innominata8
War Child
ok gang...so what's it going to be, and why?? 
favorite tour so far...
- Thread starter innominata8
- Start date
The friendliest place on the web for anyone that follows U2.
If you have answers, please help by responding to the unanswered posts.
If you have answers, please help by responding to the unanswered posts.
timothius
Rock n' Roll Doggie FOB
Musically - Lovetown
Theatrically - PopMart
Conceptually - ZooTV
Overall - ZooTV (peaking at the start of the Zooropa Leg)
Theatrically - PopMart
Conceptually - ZooTV
Overall - ZooTV (peaking at the start of the Zooropa Leg)
the tourist
Blue Crack Addict
- Joined
- Dec 25, 2003
- Messages
- 27,919
Lovetown.
typhoon
New Yorker
- Joined
- Feb 18, 2002
- Messages
- 3,021
Something I've been thinking about (since I've been going through my U2 boots with the new tour starting):
I think PopMart gets a really bad rap because of its embarrassingly rocky first leg. Once it swung into motion, though, it sounded great. The visuals were far too big and dwarfed the band for the most part, but in spite of that, the tour had some amazing moments.
The Sarajevo and Santiago shows aren't just tour highlights, they're career highlights. There's a certain honesty behind all the awkward attempts at irony. You know that part of ZooTV in between "Running To Stand Still" and "Where the Streets Have No Name" where you hear the babel of television voices but through it all the rising synth intro of "Streets" is breaking through like a beam of light and by the time Edge's guitar starts to ring in, you know the jig is up, sincerity has won over irony? That's like an aural metaphor for PopMart. The humility was good for them.
The Elevation Tour was a welcome return to simplicity, but there was almost more showmanship. Bono's speeches have this rehearsed spontaneity that's charming but ultimately distant. I hate to draw the comparison and dumb this down into "Pop versus ATYCLB Part 213873784387587," but I thought the dichotomy was interesting. Note that there were tons of truly human and meaningful moments in the Elevation Tour too (moments that simply wouldn't have been possible on a stadium tour like PopMart), but PopMart had its own qualities that seem to be overlooked.
It rocked too.
Anyway, I think ZooTV was their most interesting tour, but you really don't need more than one or two ZooTV boots, do you? It was pretty much the same thing over night, so you just need to find a boot that has good sound quality and a consistent performance, and then maybe you grab another one from another leg for a slightly different setlist. For ZooTV, you pretty much only need the widely circulated Dublin and Sydney boots (both from the second nights, I think).
Lovetown was king for setlist variety, and the band was so incredibly tight during that period.
PopMart didn't have much setlist variety, but many of the shows are special in other ways (e.g., the aforementioned Sarajevo and Santiago shows, plus things like Bono's performance of "One" for Michael Hutchence in Mexico City or maybe the first show in Las Vegas merely for the horror of it all), so it's still worth collecting more than a few boots of.
Elevation had better variety than PopMart, though not as good as their eighties heydey, and a lot of the shows were just undeniably fun (like the Providence show on Larry's birthday). My main complaint is that I don't like Bono's voice on this tour.
I think PopMart gets a really bad rap because of its embarrassingly rocky first leg. Once it swung into motion, though, it sounded great. The visuals were far too big and dwarfed the band for the most part, but in spite of that, the tour had some amazing moments.
The Sarajevo and Santiago shows aren't just tour highlights, they're career highlights. There's a certain honesty behind all the awkward attempts at irony. You know that part of ZooTV in between "Running To Stand Still" and "Where the Streets Have No Name" where you hear the babel of television voices but through it all the rising synth intro of "Streets" is breaking through like a beam of light and by the time Edge's guitar starts to ring in, you know the jig is up, sincerity has won over irony? That's like an aural metaphor for PopMart. The humility was good for them.
The Elevation Tour was a welcome return to simplicity, but there was almost more showmanship. Bono's speeches have this rehearsed spontaneity that's charming but ultimately distant. I hate to draw the comparison and dumb this down into "Pop versus ATYCLB Part 213873784387587," but I thought the dichotomy was interesting. Note that there were tons of truly human and meaningful moments in the Elevation Tour too (moments that simply wouldn't have been possible on a stadium tour like PopMart), but PopMart had its own qualities that seem to be overlooked.
It rocked too.
Anyway, I think ZooTV was their most interesting tour, but you really don't need more than one or two ZooTV boots, do you? It was pretty much the same thing over night, so you just need to find a boot that has good sound quality and a consistent performance, and then maybe you grab another one from another leg for a slightly different setlist. For ZooTV, you pretty much only need the widely circulated Dublin and Sydney boots (both from the second nights, I think).
Lovetown was king for setlist variety, and the band was so incredibly tight during that period.
