LemonMelon said:
Hardly. It has a far better balance than any Hamish Hamilton DVD, that's for sure.
It looks incredibly cheap though; you can literally see the strings. Plus, crew members walk in and out of shots, moving stuff around. It's like the polar opposite of every other U2 DVD. Welcome to pro-shot. 
I agree with everything you said, and have some comments / questions of my own to add:
- For a pro-shot concert, the editing, photography and direction are surprisingly poor. Even with the large number of camera angles evident, it still looks like a multi-cam bootleg. But, at least the director holds onto shots for longer than Hamish Hamilton's customary half a second. (Are there any production credits for this concert available, or has it just been randomly plucked from the archives?)
- What is the Hippodrome de Vincennes, a racecourse or a public park maybe? At one point, Bono goes walkabout to the very edge of the stage, and what looks like a family walking their dog can be seen wandering about in the background.
- Bono's interaction with the crowd is superb. His decision to invite a huge, hefty, topless man onstage is ill-advised when the guy lifts him up - yet Bono keeps on singing! Then, later on, a girl appears on stage with a bottle of champagne and two glasses (or plastic tumblers). A man seemingly impossible to surprise, Bono opens the bottle, fills the two glasses and enjoys the moment.
- Adam Clayton sings! On IWF, ISHFWILF, WOWY and (I think) Trip Through Your Wires. Having said that, Edge's backing vocals are so prominent that he always drowns out Adam's contributions, and also those from Larry.
- Love the extended version of WOWY, with its tear gas interruption and Bono castigating, well who exactly - misbehaving fans, heavy-handed stage crew? - "Nobody gets hurt at a U2 concert!" etc.
- As is already known, the concert is incomplete, as some cover versions have been omitted - presumably to avoid paying royalties or getting permissions etc. But if that's the case, why are some U2 songs present with their snippets intact (Love Will Tear Us Apart, Exodus, for example)? Surely the relevant permissions have to be obtained for these?
This concert is very enjoyable, although I pity anyone in the crowd who was stuck behind the mixing desk / lighting tent thing - the damn thing looks about three stories high!
Also worthy of a mention is the documentary, Outside It's America, for just a few reasons:
- The crap 80s fonts used on the transitions and credits.
- The revelation that the band's stage clothes were also their everyday apparel too (even Bono's horrific leather waistcoat).
- The fact that, unlike at any point in Rattle and Hum's documentary segments, the band actually appear to be relaxed and having fun, even with cameras following them around.
- Country / roots music plays on a bar's jukebox. The band listen intently, clearly sensing a new musical direction as they shoot some pool. Scary men sit at the bar, drinking beers. Larry Mullen wanders around, looking like a gay man's wet dream version of James Dean.
It's is very Bono-focused. As I said before, bring on Phil Joanou directed DVD for this tour or forget it.
