U2 DVD iNNOCENCE + eXPERIENCE Live In Paris

As early as a week before its official release we received a copy of the new U2 Blu-ray and as usual you get a detailed review on u2tour.de.You can find all general information (Tracklist etc.) regarding this DVD in our DVD-Special (German only).

Packaging | Content | Concert | Image, Sound | Bonus | Super Deluxe | Technical Details

Packaging

In addition to the disc, the packaging includes a 24-page booklet with photos from the tour (without texts) and credits. You will also find a personal dedication to the late Dennis Sheehan, Jack Heaslip, Mark Fisher and Run Wrake, accompanied by a quote from William Blake’s book of poems "Songs Of Innocence And Of Experience".

The concert is presented in NTSC in 16:9 format; the sound options offer PCM Stereo and Dolby Digital 5.1 to select from. The bonus material offers the same sound options.

Total length of all content (including the bonus material) is 4 hours and 7 minutes, with the concert itself lasting 2 hours and 27 minutes, ending with end credits of almost 4 minutes. These end credits are accompanied by "40" and include a special dedication to Dennis Sheehan. The "40" version is the one from "Red Rocks" near Denver, recorded on 5 June 1983.

The concert as well as the bonus material offer subtitles in English, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Italian and German.

 

Content

"Live In Paris" documents Part 1 of the iNNOCENCE + eXPERIENCE Tour and was filmed during the final concert in the AccorHotels Arena in Paris on 7 December 2015. The concert is presented in full length, including the special appearance by the "Eagles Of Death Metal" for "People Have The Power" and "I Love You All The Time".

We have to note, though, that compared to other shows during the i+e tour, the setlist was 2 songs short. Usually,the second song in the set was an Eighties classic as e.g. Out of Control, Gloria or The Electric Co., yet, this was skipped for this show and Vertigo was played as second song.

Also, there is a full band song missing during the set on the e-stage. A real pity, as this often left space for little surprises.

 

Concert

The recording starts referencing the terror attacks of 13 November 2015 which led to postponing the two remaining concerts to December. Bono comments on some Backstage Shots as well as on images of mourning people, stressing that it is something very special to return to Paris only 3.5 weeks after the attacks.

And here we go: With "People Have The Power" Bono enters the stage on the e-stage and more than 20,000 fans sing along with the following intro of "The Miracle" while Bono slowly walks along the catwalk towards the i-stage. With the general audience focus on Bono, Larry, Adam and Edge " inconspicuously" enter the i-stage to start with "The Miracle", that would actually also fit to stadium shows.
Right at the beginning, you cannot fail to notice a dramatic change compared to earlier DVDs: it seems that thousands of smartphones are being held into the air to get a more or less good picture or film of the scene. Fortunately, this does not affect the general vibe.

"Vertigo" follows with loads of power. Yet, the experienced i+e-Tour concert follower will miss an Eighties classic as e.g. "Electric Co." or "Gloria", which usually is played as second song in the setlist. A real pity - wouldn't have "Gloria" fit perfectly? However, directly after "Vertigo" another Eighties hit, "I Will Follow" sparks the party, even for the seated audience.

Between "I Will Follow" and "Iris", Bono shortly shortly talks about the attacks of 13 November 2015 but then directly switches to the early days of the Band in Dublin and the early loss of his mother Iris, who the following song is dedicated to.

During "Iris" the huge hanging video screen is used for the first time - fitting the topic of the song, it is used very unostentatiously.

The following "Cedarwood Road", however, shows what kind of effects this almost 30m long and 8m high screen is able to create: Bono enters a bridge in the middle of the screen via a small foldout ladder and can, thus, walk through a virtually created Cedarwood Road - the street in the northern part of Dublin he grew up on.
Unfortunately, a well known weakness of filming appears: the moiré effect, in particular when filming close-ups at an angle, leads to skewed "waves" on the screen (e.g. at 26:50 minutes).

At the end of "Cedarwood Road" the screen shows Bono sitting with a guitar in his room with "Song For Someone" seamlessly following. While Bono performs the song on the e-stage (filmed by hundreds of smartphones), he virtually moves through his parents' home in Cedarwood Road 10 on the screen.

For "Sunday Bloody Sunday" all four band members gather on the catwalk, that is illuminated in the Irish national colours green-white-orange. The song is, however, not presented in the (formerly) usual powerful live version: for the i+e Tour "Sunday Bloody Sunday" was reworked - with its reduced speed, it is almost an acoustic version.
Unfortunately, a lot of powerfull potential is lost as a result - however, this fits to the screen impages of the Northern Ireland conflict.
By the way, before the beginning of the concert, there is a warning for the audience regarding the following three loud explosions on the screen in order to prevent a potential panic.

