the first time. Such a gorgeous song, used to play it in a continuous loop along with “Slug” back in the darkroom in college. “Slug” is the perfect track to develop photos to (dating myself here ;o)
Sunday’s crowd rivaled European crowds in their volume, chanting and overall enthusiasm. Saturday was good as well, but Sunday’s crowd left me with ringing ears.
Both shows…best since Zooropa Tour.
[...] U2log.com reports, the Greatest Band in the World performed “Your Blue Room,” a track from Original [...]
[...] U2log.com reports, the Greatest Band in the World performed “Your Blue Room,” a track from Original [...]
Walking in last night in Boston we caught a glimpse of this while they were doing sound check. The video of the astronaut doing Adam’s part was really surprising and cool. Then to see it during the show with all the other Earth & Space images was really overwhelming and awesome. It was great to see the “spaceship” theme of the concert combined with a “be good to the Earth message” which makes me see “Your Blue Room” in a different way now.
The astronaut in the video is the second Belgian in Space, Frank De Winne, current ISS expedition commander. It’s awesome that U2 thought to include him and that the ESA allowed it – I just wish that NASA would let its astronauts do more stuff like that!
Walking in last night in Boston we caught a glimpse of this while they were doing sound check. The video of the astronaut doing Adam’s part was really surprising and cool. Then to see it during the show with all the other Earth & Space images was really overwhelming and awesome. It was great to see the “spaceship” theme of the concert combined with a “be good to the Earth message” which makes me see “Your Blue Room” in a different way now.
The astronaut in the video is the second Belgian in Space, Frank De Winne, current ISS expedition commander. It’s awesome that U2 thought to include him and that the ESA allowed it – I just wish that NASA would let its astronauts do more stuff like that!
[...] until U2’s Sunday show at Solider Field. And during the show Dale told me that U2 had an ISS crew member ”sing” part of the words from the song as the live feed was broadcast live from space [...]
[...] until U2’s Sunday show at Solider Field. And during the show Dale told me that U2 had an ISS crew member ”sing” part of the words from the song as the live feed was broadcast live from space [...]