MERGED ---> Popmart In Las Vegas + Was PopMart Las Vegas really that bad?

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Screwtape2

Screwtape2

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Popmart In Las Vegas

I didn't see any threads on this or at least none recently.

Is it hard for anyone to listen to this bootleg? I find I cringe every time I hear the versions of DYFL, IGWSHA and SATS. It's really sad to listen to.
First off, DYFL. Bono is trying so hard to get the audience involved but the music isn't there. Listen to the chorus, Bono doesn't seem to have the voice to hit the high notes. Can you blame him, he just finished an album? It really is missing so much of what made the album version great. Where's Adam's bass!?
IGWSHA is a trainwreck. You can hardly hear the band at the start. Bono is really trying but the song is dead. Then after the music picks up, Bono just loses the song.
And finally SATS, if this hadn't been opening not it might have been a funny miscue but when the band breaks down it is nothing but sad. You know Bono, has to be really depressed at this point and when they stop the song for the first time I'm surprised he didn't just leave.

So am I the only one who has a hard time listening to this show?
 
Velvet Dress was great. . . the hip-hop beats for Please and With or Without You were pretty damn cool. . .other than that what a mess :huh:
 
Yeah what the hell, the drum machine hip-hop beat for WOWY is honestly the best thing the song has had going for it since Joshua Tree-era shows.

Otherwise it's listless these days.
 
Was PopMart Las Vegas really that bad?

I was watching a VH1 doc on U2 and they talked about the opening show of PopMart being poor and badly under-rehearsed. So my question is, for those who listened to the bootleg, was it really that bad a concert
 
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I was there, and it was my little brother's first ever concert, and it was pretty bad :(
I saw them two more times on that tour (which kind of blocks my memory from Vegas), and what sticks out most in my head is the botched SATS and Bono telling us to 'talk amongst ourselves'... but Streets made up for it :drool:
It was soooo much fun to be there opening night, having no idea what they'd be doing; but they did sound way below thier average.
But that's still better than any other band live :rockon:
 
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I recently listened to the bootleg and I think it's a great concert, it's not so bad as everyone says. Great performance of Do You Feel Loved.
 
I was there too. It was so exciting being there. I, like others at the show had no idea what U2 were going to do. The day before I left I remember my Dad telling me he heard on the radio that someone called in to report UFO's in the desert, but it was really U2 rehearsing. So hearing this and being told Bono shaved his head I was in :ohmy: . I enjoyed the show more for the hype/event it was and being in Vegas. But U2 were really off that night.

Things that I remember or stick out of the famous Vegas performance:

-Do You Feel Loved, Miami, If God Will Send His Angels, and Please were all great. Funny thing 3 of these songs were dropped.

-Gone, LNOE, Discotheque, Mofo, Velvet Dress, SATS were all so raw. U2 were really off on these, but with time all sounded great. Edge's guitar wasn't even on during Discotheque, Velvet was over 5 minutes long, the band had a hard time getting SATS started, Mofo wasn't the Mofo live we all know and love, same with Gone & LNOE.

-Pride was really bad that night. Bono's mic or wasn't even on during the 1st verse. All the AB and JT songs were great as usual. HMTMKMKM was awesome and had Lara Croft on the big screen.

-And finally, the band looked so nervous. I've never seen them like that. But I guess if your coming off a 3 yr. break with the biggest concert production behind you and the entire music world having its eye on you, your going to be a bit raw :wink:
 
Wasn't that bad. I was there, front and center, about 8 feet from Bono. Just before the show some skinhead type jumps over a group of people and just starts pummeling this other kid in the face before running off never to be seen again. We were all so shocked and pissed off that it really set a bad mood for the show. But once the band came on, all was forgotten.

There was so much surrounding that show: opening night excitement, the buzz of celebrity sightings, the first look at a stage, the likes of which the world had never seen before...that it didn't matter much that they missed a few notes and had to start over once.

I've seen U2 14 times and it's certainly not among the top 10 I've seen because it didn't have those moments of spiritual ecstacy that other U2 shows have, but then I discovered later that none of the Popmart shows really had that.
 
I think that over time, this concert has been over-hyped as exceptionally bad. Yes, it was a sub-standard U2 show and the band were under-rehearsed, but all in all, I don't think it was the comprehensive disaster some say it was. Songs like IGWSHA and SATS did go entirely to hell, but other parts of the show seem pretty solid. The performance of Velvet Dress from this show is probably my favourite.
 
Ah Ax, you're forgetting that Discotheque completely lost Edge's guitar and that Bono's voice was ripped to shreds or that the Pop material didn't really translate well to the crowd....

