Watched "ZOO TV" Sydney DVD last night...

The friendliest place on the web for anyone that follows U2.
If you have answers, please help by responding to the unanswered posts.
See posts with no answers
My mom bought this for me in 1995 sometime. It was at this point that:
A: I became the diehard U2 fan that I still am
B: I became interested in music in general, and asked for my 1st guitar later that Christmas.

That DVD changed my life. I watched it so often in the following years that I literally wore out the tape. I went years without watching it until it came out on DVD... still great, but the whole ZOO TV concept is very dated now. The emotion of Red Rocks, for example, is timeless in a way Zoo TV will never be.
 
Adelaide is functionally identical to Sydney. It was a rehearsal for Sydney. There's no way they'd release it.

I'd love to see either Stockholm or Washington released, though. Both are great shows. Stockholm is my favorite overall... there's just something downright magical about that show... but Washington has an amazing encore.

There's another show in the vaults that everyone always forgets about: Basel, from the Zooropa leg. It's hardly the best Zooropa show, and it's my least favorite of the pro-shot ZooTV shows, but it's still pretty good.

And Basel has this beautiful gem, which always makes me go insane when people say that MacP couldn't sing WOWY:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9WewuE5bIqg

Regarding Sydney, the fact that such an epic encore managed to find its way onto a professionally-made DVD satisfies me.
 
The_acrobat said:
My mom bought this for me in 1995 sometime. It was at this point that:
A: I became the diehard U2 fan that I still am
B: I became interested in music in general, and asked for my 1st guitar later that Christmas.

That DVD changed my life. I watched it so often in the following years that I literally wore out the tape. I went years without watching it until it came out on DVD... still great, but the whole ZOO TV concept is very dated now. The emotion of Red Rocks, for example, is timeless in a way Zoo TV will never be.
Click to expand...


Pretty much exactly the same impact as me mate. It made me want to be a singer in a band when I was at school, for the next 6-7 years I was, and still sing in an acoustic duo today. Basically I don't think my passion for music would have been kickstarted had I not seen that original footage that I taped off the TV and watched over and over and over again!
 
digitize said:
And Basel has this beautiful gem, which always makes me go insane when people say that MacP couldn't sing WOWY:

YouTube - U2 - With Or Without You (Live from Basel, Switzerland 1993)
QUOTE]

Ok, either play WOWY like that or DO NOT PLAY IT. I didn't know they were playing it that way so late in the ZOO tour. Compliments to Edge for working 'The Fly's" guitar solo in there. The version on the Sydney DVD really does the song no justice. Ever since Popmart, it's like all 4 band members put absolutely no effort into that song (except maybe Adam, since his part never changes).
Click to expand...
 
digitize said:
And Basel has this beautiful gem, which always makes me go insane when people say that MacP couldn't sing WOWY:
Click to expand...

I wouldn't ever say that Mac couldn't sing WOWY, I just think he was the beginning of the end for that song.

I remember watching the DVD(back then VHS) for the first time, and getting to that song and going, "what the hell that was terrible". And looking back I don't dislike that performance as much as I used to, but compared to the JT performances and even the earlier ZooTV performances(I had seen the first leg of the outdoor shows) it suffered in comparison. He was still singing that song similar to the JT days at the beginning of ZooTV and then I saw this Mac character perform it, and it was tired and he talked his way through the verses. Which is part of the character, but I think the problem is, Bono got used to performing it that way and it has gone downhill since then, each tour getting even more tired and more talked through.
 
digitize said:
Adelaide is functionally identical to Sydney. It was a rehearsal for Sydney. There's no way they'd release it.
Click to expand...

There's definitely a bit of bias here, but overall I honestly prefer that show to Sydney. The band was just having a lot more fun, and you can see and hear that. There isn't the sense of doom that you get with the Sydney, which some consider to be one of the show's strengths, but it also comes off as quite static. I'd say most of the performances in Adelaide are on par with Sydney, and some, particularly Dirty Day, are better. It may be pretty much the same, but it'd be great to see it in a Zooropa or AB remaster, or in a super special DVD boxset of extras that they couldn't fit anywhere else.

I do really love the Basel show too, the MW in particular is fantastic. Would love to see that cleaned up with Zooropa.
 