"Raised By Wolves" - a tribute to the victims of the Irland conflict and in particular of the terror attacks in Dublin and Monaghan in 1974. 35 people died in these attacks and up until today nobody was convicted for the attacks. At the end of "Raised By Wolves" pictures of the victims are shown on the screen with the header "Justice For The Forgotten" - this is the name of a campaign by the bereaved, still fighting for complete clarification of the attacks as of today.

The following "Until The End Of The World" is another highlight of the show. The screen is now lowered so that Edge can enter it from the i-stage while Bono remains on the e-stage. The images on the screen overlap their actions and are a real eyecatcher.
At the end of the song, thousands of torn pieces of paper rain on the floor. These cuts are taken from books like: Ulysses, Lord of the Flies, the Psalms and Alice in Wonderland. The same books are also placed on the stage and Bono throws some of them into the audience. Background story to these paper cuts: there are often similar scenes following bomb explosions. Bono saw this on TV after the library in Sarajevo was fire-bombed and pages of books rained on the city for days. Or in Dublin when during the attacks a newspaper stand was blown up and the papers were strewn across the street.

A 5-minute intermission follows during which the band is below the stage. At the same time the video screen changes into the Berlin Wall and a remix of "The Fly" is played on the PA.
In the video, we can now see what happens below the stage during this intermission: Edge and Adam change their shirts, drink something and are powdered by the make-up assistants. Bono also changes his shirt and is prepared for the second part of the show. It is really interesting to watch what usually happens during this intermission.
In the video, Bono sings the "The Fly" remix live - yet, actually this was probably not recorded in Paris. If you look closely at the video, you can see that Larry's right forearm is taped with dark blue tape at the beginning of these scenes - he does not have these tapes during the complete Paris show. It is rather probable that this live recording is from the second show in Glasgow.

For "Invisible" the band is on the catwalk in the middle of the screen that was used by Bono for "Cedarwood Road". From the "outside", the audience still sees the Berlin Wall and can only see the band occasionally through temporary "cracks" that appear in the wall.
Near the end of the song: The Wall completely dissapears and allows the audience to see the band while Bono almost yells at the audience "I am here". At the same time the arena is fully illuminated -undoubtedly a highlight of the show, even if Edges guitar solo on the DVD is not as strong as seen at other shows during this tour.

"Even Better Than The Real Thing" shows the video screen it all its glory: At the beginning of the song, the band is still in the screen. The partially transparent visuals on the screen show the band members in various colours and positions. It is highly interesting to see that some shots from within the screen are intgegrated into the DVD - these shots are the basis for the images on the screen. Near the end of the song, the band leaves the screen and enters the e-stage where the song reaches its finale.

For "Mysterious Ways" und "Elevation" the e-stage is now fully used for the first time: both songs are completely performed on it. At the end of "Mysterious Ways" Bono gets a girl on stage to dance with her. This leads to the next part during which several, previously selected, fans are allowed to join the band on stage. It certainly is a question whether you like this, but the general vibe of "Elevation" still comes across.

"Every Breaking Wave" as well as "October" are performed by Edge on the piano and Bono as usual - the video screen shows aerial shots of the Syrian city Kobe that was completely destroyed in the civil war.



What a suitable intro to "Bullet The Blue Sky": Even if this song usually does not really work for the seated audience, it still is a real highlight for many fans.

Unfortunately,"Zooropa" is not played as a full version. Yet, we have to glad that it returns to a European setlist at all on a regular basis - the last time it was played regurlarly was during the ZooTV Tour in 1993). And the transition into "Where The Streets Have No Name" is absolutely great.

"Streets" , certainly, is one of the really big highlights of a U2 concert and this shows in the reactions of the audience when Edge plays the first notes on his guitar. It is followed by "Pride", which is considered as "overplayed" by many fans, but which is still one of the songs to get the audience really going.

For "With Or Without You" the foldout light rods on the stage are used for the first time. Bono performs most of the song on the e-stage and returns to the i-stage near the end of the sond, accompanied by the audience singing along. On the i-stage, the band says goodbye to the audience. (Shortly before leaving the stage, Adam gives his shirt to a fan in the front row.)

The encores start with an audio of Stephen Hawking called "Global Citizen" before "City of Blinding Lights" follows. While Bono performs the song with a fan on the catwalk, the screen shows images of Paris.
The song ends with a very moving moment. Bono performs parts of "Ne me quitte pas" while the names of the victims of the attacks of 13 November 2015 are on the screen together with the French flag. At the end, the modified peace sign in form of the Eiffel Tower is shown on the screen.

