Fed Up With Flags
Unforgettable Fire Rotterdam, Holland
31 October 1984
(41:37)
(45:32)

Disc 1:
1. 4th of July (PA)
2. 11 O'Clock Tick Tock
3. I Will Follow
4. Wire
5. MLK
6. The Unforgettable Fire
7. Surrender
8. Two Hearts Beat As One
9. Seconds
10. A Sort of Homecoming

Disc 2:
1. Sunday Bloody Sunday
2. Bad
3. October
4. New Year's Day
5. Pride (In the Name of Love)
6. Party Girl
7. Gloria
8. 40
 

NOTE: The overall sound is pretty clean, yet fairly distant.  The low end is a bit stronger than the high end.  Bono's vocals come across pretty well -- just distant -- during the music, but his speeches between songs can be difficult to hear until the sound quality markedly improves at 3:25 of "Two Hearts Beat As One".  Audience noise isn't much of an issue.  A soft tape hiss can be heard in the background during the quieter portions of the show.

While this title isn't on the same level as those Unforgettable Fire recordings that have been released by the various bootleg labels, it is a certainly a passable collector-made bootleg.  Remember this cardinal rule of collecting live recordings: the more difficult it is to find a specific concert on CDR, the more likely the sound quality of any recording of that concert that finally surfaces will be average or worse.  Or, to put it in a bit catchier terms: "when it's rare, expect only fair".

After "Two Hearts", Bono talks a bit about the white flag that has come to symbolize the band.  "Doesn't matter what flag it is. You know the reason we use this symbol....U2 have been criticized for using the white flag.  You know, some times I just get fed up with flags.  I get fed up with green and white Irish.  I get fed up with Union Jack.  I get fed up with stars and stripes.  I get fed up with hammer and cycle.  I get fed up with all flags.  This is the next stage of what everyone must take on, what everyone must face every day until extinguish from this place every single nuclear weapon."  Then, appropriately, the band launches into "Seconds".