I have 2.4 video proof.
But I've been told my judgement isn't that reliable.
It may be a hot dog.
Or a spark plug.
Or a throw rug. Sorry, throw up.
I'm not sure.
I'm a victim.
Or something.
On a serious note, though, you're making very good points!
You get the simple reality that in terms of output, hits, impact on music, image, etc-the 1980s are dominant for U2. Not going to change that....ask people about U2 and they'll say "I love I Will Follow" or they'll talk about New Year's Day or Sunday Bloody Sunday @Red Rocks or Bad @ Live Aid or reminisce about driving around and hearing Pride. They'll talk about being seniors in High School and skipping school to wait in line for Joshua Tree tour tickets...they'll talk about the intro to Streets. I don't think I have to continue.
That doesn't mean the 90's weren't absolutely brilliant, they were. And U2 acknowledges that. AB, as many have already pointed out, has been heavily represented all 3 00's tours. I'm not going over the stats or the specifics again-everyone else has already, but can anyone honestly say they expected The First Time on Vertigo? Or pick any 90s album track that became a staple on a 00s tour and ask if you really expected that.
Given the success of ATYCLB, U2 could have easily disowned Pop entirely on Elevation. Thrown in 2 more from ATYCLB and 2 more from the 80s and the critics and people they lost w/the 90s would've been jumping for joy. Instead, they played 4 songs from Pop and kept songs like Until The End Of The World and The Fly in prominent spots in the set list.
Nothing anywhere indicates any of them, even Larry, are in the least bit apologetic about the 90s in general or Pop specifically. In fact, I remember a Vertigo era interview where they were all talking about the classic U2 feel of the 2 00's albums to that point and Larry was the only person who said "look, we did Pop and we remain very proud of that."
You can look at 80s vs 90s stats in terms of live plays, but that shouldn't tell anyone even remotely familiar with U2 anything.
As for the live performances:
Even if MW and One aren't exactly what they were on Zoo TV, both sound great still. Look at EBTTRT and Ultraviolet on 360. The point remains that overall, U2 are every bit as good a live band now as they've ever been.
Gone: Definitely agree with you! 2001 had a slight edge over 1997 live versions, but I feel both were much better than the version on the album. If I want to hear Gone, I usually go right to Elevation or Popmart Leeds. Never to the studio version.
Mysterious Ways: Definitely best on Zoo TV, a little downgrade for Popmart, but the 2001 tweaking made it awesome again. I'm with you there, I like Elevation MW a lot! Better than Zoo TV...that's a stretch, I think. Bono's voice wasn't good enough in 01. Vertigo was ok, nice to still have the drums and the slide solo. 360 started out extremely weak(especially Larry) but I thought it tightened up after 2010 Turin and sounded great. Would've been nice if Larry did the original beat again, but Bono sang it great, Edge and Adam were into it and the snippets were better as 360 went on.
One: Best on Zoo Tv, still pretty good on Popmart and Elevation, though obviously Bono struggled. The only bad tour for One was Vertigo, in my opinion. Completely flat, none of them seemed to care. I can think of 1-3 good performances the entire tour. 360 One started out a few steps above Vertigo(nothing special) but I think got much better after Turin. I saw Montreal and Philly 2011 and both performances were pretty close to Zoo TV quality.
Discotheque I think had it's best performance on the Vertigo tour.
