Songs Of Experience. The journey. Part 1

It's been a bit of a chaotic whirlwind within the U2 universe. I had gotten kind of used to the routine of Album, tour leg one, banter about the tour, another leg or two and then a few years of just listening to the music. Pining for the next one. Well, something got into the lads this past year. Not sure if its a case of them plotting how they want this crazy life to transition and/or end? I sincerely hope not. Or, if they've all just found the proverbial second wind and are ready to redefine who and what they are. This is what I hope for. U2 doesn't just quietly release albums. No, they do so with, shall we say, flair? A dizzying assault on the senses, ala Vertigo with Apple. Who will ever let the band or any fan of the band EVER forget or live down the Songs of Innocence debacle? A zillion I-tunes users woke up one morning with a fresh copy on their device, free of charge. Oops. Welcome to 2017. The prior tour promoting the very intimate and personal Innocence was by all accounts extremely successful. An arena tour complete with what else? New and cutting edge technology and U2 parading all sorts of goodies for the U2 family and fans to take in. I'll never forget watching and listening to this tour from the comfort of my lounge chair, head and ears buried into a periscope feed of a live U2 show. Incredible. We were all on the edge of our seats, waiting for the much ballyhooed and speculated about companion to Innocence. Be it accent, or what it ultimately became, experience, we clamored for it. Innocence was personal. It was a private look into the roots, into Larry Mullen's kitchen, into Bono's childhood. We cried with the band. We loved them even more. But. But, U2 has always been about innovation, about tomorrow, about what's next. Let's have the future. Rumors, hints and innuendo's from the band, from those associated with the band, all led us to feel it was close. Experience was going to be the band staking their claim on what was going to be the second half of a legendary and iconic career. WHICH, was the perfect time to do a tour celebrating the 1987 release of Joshua Tree. Uh, ok? No one outwardly complained. I mean, this was Joshua Tree, this WAS U2. But, read my prior blog about that tour and some of the talk coming from corners, pondering on maybe the band, always championing the notion of never ever living in the past, had finally run out of magic. That U2 was on the doorstep of many nostalgia tours. Staying on topic, lets just say the tour was amazing and then it ended. I, for one assumed that it would be awhile now for Songs of Experience. The band had a convenient excuse. They had just come off an emotional tour, Bono's voice was clearly showing strain. Well, this ain't your parent's U2. In the blink of an eye, it was announced that Songs of Experience was indeed coming this year, in December. Singles started to release. They teased a few of them on their Joshua Tree tour. Not nearly enough for my taste, but that's just me being stubborn. Anyway, new album, which meant new tour. Didn't we all JUST get done wrestling with presale codes and Ticketmaster and Livenation? This time around was the all time worst ever. I for one, just didn't have the stomach for it. I won't do it again. No more presales, no more angst over getting up in the morning, multiple browsers open, ONLY to find out that not all tickets are released at the same time. These crooks release them in segments. And, then, if you open up this credit card account, and subscribe to the fan site, or if you walk backwards and chew gum at the same time, then you get into a lottery for the chance to buy a ticket, or something. But, I digress. If I start blogging about how I feel about the tickets and the band allowing such shit to stain their legacy, this will turn far more aggressive than I had set out for. With no time to digest the emotional JT tour, and the absolute clusterfuck that was the ticketing for SOE(oh by the way, this cluster is the cluster that won't stop fucking, it is STILL going on. It seems as if each dawn brings some new presale, almost like a song getting remix after remix), I for one, was jaded on the whole thing. I have lived my life being a U2 apologist. A fanatic times ten. I'll defend Bono to the death. I can be critical of U2, privately, but you better not be. Well, all of a sudden, I was less than enthralled with the U2 world. It was surreal, and I felt a bit guilty. Then the album FINALLY dropped. Smack in the middle of all the ticketing shit and the early reviews comparing it to Achtung Baby. Are you kidding me?? Comparing this album, the first few songs of which were OK, but....Achtung Baby? Child, please. And, jaded I stayed. Yeah U2, I'll get your album and listen to it, I always do, but I'm not thrilled about it.

The album came out on a Friday. Twitter was abuzz with all of the U2 "kool-aid". I read through all of it, shaking my head and digging in even deeper. Convincing myself I was on the verge of just attacking. Let me at my keyboard and I'm about to knock this bird out of the sky. Nothing would ever cause me to waver from my love for the band, but as much as I've argued and fought defending their relevance, I'm a realist. They will never be 80's or early 90's relevant again, will they? I worked all day Friday and hurried home and had my oldest son quickly download it onto my Ipod before we all went out for the night. My earbuds are my best friends. It's really the only and main way to listen to and absorb the purity. That night, I was probably the last one in all my ranks of U2 friends across the world to finally press play. Earbuds in, it was time.