DMB vs U2
I don't know how many U2 fans we've got on the forum, but it's hard to not admit the massive influence they've had on rock music over the last 4 decades. Should DMB and them even be compared? Are they just to different to say one is better than the other?
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I like early U2. I think they have a Big 3 just like DMB. War, The Unforgettable Fire, The Joshua Tree. I don't think either band is better than the other. Lillywhite produced War, and Daniel Lanois helped with Joshua Tree & Unforgettable Fire. Some cool overlap there
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I'm not a fan of U2, but I respect them. I remember seeing Batman in the theaters and liking Hold Me, Thrill Me, Kiss Me, Kill Me when that was their current single.
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Compare that to DMB, which doesn't have the type of sound that's really big in other countries. I see DMB as a very American band (with lots of influence). That's just me though. Good question. |
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Both bands should stop making new music at this point, that's for sure.
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Where's Bo?
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So Achtung Baby is Everyday?
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U2 has a MUCH better track record of good/great albums. And even the misfires have heart.
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They are better than each other in a lot of areas
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U2 is horrible.
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I'll take a quick stab at what TS is trying to say:
DMB, historically, has been more open to improv and jamming at shows, where U2 is very structured in the live setting, same setlist and solos every night. U2, historically, has had much better pop sensibilities in terms of making music for as many people as possible, where DMB can be pretty niche in who their music can appeal to. |
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U2 is very good at coming up with songs that are almost like anthems, easy for everyone to latch onto quickly and sing along with, this is a significant skill in itself and especially when done as successfully as they have been. DMB's writing process is very different, I'd argue DMB historically has been at their best when they don't write with the intention that U2 sets out to have. |
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I turned 50 this year. I remember when "classic rock" became a thing, as stations that were playing the edgier stuff from the '60s and '70s wanted to distinguish themselves from the stations playing '50s and '60 rock/pop...the "golden oldies". I also distinctly remember when U2 got scant airplay on MTV (mostly via I Will Follow, being "old" at that point) then the Gloria video came out and it was uphill for a decade after that. U2 may now be see as classic rock, but they were part of something clearly new and different when they came out. My sister and I watched MTV pretty from the first day it aired until the mid-90s or so. Our dad was a music junky, so we were listening to music ALL of the time. He enjoyed the jazz and pop of his youth (including what his parents listened to), but also loved hearing/finding new music. MTV was (at the time) an obvious evolution of radio, but it made image far too important..."back when I was a boy..." Anyway, I've fallen in and out of love a few times w/ U2. My wife and I were just talking the other day about how amazing Achtung Baby as the first real FULL studio follow-up to Joshua Tree. Rattle & Hum wasn't a fully realized studio album, more of an ambitious attempt to pay tribute to American musical heroes/legends and document their creative process (their Let It Be). The band was clearly still riding the understandable massive success of JT and several of the tunes, especially All I Want Is You, are coming from a similar place as the music on JT. But AB was astonishing...they really grappled w/ their success to that point and decided they needed to break their mold...and holy shit did they. For me Achtung is their best album by a LOT, and I love War, TUF, JT, & ATYCLB. Zooropa & Pop are definitely U2's ED & SU...not for me. In the end, it's not a contest. You can compare/contrast any artists, but there's no objective measure of who's better. We can unequivocally state that U2 was more popular than DMB, but that's not a measure of quality. Both are world class bands, but it's interesting that one is made of new musicians searching for and finding their voice while the other was at least a pair of evolving world class musicians and at least two becoming excellent as well. The core for both bands was great songs and passionate singing from singers that you'd never mistake for anyone else. Cheers folks. |
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Achtung is far and away their best, most ambitious album, and they absolutely nailed it. Taking the best of their sound from the 80s and pushing themselves further. Any U2 fan knows the struggles they had with the album until "One" unlocked everything else. Comparing the two bands is unequivocally difficult because both are somewhat in classes of their own. U2 does massive world tours every 4-5 years. DMB plays the same sheds every summer. And for what it's worth, I did quite enjoy the most recent U2 effort, and think they have more left to say as a band. |
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I love them both though a bigger fan of DMB. I've seen U2 twice as opposed to high 30's with DMB.
