U2 also manage to reinvent a few of the chestnuts from its own catalog of hits here. "Bullet the Blue Sky," for example, takes on an almost funk sort of quality here, before The Edge completely explodes the song with a great guitar solo.
Saying that the band "rediscovered" the song "Sunday Bloody Sunday," after playing it at a concert in Sarajevo, The Edge performs (and sings!) the song solo accompanied only by his own guitar. Here, the normally rock anthem quality of the song from the War album takes on more a hymn like tone. For "Desire," Bono and Edge once again go the acoustic route, in a version which finds Bono humorously trying to work in a few lines of "La Bamba," before laughing the attempt off.
For a band which is often regarded as taking themselves far too seriously, humor is actually a pretty common theme during this DVD performance. At one point, Bono is seen wearing a "Bono Man" T-shirt, while bassist Adam Clayton sports one that says "Poptart" throughout the show. Speaking of Clayton, both he and drummer Larry Mullen Jr. are the rock solid foundation which anchors down the mothership here.
Still the coolest thing about this DVD — and what makes it something that warrants repeated viewings — is picking out all of the cool images seen on the big screens. There's all of the images of rock stars — from Elvis to Lennon to Morrison to Bolan and Bowie — seen during "Hold Me, Thrill Me, Kiss Me, Kill Me" for example. I also got a kick out of U2's take on the classic "evolution calendar," where here we evolve from ape to a human pushing a shopping cart.
Even though the Popmart tour was seen by millions in stadiums around the world, for many it has always been sort of U2's own "missing link" in their evolution as a band. This DVD provides more than ample proof that the whole much maligned mid-nineties Pop period more than warrants a revisit.
Article comments
1 - El Bicho
Segueing from our previous conversation, I actually passed on this show because I thought it was a little pricey, laughable now I know, but it certainly was at the time. At least but you can see where the money went.
My decision was also affected by the LA Colesium, which is a bad venue for a show, but obviously from the scope of the event, they couldn't really have played elsewhere. And they probably felt like they had to top the Achtung Baby! Tour, which is arguably the greatest spectacle of a concert of all-time.
Everybody knocked them for trying to jump on current sounds, but I find it refreshing when artists stretch. Not a great album throughout, but some fantastic songs. I liked all the songs they include from Pop. Mofo is a perfect companion to I Will Follow, interesting to see rockstar Bono still has those moments where he is the boy without a mother, and Please is as good as anything they have done.
The 2-disc set sounds like the way to go.
2 - Tom Johnson
You can't beat this set, Bicho. It's just a beautiful thing all around - as Glen beautifully stated it, the show is fantastic, but it's also the package itself. It's one of the few times when the deluxe edition is the must-own for anyone interested. Why they bothered to release a one-disc version is beyond me. Anyone buying that is seriously missing out.
3 - Chris L.
A lot about this era of U2 was sort of half-finished; I see what they were trying to do with the Pop album bit, alas, it remains an unfinished work. Everyone knows they rushed it due to their also juggling preparations for Popmart. I hope Pop will see a re-do sometime, maybe at its 20 year anniversary? Some great potential on that record and a few good tracks as is. Anyway- once this tour got underway it was great- I remember everything disliking it in America and there being general confusion about where U2 were going with all of this exactly but in retrospect it is a great work of art and fun to watch.