BVS said:
I wouldn't ever say that Mac couldn't sing WOWY, I just think he was the beginning of the end for that song.

I remember watching the DVD(back then VHS) for the first time, and getting to that song and going, "what the hell that was terrible". And looking back I don't dislike that performance as much as I used to, but compared to the JT performances and even the earlier ZooTV performances(I had seen the first leg of the outdoor shows) it suffered in comparison. He was still singing that song similar to the JT days at the beginning of ZooTV and then I saw this Mac character perform it, and it was tired and he talked his way through the verses. Which is part of the character, but I think the problem is, Bono got used to performing it that way and it has gone downhill since then, each tour getting even more tired and more talked through.
Click to expand...

Though you argue well, I don't agree with your line of thinking. Firstly, I wouldn't say Bono talked the verses in '93, at least not to the same degree as in subsequent years. Secondly, I thought he sang the chorus very well. Thirdly, I simply don't buy the argument that the Zooropa leg somehow started a slippery slope. Four years elapsed between Zoo TV and Pop Mart- it is not as if Bono didn't have time to 'break the habit'. Moreover, just as the Macphisto performance differed from previous renditions, so it differed equally from subsequent renditions. In my view the Zooropa performances of WOWY (and Desire) stand in isolation because they were done in character. I don't believe they were the end or beginning of anything. I think the watershed was PopMart, instead.
 
The Sad Punk said:
There's definitely a bit of bias here, but overall I honestly prefer that show to Sydney. The band was just having a lot more fun, and you can see and hear that. There isn't the sense of doom that you get with the Sydney, which some consider to be one of the show's strengths, but it also comes off as quite static. I'd say most of the performances in Adelaide are on par with Sydney, and some, particularly Dirty Day, are better. It may be pretty much the same, but it'd be great to see it in a Zooropa or AB remaster, or in a super special DVD boxset of extras that they couldn't fit anywhere else.

I do really love the Basel show too, the MW in particular is fantastic. Would love to see that cleaned up with Zooropa.
Click to expand...

Yes, I love Basel. They're really on fire. I too love MW, Bono attacks it in a way he never really recaptured after 1993.
 
monsieur fly said:
Though you argue well, I don't agree with your line of thinking. Firstly, I wouldn't say Bono talked the verses in '93, at least not to the same degree as in subsequent years.
Click to expand...

Yes, but I'm comparing it to WOWY performances before, you are comparing it to performances after.

I don't know if you ever saw ZooTV, but if you ever saw early performances or any from the JT shows, the song is talked through compared to those. This was pre-internet as we know it days, but there was a lot of talk about how disappointing that song started to become.

The song actually works for Mac thematically, Bono once said that WOWY is actually a song about the relationship with the audience. I need you, for you are the reason for my existence, but I can't stand you, you are the reason for all my problems. Plus the "give yourself away" line, it was originally written in first person. But the song as awhole is packaged and delievered like a love song. Mac stripped the love song delivery away from the song and that confused a lot of people, and the song lost a lot of it's appeal for a lot of people. Ever since then the band has never been able to find that original appeal to the song.
 
The_acrobat said:
Ok, either play WOWY like that or DO NOT PLAY IT. I didn't know they were playing it that way so late in the ZOO tour. Compliments to Edge for working 'The Fly's" guitar solo in there. The version on the Sydney DVD really does the song no justice. Ever since Popmart, it's like all 4 band members put absolutely no effort into that song (except maybe Adam, since his part never changes).
Click to expand...

I actually really like Sydney's version of WOWY, although not as much as earlier ZooTV versions.
 
One good thing I have to say about ZooTV Sydney is that it made me like Zooropa. When I was first becoming a U2 fan, before I was an Inteference member, I assumed that popular opinion was correct, and that Zooropa and Pop sucked. However, I, like everyone else in the world, loved Achtung Baby. So I bought ZooTV Sydney on DVD. I was a little disappointed when I first bought it when I realized that it was one of the ZooTV shows that included Zooropa songs. But then I watched it. And I thought to myself while I was watching it, "hey, this show is awesome, and the Zooropa songs are some of the best performances on here." So I bought Zooropa, and I've adored it ever since.
 
digitize said:
One good thing I have to say about ZooTV Sydney is that it made me like Zooropa. When I was first becoming a U2 fan, before I was an Inteference member, I assumed that popular opinion was correct, and that Zooropa and Pop sucked. However, I, like everyone else in the world, loved Achtung Baby. So I bought ZooTV Sydney on DVD. I was a little disappointed when I first bought it when I realized that it was one of the ZooTV shows that included Zooropa songs. But then I watched it. And I thought to myself while I was watching it, "hey, this show is awesome, and the Zooropa songs are some of the best performances on here." So I bought Zooropa, and I've adored it ever since.
Click to expand...