"Beautiful Day" follows - another song to spark the masses and again, Egde really is on fire.



After the first lines of the Paul Simon song "Mother And Child Reunion" follow the first bars, that let every fan's heart beat faster: "Bad", always a highlight of any U2 concert. Yet, for the film about 1 minute was cut compared to the original performance that day. When Bono tried to put the French flag on Larry's drums he needed a couple of attempts and these were discreetly cut in the film.

Following a short speech by Bono, the sing-along-song of the tour starts: "One". The French audience sings most of the song with loud voices - pure goose bumps feeling.

For "People have the Power" U2 get the Eagles of Dead Metal on stage. The audience understands this gesture and the vibe is excellent. During the attacks of 13 November most lives were lost at the Bataclan Club during a concert of the Eages of Death Metal. Bono announces them with the words: "They were robbed of their stage 3 weeks ago and we would like to offer them ours tonight."

U2 leave the stage after this song without any big farewell scenes and leave the stage to the Eagles of Death Metal for another song: "I Love You All The Time"ends this concert and, thus, also the U2 Tour in 2015.

Résumé:

Finally, with "Live In Paris" a European concert is officially released on DVD again.
Full of many very emotionally performed songs, an enthusiastic audience and many great visual effects on the screen, this DVD is really well done and a real success.
In particular towards the end of the show, one goose bumps moment follows the other and, overall, the DVD revives memories of a brilliant tour in 2015 and whets our appetite for the next U2 live shows.

One thing interesting to mention is that sometimes you can see French flags hanging in the stands. Actually, it was not allowed to present banners there and following instructions from the local security hat to be removed ca. 1 hour prior to the concert. It was only after audience protest and instruction of the security supervisor that all banners directly referencing France and Paris were allowed in the stands.

 

Image, Editing and Sound

If you have the suitable technical equipment at home, you will be very pleased: U2 comes directy into your living room and many will find it very hard to stay on their sofas while watching.
We were able to witness how good the sound really is during the "Official Private Screening" in Paris: During the screening in the cinema we got the feeling of being right there at the concert in the arena.
Admittedly, some small "mistakes" by the Edge were corrected but this was done so professionally that the listener will not notice these small corrections.

The vast majority of the recoding is from the concert on 7 December, yet at some points scenes from the concert on the previous day were discreetly mixed in. We do not know whether this was done as the recording from 7 December was not considered good enough or whether it was important to the producers to include scenes from 6 December.
In fact, these cuts are done so discreetly that nobody will notice when just watching the recording without particular focus on these edits.
Just the backstage shots of "The Fly" are clearly not from 7 December: Larry's taped forearm shows that these scenes are not from this concert (and not from the previous one) but seem to be from the 2nd Glasgow show.

While the last DVD "At The Rose Bowl" was produced by Tom Krueger, this time Hamish Hamilton is back at the helm. We already know him from earlier U2 concert films as "Live From Slane" or "Live In Boston".
With "Live In Paris" we, again, witness a typical Hamilton: deliberately slightly blurred shots are taken from the audience and sometimes the focus is being changed to get blurred images. In some scenes the camera moves back and forth between Bono, Edge, Adam and Larry - this seems somewhat unsual as this is usually done with cuts or edits using different angles.
Nevertheless, these "effects" are rather fitting than disrupting and complete a great movie from the last concerts of the i+e Tour 2015. Even if you did not attend the concert in Paris or no concert of last year's tour at all, you will enjoy it and will now (if not before) think about going to one of the concerts on the next tour.

Bonus Tracks, Documentaries & Extras (Double-DVD and Blu-ray)

The bonus material included in the deluxe formats and the Blu-ray consists of two parts; on the one hand bonus clips related to the tour and on the other hand music videos accompanying the official releases from "Songs of Innocence".

1. Bonus Tracks Part 1 - Tour:

1.1. Cedarwood Road – A Gavin Friday Narration
First of all, this track contains the visuals that were used on the screen during the Cedarwood Road live performances during the live shows - true to scale to the original format used during the tour. As the stage screen was much wider than the 16:9 TV format, the picture shows a wide black frame on the top and bottom of the TV screen.
The images are accompanied by the album version of Cedarwood Road and narration by Gavin Friday.

Friday recounts life in the seventies in Cedarwood Road together with Guggi and Bono and the visions the three boys had and the influences by David Bowie, etc. He has a closer look at some details of the screen images which some of the audience might have considered pure coincidence during the shows. If you are interested in getting a better understanding of the screen visuals during the show, will get this in this short video.

1.2. Out Of Control (December 6th 2015 – Paris)
Out Of Control was filmed during the third Paris show on 6 December and is included without any edits or cuts.