I was there, it wasn't like a Kiss Farewell Show, but it was not that great. Oakland 2 months later was heads and tails better...much better. Vegas was not U2's finest moment.
 
Reggie Thee Dog said:
Ah Ax, you're forgetting that Discotheque completely lost Edge's guitar and that Bono's voice was ripped to shreds or that the Pop material didn't really translate well to the crowd....
Click to expand...

Heh, I expect poor Bono vocals from Popmart. :wink:

The Discotheque guitar stuff-up seems almost appropriate - continuing a pattern from the end of ZooTV where Edge had no guitar for about half of EBTTRT in Tokyo! :lol:
 
Well I just finished listening to the show there. Its not really that bad, however streets is horrible; Bono's voice is totally gone, I've never the normally soaring "Burning down Love" sung so flat. Do you feel loved is hardly awful, in fact I quite enjoyed it, but it could have done with a makeover like the one MOFO was given. Gone was fairly solid, there was a mistake in the intro for EBTTRT, where Larry is out of sync with the tamborine. One was excellent though, which is strange because I usually skip it on other bootlegs.
 
Well I just finished listening to the show there. Its not really that bad, however streets is horrible; Bono's voice is totally gone, I've never heard the normally soaring "Burning down Love" part sung so flat. Do you feel loved is hardly awful, in fact I quite enjoyed it, but it could have done with a makeover like the one MOFO was given. Gone was fairly solid, there was a mistake in the intro for EBTTRT however, where Larry is out of sync with the tamborine. One was excellent though, which is strange because I usually skip it on other bootlegs.

Apologies for the Double-post.
 
Bones58 said:
Well I just finished listening to the show there. Its not really that bad, however streets is horrible; Bono's voice is totally gone, I've never the normally soaring "Burning down Love" sung so flat. Do you feel loved is hardly awful, in fact I quite enjoyed it, but it could have done with a makeover like the one MOFO was given. Gone was fairly solid, there was a mistake in the intro for EBTTRT, where Larry is out of sync with the tamborine. One was excellent though, which is strange because I usually skip it on other bootlegs.
Click to expand...

Popmart had probably the best perfomance of one ever . No other tour sounded like .

And about the show in general ..... Not good for U2 standards .... But still better than 98% on earth

Though I only heard very few parts of it , I did love the perfomance of Angels , despite a poor ending ..... Gone was great . Is Funny I like it a lot Streets of it as well , Bono's voice is weak , but thats only 1/4 , the band sounds great ........ M ways had a great perfomance ..... and so many others
 
My problem with Popmart (and with the Vegas show in particular) is that I saw 2 Excellent (out of 3) Zoo TV shows in '92. Popmart to me was like U2 trying to out do themselves, which we all know, is very hard to do.

I never like DYFL live. It wasn't exciting enough, I mean it sounded fine live, but there was nothing to get the crowd excited. No sing along chorus or big guitar solo to appeal to a MASS audience (no just the Pop lovers). I think that is why they dropped it and IGWSHA, the songs just didn't translate to the larger audience.
 
Im listening to it now and it indeed sounds a bit raw, but not that bad.

Although the Discotheque part must have been very embaressing for The Edge.
 
It wont let me download it damnit. Am i the only one (as usual..) having this problem?
 
I was there too and I thought it was a great show. I enjoyed the raw sound and the 'start over' just made the show longer. I didn't know what was going to be played next so each song was a surprise. They did sound better two nights later in San Diego though.



Anaheim 1 from this tour was a worse show.
 
Well after listening to the whole show it is very clear that the POPmart tour just started to early.

If they had a couple of more weeks to practise and fine tune it all there would have never been so much fuzz. Every song just sounded raw. Gone was btw very very good! I like it very much.

On the other hand you had MOFO, Last Night on Earth just a day and night difference with the rest of the tour. You can just hear they had to rush the whole tour to begin.

Do you Feel Loved also was good, with some more work it would have been great i think. IGWSHA sounded very very raw, im also not sure if it would have fitted in the show. The staring at the sun mistake, well that can happen.

The Discotheque guitar failure really ruined the song. I bet the band was very upset about that. And Please wow totally different from the rest of the tour, especially the part where Edge normally goes solo for a bit.
 
btw i want to thank OpperGoero!!

I fully ejoy the show now that i have listened to it more then once. Although it's very raw i like the "mother****ing rock and roll' in MOFO (i like that better then mothersucking), GONE is just awsome.

The beginning with the edge's guitar just ploinking threw it sounds great, also the end is awsome. One of the best GONE's i heard.

And then If god will send his angels and Do you feel loved.

Do you feel loved sounds great, i think with a little bit more work it could have sounded fantastic.

IGWSHA is still a bit strange but i also think that with a bit more work it could have been a stayer.
 
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