U2 - The Virtual Road - iNNOCENCE + eXPERIENCE Live In Paris (2021) [Hi-Res]

The Virtual Road was a series of concerts shown by U2 on YouTube in March and April of 2021. Each show had been previously released, but it was the first time they streamed complete on YouTube. Each show was limited, and would eventually be removed from the service. To accompany the releases, a series of digital EPs were released to streaming services and digital storefronts.

The EP for the fourth show is “The Virtual Road: iNNOCENCE + eXPERIENCE Live In Paris” and it features a number of tracks taken from the Paris concert in 2015. Each EP is edited so that a continuous mix is heard with crowd noise flowing between tracks, even if the songs were not performed back to back in concert. In this case, “Vertigo” was the second song on the home video release, “Song for Someone” was the sixth, “Until the End of the World” was 9th and “Every Breaking Wave” was the 15th song of the home video. The songs are new mixes of the audio from the original master tapes, and none of the four have been released in an audio-only format to date. The “cover” art for the EP uses the home video artwork from the original release of this show for the home market.

Previously only one track from the Paris show was released in an audio-only format. “Cedarwood Road” had featured on the fan club release, Live Songs of iNNOCENCE + eXPERIENCE but has never had a wide commercial release. None of the other songs from the Paris show have been released in an audio-only format until this EP.

The Virtual Road is a series of four previous concert releases, being shown on YouTube for free in March and April 2021, including the Slane Castle video from 2001, the performance from Red Rocks in 1983, Mexico City in 1997 and Paris in 2015. These follow on similar shows of Zoo TV Live From Sydney, Elevation Live from Boston, Vertigo Live from Chicago, and the Experience and Innocence Tour Live from Berlin all shown in high resolution via U2.Com in 2020. At this time no physical release is planned for these shows, and there is no known plans for a physical release of this digital EP.