Popmart Lemon

[An Cat Gav]

Re-watching the Popmart Mexico gig made me think about their song choices for the tour.

In particular I was wondering why they didn't perform Lemon live ( they only used a recording of the excellent Perfecto mix)?
They could perform it live as it was a highlight of the last leg of the ZOO TV tour. It would have fit the theme for Popmart perfectly, plus the centrepiece of the show was a giant bloody Lemon that they emerged from!

Was it because Bono didn't want to do the falsetto anymore?

Even at the time I remember being a little disappointed with some of the song choices for Popmart and the inclusion of live Lemon would have really helped.

 

[mikal]

Re-watching the Popmart Mexico gig made me think about their song choices for the tour.

In particular I was wondering why they didn't perform Lemon live ( they only used a recording of the excellent Perfecto mix)?
They could perform it live as it was a highlight of the last leg of the ZOO TV tour. It would have fit the theme for Popmart perfectly, plus the centrepiece of the show was a giant bloody Lemon that they emerged from!

Was it because Bono didn't want to do the falsetto anymore?

Even at the time I remember being a little disappointed with some of the song choices for Popmart and the inclusion of live Lemon would have really helped.

I think it all comes down to Bono most likely butchering it because his voice was rough at that time. Too bad they didn't play Zooropa though.

 

[tommycharles]

Looking specifically at the Mexico setlist:

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 (In the Name of Love)
I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For
All I Want Is You / Never Tear Us Apart (snippet)
Desire / La Bamba (snippet)
Staring at the Sun
Sunday Bloody Sunday Edge
Bullet the Blue Sky / America (West Side Story) (snippet)
Please / Sunday Bloody Sunday (snippet)
Where the Streets Have No Name

encore(s):
Lemon (Perfecto Mix)
Discothèque / Love To Love You Baby (snippet) / Life During Wartime (snippet)
If You Wear That Velvet Dress
With or Without You
Hold Me, Thrill Me, Kiss Me, Kill Me
Mysterious Ways
One / Hear Us Coming (snippet)
Wake Up Dead Man

Things I would ditch:
Pride
Still Haven't Found
All I Want is You
Desire
...the 80s really don't fit in this show.

Things I'd add:
Do You Feel Loved?
If God Would Send His Angels
...these 2 would have come into their own live if they'd have persisted, I'm convinced

Stay
Zooropa
Lemon
...Zooropa was only 4 years old, these songs were as current as it gets

The Fly
...just think of it on that screen!!

But they got spooked and played it mostly safe. Still, it starts here in 10 minutes, and I'm genuinely looking forward to seeing it again.

 

[mad1]

Its one of my fav albums, and a great fun tour.


I will always remember standing outside two of the gigs......


U2 really stretched themselves round the block twice with that era.

 

[ascender_RS]

I guess they've always been very consistent in saying they plan their setlists for the person who will only see one show on the tour, so they keep the hits in.

I would love to have seen a PopMart (or latter Zoo TV show) with just stuff from the 90s though. I'd still really like to see them perform each of their albums live, in full and recorded for posterity. Do a short residency in Dublin or something and record them all.

 

[Joey788]

The setlist for Popmart was pretty great. But I always found it weird that they didn’t play anything from Zooropa. Like, they could have easily replaced Edge’s karaoke segment with Numb and it would’ve fit perfectly. Numb into Miami would’ve worked really well.

 

[lazarus]

Considering the Zooropa leg of the ZooTV tour never made it to the Western Hemisphere, it was definitely an odd choice to not play anything on at least the first leg of Popmart. They managed to play HMTMKMKM but couldn't go back to the previous release?

The first in a series of baffling choices by the band.

 

[the tourist]

I always thought they should have kept Lemon around and just had Bono sing it an octave lower on the falsetto parts. The lyric is one of the band’s best and deserves to be a staple live but I think maybe they were stuck on trying to replicate the falsetto live.

 

[AndrewCowley]

Lemon is a phenomenal song and it’s criminal at how little it has been played. The Zoo TV Sydney version is great. Agree that a reworked version without the falsetto would be worth trying.

 

[The Panther]

Zooropa remains a curious and very rewarding one-time-only album from U2. It'll go down as the very last time they didn't over-think their music.