I think U2 is more universally loved AND hated. Because any thing or person that gets that famous is going to have haters. I don't really see any comparison in the 2 TBH. Musically or performance wise. U2 is excellent in the studio and has one of if not the best SHOWs I've ever seen. The stage, lights, video etc is always cutting edge and unique. However the show itself never changes other than a song or two on any given night in a tour. They'll tour for 2.5 years on an album and you could see them 10 times and get a difference of maybe 5 songs. It makes sense because so much more is involved with the production and being on queue with video and lights. DMB are better musicians. Dave at his best is better than Bono at his best in songwriting if you're looking for lyrics that aren't surface level. Bono can certainly write an anthem, but a lot of his lyrics lack depth that are covered up by being catchy, melodic and easy to sing a long with. That's pop. There is nothing wrong with that IMO. DMB never really had that universal sing a long hit song outside of of Crash. Yes they have lots of hits, but not on the same level. Where U2 could play 20 greatest hits in a show and EVERYONE knows the words to every song. DMB is going to have play Ants, DDTW, Crash, Everyday, SMTS and Space Between... But what else really has any universal connection for them? Those individual songs don't hold up to any one individual song that U2 has. And I would like to see the U2 hits again and again. They could and do play Steets, One love, Beautiful Day every night and they don't really get old. With DMB I actually don't want the hits, I want the unique things they do. I'll take a DMB show any day over u2 though. |
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Agree completely about seeing U2 SHOW, and the band puts on an amazing start-to-finish, high-production show: lights, video, and the band itself SOUNDS great. The comps they get to Coldplay (or, more fittingly, Coldplay TO U2) are apt: fantastic, high-energy, 2 hour shows with tons of hits, amazing production value, etc. Both have many HUGE hits:
U2: Coldplay: Where streets Have No Name Yellow Beautiful Day Clocks I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For Viva la Vida One The Scientist Mysterious Ways Fix You With or Without You Paradise on and on we could go... DMB has more deep cuts, I suppose, though U2 and Coldplay also usually have 3-5 songs a night that are somewhat "deep"/non-radio tunes. But, the U2 and Coldplay don't have anywhere near the changing sets that DMB has. Which, is good and bad. Coldplay and U2 always give many, many crowd pleasers... I feel like they those 2 bands "play the hits" for sure, but I mean that as a plus. Going back to U2 and DMB, their newer stuff certainly isn't as strong as their vintage stuff, but I will say U2's newish music (at least ALl That You Can't Leave Behind, How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb, made 20-some years after they began) is much higher quality than DMB'd, and cetainly had more cultural buzz/mainstream appeal. |
DMB vs U2
I've always been a super U2 fan!
U2 and DMB inspire me in different ways, but wonderfully! Apart from the albums, the coolest thing is that both have the best Showmen I've ever seen on stage! Enviado do meu iPhone usando Tapatalk |
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I love both bands. But, I also recognize why both bands can drive certain music fans nuts.
U2 is very earnest, ambitious, and full of heart. Often, it works splendidly. Occasionally, it falls flat (I thought their last tour was abysmal). They have a far better grasp of how to make an album than DMB, so even the weaker efforts are still cohesive and have a singular vision. When they're on live, it can be pretty much transcendent. Few songs pack a punch like "Where the Streets Have No Name" or "Bad". I'm one of those who prefers 90's U2 over any decade, and think Pop is an underrated masterpiece. DMB's musicianship is superior to U2's, and they showed for the first decade they were capable of consistently producing great albums. I think eventually critics would have had to acquiesce and say "these guys are a great band", but once Everyday was released instead of LWS, that ship sailed. Unlike U2, which released a great album in three different decades (Joshua Tree, Achtung, All That You Can't Leave Behind), DMB just has the incredible run in the 90's. I respect and love U2 because they always swing for the fences. Same goes for DMB because they are a consistently great live band and have given me so many fantastic memories. Sonically, there isn't much overlap. But, both bands have an ability to connect with listeners' emotions more than most other artists, and that intangible quality is probably why each has achieved their own level of great success. |
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U2 puts on a helluva show. They're usually a spectacle in a way that DMB does not aspire to, in that sense.
For example, DMB has never and will never do anything like The Claw: https://pitchfork.com/news/u2s-the-c...utah-aquarium/ And that's OK! I don't think something like that would suit what DMB does |
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Being both a big U2 fan and DMB fan, I admire both in quite different ways;
These are the two band's different "strenghts" IMO; U2: Bono's lyrics and The Edge's guitar sound. DMB: Hands down, one of the best band in the world when it comes to playing their respective instruments and musicianship as a band. |
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In fairness, though, the band never got great reviews consistently. I just feel like a completed LWS may have led to a re-appraisal of their music, with critics begrudgingly accepting just how good they were. Wishful thinking, maybe. |
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Bono and U2 suck
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What a fun convo, and it stayed civil which is awesome!