1.3. The Future Better Hurry Up
Behind this rather mysterious title you will find something like a trailer to the tour, including shots from backstage, images of the band travelling (Cologne can be seen shortly), a time lapse shot of the stage set-up as well as some live clips.

1.4.. The Electric Co. (November 11th 2015 - Paris)
The Electric Co. was filmed before the Paris attacks during the second Paris show on 11 November 2015 - this was the first show that was (at least) partly filmed. This song was not edited and even includes all snippets from other songs/artists which is not always the case for U2 live releases.

1.5. i + e - Behind The Scenes With The Director
This track is the one that was already presented on amazon.co.uk. Director Hamish Hamilton recounts the challenges arising from the stage concept and how he solved them. You will see him giving directions in the control room as well as layout drafts he used to develop the concepts, i.e. which angles and perspectives could be used in the various songs.

1.6. Bad / People Have The Power (With Patti Smith - December 6th 2015 - Paris)
One, respectively, two bonus tracks filmed during the third show on 6 December 2015. Here you get the special appearance by Patti Smith on stage, which many consider one of the highlights of the Paris shows.
Even if not too obvious to most viewers, the song as edited and a few seconds were cut from the original performance: Bono starts the Gloria part a lot earlier at the end of Bad than it actually happened during the show. It is not really understandable why some seconds were cut here.

1.7. The Wanderer
This track consists of visuals used on screen, again in the true to scale screen format. The album version of The Wanderer was used for the intermission in Canada/US and was later replaced by The Fly.

1.8. The Troubles
Again, more visuals used on screen during the live shows during the very few live perfomances of The Troubles: black and white images of Bono and Lykke Li, again true to scale to the "Live-Screen-Format". Unfortunately. these visuals are not accompanied by a live version of the song but by the album version.

By the way, the end credits of this first part of the bonus material is accompanied by This Is Where You Can Reach Me Now.

Bonus Tracks Part 2 - Music Videos:

Part 2 of the bonus material consists of almost all videos and short films produced in the context of the Songs of Innocence release. Certainly, all hardcore U2 fans are familiar with all videos via youtube, etc. but having all tracks in high quality "in one place" creates the extra value of this compilation.

In detail: included are the music videos for Ordinary Love, Invisible, The Miracle (Of Joey Ramone), Song For Someone (Matt Mahurin version).

In addition, the material includes two short films for SoI songs:
Every Breaking Wave - A Film By Aoife Mcardle is a short film about two teens falling in love in the midst of the constant violence in Northern Ireland in the early eighties. In addition to Every Breaking Wave a short part of The Troubles can also be heard.

Song for Someone is also presented in form of a short film. Director Vincent Haycock shows the story of an inmate being released from prison after several years and being awaited by his daughter at the front door. No less than True Detective actor Woody Harrelson is in the leading role here. There is also a short Making Of film accompanying this short film including scenes from the shooting of the film and explanations.

Bonus material - the bottom line:

Quite decent but there would have been room for more. Most interesting are in our opinion the bonus tracks from the other Paris Shows. Even if not obvious to most viewers, cutting the Bad version with Patti Smith would not have been necessary.
The additional short clips related to the tour are rather interesting but nothing you would watch several times. However, that might be true for most bonus materials on almost any DVD/Blu-ray anyway.

U2 cover bands will be very pleased with the screen visuals of Cedarwood Road, The Troubles and The Wanderer if they plan to include them into their own shows.

While as late as fall last year, there were plans to film (and release) a documentary on the tour, these plans seem to be (at least) "put on ice". This might be connected to the changes in the tour plans following the attacks in Paris. A long(er) documentary on the tour would certainly have been the "icing on the cake".

 

Additional Content Super Deluxe Box

The super deluxe edition contains 2 DVDs & 1 blu-ray disc & the following goodies:

» 1 USB-lamp (lightbulb)
» 64-page hardback book
» 1 individually numbered dog tag
» 4 stencils cut out’s
» 4 postcards / art prints
» 1 Sticker sheet
» 3 badge’s/button*s
» Download Code

 

Technical Details

Video format: 16:9, 1080i
Sound concert:: PCM Stereo Dolby & Digital 5.1
Sound bonus material: PCM Stereo & Dolby Digital 5.1

The Dual Layer change on the DVD-Version is just after "Elevation" is finished. So there is no interruption during a song, as we had in previous productions.

Review by Hans-Jürgen Becker, Sabine Schieweck, Carola Schmidt, Anne Viefhues, Oliver Zimmer; Translation by Sabine Schieweck; Technical implementation by Christoph Beller.