Almost the same exact thing happened to me :)

For awhile I "didn't bother" with Zooropa (aside from Stay) or Pop, because I'd heard that they were "wierd" and a general fail for U2. But I loved AB, which I viewed as being their only acceptable 90s work. After watching ZooTV (and Popmart), I felt that I may have gotten it wrong, so I went and listened to both albums. I had gotten it wrong...way wrong. Which was nice to discover. They're both incredible albums, and Zooropa and Stay are two of my top favorite U2 songs. I only wish I'd realized sooner!
 
secretly alone said:
Almost the same exact thing happened to me :)

For awhile I "didn't bother" with Zooropa (aside from Stay) or Pop, because I'd heard that they were "wierd" and a general fail for U2. But I loved AB, which I viewed as being their only acceptable 90s work. After watching ZooTV (and Popmart), I felt that I may have gotten it wrong, so I went and listened to both albums. I had gotten it wrong...way wrong. Which was nice to discover. They're both incredible albums, and Zooropa and Stay are two of my top favorite U2 songs. I only wish I'd realized sooner!
Click to expand...

Same here, with the exception of Lemon and Stay. I loved both of those and never cared for the rest of the album. Until one day I gave it a deep, intense listen. I have ever since that day put this as #2 (or #3 if you don't think JT and AB can be a tie. I do! :D). I heard SDABTO on the way home today and it reminded me how special and different this album was than the other ones. It's fun and it's daring and that's the way I like my U2.:love:
 
I don't think the problem with WOWY was Macphisto or Bono, he sang it fine, I think the real problem was that Edge used a different guitar so that he wouldn't have to change right after Lemon, which made the sound of that usually great chiming guitar... just a lot worse IMO
 
Joe Cool said:
I don't think the problem with WOWY was Macphisto or Bono, he sang it fine, I think the real problem was that Edge used a different guitar so that he wouldn't have to change right after Lemon, which made the sound of that usually great chiming guitar... just a lot worse IMO
Click to expand...

I agree with this... WOWY sounded less-than-perfect on a Les Paul... but I think the segue out of Lemon made it worth it.
 
The opening songs are the bee's knees really. Definitely quite a few great performances on there. Stuff from Zooropa like Dirty Day and Lemon also stand out, and Edge's solo on Love is Blindness is one for the ages.
 
This is the best U2 DVD released ever... I just may be a bit biased as I as there at the show!

I was 15 years old at my very first rock concert and sooo close to the stage. The back of my head is seen in 2 shots during "Zoo Station" bopping away haha

What an epic token of that night...
 
:drool:Zoo Tv Sydney:drool: my most favorite and most watched U2 concert of all:up:...I watched that tape, almost everyday when I first got it...:heart:
I haven't watched it in a few years myself,but the audio is on my Ipod and I do listen to it a lot.:)
Great show! :applaud:
 
cobl04 said:
yeah. i'd kill a man to go in time and experience that.
Click to expand...

Me too. My brother-in-law and I were actually talking about the band a few years ago, and he said how he had wished he had gone to see them when they came through his city in 1992. I told him I kind of wished that too, even though I was 8 and barely familiar with the band or their music at the time! ;)
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

M
Larry's best recorded live drum sound
Replies
4
Views
3K
Barkeeper
B
Partyslammer
LA Forum (night 2) 5/16/18
Replies
27
Views
3K
Thesearethedays
T
P
Soe tour scepticism?
2
Replies
36
Views
4K
RickFly
R
Axver
I'm disappointed in every tour U2 have ever done
Replies
23
Views
2K
redhill
redhill
N
Best Live Track Survivor - Intro, Rules & Discussion
Replies
1
Views
674
Hewson
Hewson

Latest posts

Back
Top Bottom