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Putting all the true comments about them as more of a popular music band and maybe simpler concepts in their lyrics and lack of variation in their live shows when comparing setlists on any given tour (all true), what I don't think has been raised up enough is that when they're ON, and they're on a lot when they tour, they are a FORCE to be reckoned with. I've seen U2 probably 12 times (with a huge gap between '96 and 2017), and seen DMB 80 times (but not at all since 2008). And overall I've seen over 1,500 concerts in my life (probably close to 2,000), mainly because for about 25 yrs of my life starting as a teen, my social life was music-centric so my friends and most of my socializing was all around live music. That said, while neither DMB nor U2 are in my top 5 ever favorite live acts, if I had to pick a top 5 ever of specific concerts, an '85 U2 show would be in that top 5, of over 1,500, because I had shitty seats, had been to the dentist before the show and was in pain, and had the flu, and yet it was powerful beyond words. I have a review of it saved somewhere and the person who wrote it captured all I felt, it was a gamechanger and a lifechanger. And that is NOT about lights and special effects, although I will say that masterful use of staging and how powerful political or emotional messages are presented was definitely part of the powerpunch. Obviously I love DMB live, given I've seen them 80 times and will probably see them again for 1st time in 14 yrs sometime in next year. And I've had my mouth dropped open in awe at the amazingness of DMB live several times. But I can't say I've ever had that "We were transported to Nirvana, saw God/Goddess, and returned super-charged with magic energy" experiences with DMB, much as I adore so much of their music and their shows. It still doesn't make one band "better" than another, and I totally agree with whoever said if I could only see 10 shows total between the 2 bands, I'd see U2 3 times on the same tour and DMB 7 because with DMB I'd get 7 different shows. With U2 I'd just get to enjoy amazing songs and the minor differences 3 times. Also agree that musicianship wise, DMB beats U2 hands down. And yet... U2 can write some songs too, although I do prefer the complexity of DMB songs (whether about world issues, inner struggles or sex), DMB are superior song writers. |
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On the personal front, I've had the pleasure of having an extended convo with Bono once, and many with Dave, and needless to say both are exceptional human beings and fascinating, endlessly fascinating to talk to. And very different, which also pretty much goes without saying.
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I prefer DMB live, could be because DMB is the best live band I've ever heard
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The studio recording of wild horses is definitely up there as one of my favorite songs. I remember first hearing it in high school and have loved it ever since. Lillywhites production on that is top notch.
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I think it was actually their best reviewed album, produced 2 big hits for them and was nominated for Album of the Year. That's not nothing if not one of their most successful albums. I know we've all seen the songs live more than any of us ever hoped to, but lets give it a fair shake. And as an album its pretty well done and still kicks pretty good today. |
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Definitely a number of similarities, principally the involvement of Steve Lillywhite
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I forgot how great U2 was. We were driving home around Christmas and SiriusXM had a retrospective on Actung Baby where the guys talked about each song. That album was stellar, and an amazing follow up to Joshua Tree, which I think is their best. That run from War to AB is an impressive collection of albums/songs.
They also put on a hell of a show, but when you have a fixed set list with a few random slots each night I would hope so. Similar to the Stones, great show but 90% is the same night after night. DMB/D&Tis still my favourite. Not knowing which song gets played next is more enjoyable. |
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Looking at it objectively they don't but peak DMB blows everything out of the water in terms of my connection to music and preferences and that kind of thing, even now still great I agree |
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I disagree! |
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Huge fan of both U2 and DMB.
U2 wrote some of the best songs I have ever heard. Studio version of A Sort of Homecoming is one of my all-time favorites. Live versions of Bad give me chills every time I listen. JT and Achtung Baby are two of the all-time greatest albums. The Unforgettable Fire is a beautiful album. DMB's musicality blows U2 out of the water in every way. While U2's live shows were/are amazing spectacles, I'll take DMB's approach every time. I value complicated musicality and improvs being performed live over the spectacle. Not to mention the spontaneity of the setlists each night is something I treasure in DMB. U2 plays the same songs, solos, speeches every single night. DMB's musical prowess allows them to play so many different songs in so many different ways every night. Its something we all take for granted. I respect both bands for what they have given to music history. |
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