U2, “Angels Around The Joshua Tree”, (Tarantura TCDU2-6-1,2)
Disk 1; The Whole Of The Moon / Sunday Bloody Sunday / I Will Follow / New Years Day / Bad – Heroes / Pride (In The Name Of Love) / Where The Streets Have No Name / I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For / With Or Without You / Bullet The Blue Sky / Running To Stand Still / Red Hill Mining Town / In God’s Country / Trip Through Your Wires.
Disk 2; One Tree Hill / Exit / Mothers Of The Disappeared / Angel Of Harlem / Elevation / Vertigo – It’s Only Rock And Roll – I Love Rock n’ Roll / band introduction / Even Better Than The Real Thing / Every Breaking Wave / Beautiful Day / Ultraviolet / Love Is Bigger Than Anything In It’s Way / One.
Satiama Super Arena, Satiama, Japan. 4th December, 2019
A mighty two and a half years after launching the start of their “Joshua Tree” anniversary tours, U2 finally hit Oceana and Asia – Their timing was fortuitous as a couple of months in to the following year (As I’m sure you know by now) things begun to fold and collapse due to the COVID19 virus but by then, the tour had naturally wound down. After a short break for 2018, The tour started up again in New Zealand, moving over to Australia then finally finishing in one of the most surprising turns of the tour, India as the global divides for entertainment were broken down, U2 being one of the biggest Western bands to manage a concert in this continent.
‘Angels Around The Joshua Tree’ was released in tandem with it’s sister release, “Desires Around The Joshua Tree”, both taken from IEM feeds that first appeared on the internet as mixed torrents – U2 seem to have been targeted the most as whily crackers of the code manage to tune their frequencies to the right channels. Not something that seems to have bothered the band themselves according to this article on atU2.com in 200 in fact, this might just be the kind of thing that both fans and band might approve of, as the captures themselves so far tend to be of the highest quality and, as bootleg circles shift in the main from material to torrent, the producers of physical product aren’t putting out 2019 shows with 1995 photos but are really putting the care and attention in to their output and delivering true quality items.
This recording is no different and sounds almost like of of those CDRs that were produced at the gig and burned off while you finished swigging from your plastic beer glass and ambled towards the merch stand. It was a little trebly for my ears initially but after a little EQ-ing through my computer, I was able to muffle the hi-hats to a respectable level. There’s one small drawback though – the count-in’s that appear through the feed (See Empress Valley’s, “Thirty Years ..”) are apparent on this recording. They are generally nothing that might disturb your enjoyment of the concert but you will hear them from time to time.
The show as it is regardless, is a good one – The band had obviously had the time to prepare after all! – The best part of the 2 disk set replicates the inaugural part of the set list as it was in 2017, very little has changed though obviously the band were working to a straight routine referencing the projections through the televisions in the background, though they had a little more freedom towards the end of their sets – gone is ‘Miss. Sarajevo’, ‘Bad’ and ‘The Little Things You Give Away’ all replaced by an extended ‘Vertigo’, ‘Even Better Than The Real Thing’ and ‘Every Breaking Wave’.
The packaging is quite simplistic for the Tarantura label – 2 CDs in a simple, full colour, card cover. The text is relatively un-showy (Though personally, I’d have made do with only putting the shows date on once), the beautifully silkscreened disks are contained in simple white CD sleeves but there is the extra addition of a triple fold booklet inside featuring photos from the show and repeating the track listing. As it’s a grab from the internet, Tarantura have kept their prices a little more reasonable (They’ve obviously paid no more for the tape anyway) and this should make it a slightly better deal for the buyer who usually avoids the luxury product because of the price.
A very nice purchase to have if you were in the crowd but for sound and flow, I’d recommend the following night’s recording, “Desire Around The Joshua Tree”, for your collection instead.