'Lemon' is a good track I've enjoyed since June 1993, but I can't say I've ever loved it. To me, it's more like a very successful track in the context of the album than it is a standalone winner or a tune that needs to be played live.

I think, generally, when U2 drops a song from their setlist, it's usually because they perceived the audience wasn't really into it. 'Lemon', being rather long, mid-tempo, and with a lot of "space" in the song, as well as Edge vocals, probably wasn't the easiest-sell live, to a stadium-type audience.

 

[AndrewCowley]

Midnight is where the day begins.

Even if you think the song is too long, that segue at the end into WOWY is epic.

 

[ascender_RS]

Zooropa and Pop may not be two of their best albums, but they're still two of my favourite albums they've ever made. That whole period which covered Achtung Baby through to Pop was an incredible time to be a fan and for me they'll never top it.

 

[Hollow Island]

Bono couldn't have sung Lemon. He could have sung Daddys Gonna Pay and Dirty Day though, and they were both awesome live. But then they'd have had to drop 80s hit, and there's no way they were gonna do that. Nor should they have - the stadium erupted when they played them. It was my first time seeing them, and I'd have pretty upset if they didn't play Pride.

I love the phaser Edge used for I Will Follow - it would have been cool if they'd updated the older songs.

To me, the major missteps of the show are in the encore. What's with the truncated Velvet Dress, and where did its decadent, sensual atmosphere go? Why did they close the show with One and Wake Up Dead Man? Just because the album ends on a downer doesn't mean the show should!

 

[Joey788]

Once we got to the second half of the tour with Edge's Sunday Bloody Sunday, agreed that they wouldn't have dropped an 80s hit for something from Zooropa.

But the karaoke segment still baffles me. One of the weirdest setlist choices this band has ever made.

 

[zoopop]

I always thought Popmart was the perfect setlist. Yes they had quite a few 80's songs but they needed it back then to remind the US crowd were still U2. One thing about the Popmart is they just go thru the set with little to no talking.

Mofo - Gone - Nontstop
LNOE- Pride - Nonstop

ISHFWILF/Acoustic - Some talking (probably for a break)

SBS - MW Nonstop

I think I remember someone, maybe Bono, saying it would've been to obivious to sing Lemon when they came out of the Lemon. I love the 1st encore. Disco - Velvet- WOWY flows naturally and goes with the visuals.

If Zooropa could've had a song I'm thinking just have Stay during the acoustic set. Full band of course

 

[Hewson]

If Zooropa could've had a song I'm thinking just have Stay during the acoustic set. Full band of course

Larry wouldn't be on board with that.

 

[zoopop]

I know I posted a while back, but here is the:

'Not in Stone' Set list (dated) April 3rd 1997

Pop Muzik
Mofo
IWF
Real Thing
Do You Feel Loved
LNOE
Gone
UTEOW
If God Will Send His Angels (Bono & Edge on B Stage)
Playboy Mansion (Band on B Stage)
Staring At The Sun (B Stage)
Miami
Bullet
Miss Sarajevo
Please
Streets

Lemon Impossible
Discotheque ( B Stage)
Velvet Dress ( Bono on B Steage)
With Or Without You ( Main Stage

Hold Me
MW
One

This is from 'Sound On Stage Gigging Musician Magazine' June 1997. There is a picture of this setlist typed on paper ( w/ U2 Popmart Logo).

 

[bizkitgto]

Wasn't the Lemon Perfecto Remix used an intermission?

 

[Headache in a Suitcase]

once this tour hit it's grove i really have very little issue with the setlist - other than the karaoke part, which was ultimately dropped as well. i get it in that they probably wanted (needed) to give Bono's voice a break before they led into bullet-please-streets, so i'm not sure if they ever seriously considered putting anything full band in that spot.

maybe you could swap out desire with stay - but yea, i think they probably wanted to avoid songs that would strain bono's voice.

 

[MrPryck2U]

One thing I remember about the show I went to at Giants Stadium on 5/31/97 was that we drank a lot of beer, smoked a lot of weed, and ate some sandwiches in the parking lot before the show. I had to take care of my friend who had passed out and was revived and made his way to our nose bleed seats on the upper level. I'm 5 feet 9, probably weighed 160. He was 6 feet 4, weighed 300 plus. That was fun. Lol! But, I loved the show and even enjoyed the sing along shit with The Monkees.