Why POPMart was U2's Best Tour....

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salim117

The Fly
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...Before you crucify me or call me all sorts of derogatory names, let me state my case!

1st: The setlist was the most well rounded and the order of play was impecable.

Main Set:
Mofo, I Will Follow, Gone, Even Better Than The Real Thing, Last Night On Earth, Until The End Of The World, New Year's Day, Pride, I Still Haven't Found, All I Want Is You, Staring At The Sun, Sunday Bloody Sunday, Miami, Bullet the Blue Sky, Please, Where the Streets

Encore(s):
Discotheque, If You Wear That Velvet Dress, With or Without You, Hold Me Thrill Me Kiss Me Kill Me, Mysterious Ways, One-Wake Up Dead Man


2nd: The music. The were a finely tuned music machine! Flawless!

3rd: The TV screen was absolutely mesmerizing. I was near the front but could only catch occasional glimpse of the band 'cause everyone infront of me stood up on their chairs! But somehow, the screen made it ok. :wink:

4th: The entrance was the coolest and most unexpected ever.

5th: The lemon. YES, I said it dammit!The LEMON! Unique!

salim
 
Indeed - a superb show and a kick-ass tour. My fave is still ZooTV. But I have nothing but good things to say about Popmart! I'd say it was U2's most ROCKIN tour.....:rockon:
 
Hey Palace I was at the show in Perth were you ?
you were only 11 ? Shit!
Best Thing I have ever seen, hopefully U2 still have something bigger left in them! :)
 
Yep I was there, in the disabled section (my Dad's friend is in a wheelchair).

I remember it vaguely, but the experience itself will never leave me.

Plus with today's extensive setlist histories compiled on the web, I can look back and realise I will die having heard Bad live.
 
OK, what were the reasons again? I must've missed something, 'cos I went to 3 Popmart shows and from my experience Zoo TV and Elevation were much better shows. Popmart was a great spectacle, but the other tours were much better....:ohmy:
 
Yes, it was the best... but I have a feeling that Vertigo WILL be better (so far, only knowing the arenas version, I'd say it's as good as PopMart... but with all the talk about European leg:hyper: ...it may be something realy special).


...and, since there are a few people here that are on some kind of "crusade" to make the 90's... and especialy Pop and PopMart - U2's worst era, I'd like to give you some actual facts about PopMart:

- PopMart: 95 shows - 3.9mln sold tickets (and just to compare it to other tour... ElevationTour with 113 shows - 2.1mln sold tickets)

...and now some press notes:

http://www.chartattack.com/mine/1997_april.html
Two weeks prior to the April 25th start date for U2's international Popmart Tour, gross ticket sales in North America have already surpassed U2's own North Americal sales record set during the Zoo TV tour in 1992. With over 1.5 million tickets already sold, Popmart's gross sales are currently at $70 million (US), beating the $67 million (US) Zoo TV figure which ranks #6 on the pollstar "Top Ten Grossing Tours Of All Time." The Popmart tour begins Friday, April 25th at Las Vegas' Sam Boyd Stadium.

http://www.u2world.com/news/article.php3?id_article=306
Source : USA Today

Condensed from USA Today:

Top-grossing tours of ’97 (in millions)

U2 $138.5
Rolling Stones $89.4
Micheal Jackson $83.5

...but of course, lets forget about that and remind everyone everywhere about this ONE time when the Lemon didn't work and several (out of 95) shows that were not sold out...:mad: :madspit: (to you PopEra haterzz)
 
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Elevation was best because I got so close to Bono :love: If it weren' t for that, I'd pick JT or UF as the best tour. ZOOTV was cool too.
 
I've said it before and I'll say it again ... Bono once mentioned how this show was gonna "walk all over" ZOO TV ... and basically it did !! That mega screen was so-ooo SPECTACULAR ... I couldn't believe it !! ... I was absolutely blown away !! :applaud:
 
I won't crucify you or call you names...but I will write this off as a temporary form of insanity. :wink:

Zoo TV stomps all over Popmart. Stomps with great big black leather boots. Squishes that lemon flat. And then runs over it with a spray-painted Trabbie.
 
ElectricalVoice said:
I think that if the Popmart show had happened before ZooTV, ZooTV would have been a big let down.


hmmm....that is an interesting idea.

however I do prefer zootv.

but I think you're onto something.
 
popmart really makes me feel so much different, younger than i am today! Bono was in top shape---couldn't compare it with Vertigo (the crowd helps singing significant part of songs....).
Who said fans hated popmart? I know a lot of fans that fancy it!
 
Popmart is my all time favorite setlist. It emcompassed the new material with old stuff flawlessly. Plus they played quite a few songs, 23-25 everynight. I hope U2 finds it in them to do another huge spectacle.
 
I saw Popmart in the Seattle Kingdome. Awful acoustics, and I thought the show was too much spectacle, not enough focus on the music.

Saw Elevation in Tacoma 2001 and thought it was much, much better.
 
Last Night On Earth - Until The End Of The World - New Year's Day = one of the greatest moments on U2's live history!! :drool:

I love Popmart. To tell you the truth I love when U2 goes huge and does an amazing spetacle like that. I hope they do something like that again one day. Popmart is definitely underrated.
 
bathiu said:



...but of course, lets forget about that and remind everyone everywhere about this ONE time when the Lemon didn't work

I was there, I was there, I was there and really close to the Lemon as well!

I just summed up the whole Popmart spectacle, absurd. And I loved every second of it. Superb tour.
 
I wish I had seen them later in that tour than I did because that setlist is a hell of a lot better than the Pop show I was at in Dallas. :(
 
I used to (and still really am) a total mark for ZooTV. I love it, I love the concept & everything... I basolutely adore it. Zoo Station, Love Is Blindnes...McPhestio....etc, etc.

That being said. Damn it has aged. It really is stuck in it's timezone. Wheras I think PopMart has aged much more grace. That show easily could've come straight out of 2002-3 no problems! Sure there were some fun little elements like the Lemon that were kind of tacky but they don't really hurt it in anyway.

Elevation ages probably better, but it didn't exactly have any aspects that could age... I mean it was 4 guys and a 2 foot high video screen.

PopMart was pretty good. Bullet-Please->Streets :drool: :drool: :drool:
 
Palace_Hero said:


Nice to see you read the threads you respond to.

I mentioned previously how I heard them play 'Bad' at PopMart Perth.

When they came to Australia with PopMart, there was much press about how they had changed the set list to include a lot more older stuff cos the Pop stuff hadn't gone as well as the older stuff in other countries.

I know when I saw them in Sydney they did "I will follow" straight after the opener "Mofo" which, to my memory, got more people up and dancing than Mofo did.

This is all from memory people, pls those with stats add.
 
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