And people say the first Popmart show was bad...

[Tommy WM]

Okay yes it was very rusty, but I couldn't believe this performance of If You Wear That Velvet Dress when I saw it. It's in its entire version and very different to later performances. I usually dislike calling things underrated...but this song is simply underrated!


YouTube - If You Wear That Velvet Dress (live from Popmart Las Vegas)

 

[Mauwer]

Totally agree with you there , it`s one of the best songs of the messy opening night.
And this version features some very cool Edge sounds.

Cheers ,

Mauwer

p.s. If God Will Send His Angels was also cool (with drums) , they should`ve worked more on that one for the rest of the tour , who knows how that would`ve turned out?

 

[Simon_DK]

Wow. This is great. Why the hell didn't they play it like that for the rest of tour. This version is far superior to the other that was used on the rest of the tour.

 

[65980]

I really wonder what in hell they were thinking by playing a show on this scale as the opener, without, famously, enough rehearsal time, but also without a couple of small 'warm-up' shows at a club or something. This kind of performance would be the bomb at a smaller venue (and on YouTube), but I can sort of see why they didn't think it worked so well for a stadium show.

I really liked Bono's vocals at this show. He later made up the retrospective story about the desert dryness ruining his voice or something, but in truth he sounded great at this gig.

 

[Padj]

Yeah, great performance . I love the studio version of this song, didn't quite like how it was played live, but this performance is great.

 

[BVS]

The atmosherics of the song sound great, although I can imagine it would be difficult to pull off in a stadium night after night. But Bono sounded pretty bad, especially at the beginning.

 

[Reggie Thee Dog]

The Las Vegas show was quite chaotic (I was there), and when they went on the B-Stage it went from bad to worse...Staring At The Sun was a complete disaster with Bono getting very pissed at Edge...and then trying to play it off. The show was spectacular, but the new songs did not reach the audience, and the new arrangements of the older songs just seemed odd (IWF/BTBS). I look back now and I can understand what U2 was doing, but at the time it just didn't click.

The shows I saw in Oakland, Ca in June of '97 were much tighter, but the Pop songs just never clicked with the audience...in my opinion. Much like NLOTH, Pop was more avant-garde than a lot of US music fans were willing to take from U2, and I think that's why Popmart played to a lot of empty seats in the US...and is considered more bloat than genius.

 

[U2lunatic]

In my opinion all of the songs from POP except Do You Feel Loved played at this gig sounded great, even Staring at the Sun, it was just a false start...I like the 1st american leg of Popmart more than 3rd or 4th leg. That "unrehearsedness" seems somehow attractive to me.

 

[thelaj]

I would love to hear both Velvet Dress and Do You Feel Loved as a great performance in high quality, but I can keep on dreaming.

 

[djerdap]

There are plenty of great Velvet Dress performances in high quality. Personally I'm a big fan of the live version, solo included or not.

 

[gweeps]

Love this version. Thanks for posting.

 

[Unknown Caller]

Velvet Dress is a top 10 U2 song for me. Very underrated. They've only done atmosphere like that a select few times in their career.

 

[monsieur fly]

I loved this version of Velvet Dress but the show as a whole was a disaster. SATS was a fiasco as was Discotheque and Bono sounded horribly out of tune on IGWSHA. It was unfortunate because had that first night gone well, the history of the band may have been different. I think they panicked and lost some of their self-assurance. They dropped DYFL altogether, turned SATS and IGWSHA into drab acoustic songs, and needlessly pared Velvet Dress down. The performances grew tighter but the show would have been even better if they had stuck to their guns. I know many will disagree with this interpretation but I think U2 became somewhat cagier after that show.

 

[Vlaco]

In my opinion all of the songs from POP except Do You Feel Loved played at this gig sounded great, even Staring at the Sun, it was just a false start...I like the 1st american leg of Popmart more than 3rd or 4th leg. That "unrehearsedness" seems somehow attractive to me.

Do You Feel Loved was one of the highlights for me in a very weak show.

 

[The Disciple]

I loved this version of Velvet Dress but the show as a whole was a disaster. SATS was a fiasco as was Discotheque and Bono sounded horribly out of tune on IGWSHA. It was unfortunate because had that first night gone well, the history of the band may have been different. I think they panicked and lost some of their self-assurance. They dropped DYFL altogether, turned SATS and IGWSHA into drab acoustic songs, and needlessly pared Velvet Dress down. The performances grew tighter but the show would have been even better if they had stuck to their guns. I know many will disagree with this interpretation but I think U2 became somewhat cagier after that show.

I'm gonna have 2 somewhat agree here....

 

[jacobus]

@Tommy WM:
i wanna thank you so much for posting this video of IYWTVD
its great atmospheric. this is wonderful and this is why i really liked U2 over the years. bravo, bravissimo

 

[thelaj]

There are plenty of great Velvet Dress performances in high quality. Personally I'm a big fan of the live version, solo included or not.

Velvet dress wasn't the same after they started segueing from Discotheque.

 

[Chrisedge]

I think this show was better than the 4/1/2005 show in Anaheim...That was a cluster.

 

[djerdap]

Velvet dress wasn't the same after they started segueing from Discotheque.

Nah. Loved those versions. Especially Edge's guitar riff in the chorus.

 

[bono_man2002]

I think this show was better than the 4/1/2005 show in Anaheim...That was a cluster.

I'm still disappointed they didn't keep IGWSHA full band in the set for longer.

 

[zoopop]

I think this show was better than the 4/1/2005 show in Anaheim...That was a cluster.

Details on 4/1/05?

 

[Chrisedge]

Details on 4/1/05?

3rd show of the tour, and the first with a different opener. Something about the whole night was off. They screwed up the encore, and only did one. The band was off that night for some reason, and was not as good a show as even the opening night. (Which a lot of people said was off too, but other than Edges guitar not working for the first few notes of Vertigo, and Bono forgetting a few lyrics, I thought it was a fine opener)

 

[nathan1977]

I think this show was better than the 4/1/2005 show in Anaheim...That was a cluster.

3rd show of the tour, and the first with a different opener. Something about the whole night was off. They screwed up the encore, and only did one. The band was off that night for some reason, and was not as good a show as even the opening night.

I don't know, I was there and thought it was a great show. We all loved opening with "Love and Peace" -- it gave the show a real unexpected energy. The band all walked out and past us in the dark, followed by Bono with a spotlight. They didn't screw up the encore; they combined two into one, hence the nine songs (!). And who can forget MacPhistette getting up there during "Mysterious Ways"?

Compared to a lackluster LV show, complete with a complete "Staring at the Sun" cock-up, Edge's on/off guitar during "Discotheque," and dropped lyrics all over the place, I'd take Anaheim any day...