PopMart didn't have much setlist variety, but many of the shows are special in other ways (e.g., the aforementioned Sarajevo and Santiago shows, plus things like Bono's performance of "One" for Michael Hutchence in Mexico City or maybe the first show in Las Vegas merely for the horror of it all), so it's still worth collecting more than a few boots of.
Elevation had better variety than PopMart, though not as good as their eighties heydey, and a lot of the shows were just undeniably fun (like the Providence show on Larry's birthday). My main complaint is that I don't like Bono's voice on this tour.
blueeyedgirl
Rock n' Roll Doggie ALL ACCESS
Another one of those contentious topics!!!
For sheer musical wonderfulness, Lovetown. Every night was U2 trying not to bore themselves stupid doing same old, same old. That tour was the first one ever I believe where they had to cancel concerts cos Bono lost his voice. They had to rearrange the schedule accordingly, so the very first concert they played after Bono recovered was in Adelaide, which I got to see!!!
Bono was so hyper and so glad to be singing again, and it made for the best concert I've ever seen IMHO. The way he yelled "I can sing!" in the middle of 'Streets'......
( I saw the next night in Adelaide too and he still hadn't come down! hee hee! )
For sheer extravaganza value, Zoo TV. They were at the peak.
For sheer musical wonderfulness, Lovetown. Every night was U2 trying not to bore themselves stupid doing same old, same old. That tour was the first one ever I believe where they had to cancel concerts cos Bono lost his voice. They had to rearrange the schedule accordingly, so the very first concert they played after Bono recovered was in Adelaide, which I got to see!!!
Bono was so hyper and so glad to be singing again, and it made for the best concert I've ever seen IMHO. The way he yelled "I can sing!" in the middle of 'Streets'......
( I saw the next night in Adelaide too and he still hadn't come down! hee hee! )
For sheer extravaganza value, Zoo TV. They were at the peak.
Last edited:
Pero
Refugee
Zoo tv, no doubt about it
miss becky
Rock n' Roll Doggie VIP PASS
Didn't we just have a thread about this? At any rate, Zoo TV, for reasons too numerous to list here. So I'll keep it simple: Zoo TV rules all.
MsMofoGone
Blue Crack Addict
PopMart.................
That show BLEW everyone, whose anyone AWAY !!!
Zoo TV cannot compare.......
even Bono once said that "this show's gonna blow ZooTV away" and in my opinion... "it sure did" !!!!
That show BLEW everyone, whose anyone AWAY !!!
Zoo TV cannot compare.......
even Bono once said that "this show's gonna blow ZooTV away" and in my opinion... "it sure did" !!!!
Last edited:
babyman
Rock n' Roll Doggie VIP PASS
zoo tv i unbeateble, but i got the right feeling that vertigo is gonna be the new number 1...............the first show was brilliant and amazing, i think this tour will sign u2 as the best ever ever rock band in the history of music
babyman
Rock n' Roll Doggie VIP PASS
zoo tv is unbeateble, but i got the right feeling that vertigo is gonna be the new number 1...............the first show was brilliant and amazing, i think this tour will sign u2 as the best ever ever rock band in the history of music
If you shout...
Rock n' Roll Doggie VIP PASS
I have to somewhat begrudgingly go with Zoo TV for this one, although I think that the highlights from PopMart (which is pretty much everything but that first month or so in North America) are beyond compare as far as U2's live shows go. Zoo TV was but a few steps below this level for me and since that tour was a whole hell of a lot more consistent, I think it has to take the cake.
I don't know, though...if you want the truth, I think that they've never had a bad tour, although Elevation wasn't really my cup of tea. It's subjective, I know, but those shows felt less like rock and roll concerts and more like Adult Contemporary love-ins.
Ha ha ha. I look back on what I wrote and see that I'm talking nonsense--Elevation certainly didn't suck, and I had a good enough time to go to five shows. Even so, it was a lowER point for U2 as a live band, in my eyes. I love the early shows and both PopMart and Zoo TV above all else, but nothing has ever been anything other than (at least) GOOD.
I don't know, though...if you want the truth, I think that they've never had a bad tour, although Elevation wasn't really my cup of tea. It's subjective, I know, but those shows felt less like rock and roll concerts and more like Adult Contemporary love-ins.
Ha ha ha. I look back on what I wrote and see that I'm talking nonsense--Elevation certainly didn't suck, and I had a good enough time to go to five shows. Even so, it was a lowER point for U2 as a live band, in my eyes. I love the early shows and both PopMart and Zoo TV above all else, but nothing has ever been anything other than (at least) GOOD.
Definitely of the ones I've attended, Joshua Tree. Late Lovetown seems like it would have topped even that, but i'm not familiar with more than a handful of songs recently download.
tangential comment: hmmmm "Adult Contemporary love-ins"--what an interesting concept. I think if the last tour was a love-in, this one is going to be a LOVE-IN, what with the whole crowd wailing 40 every night.
love, Anu
tangential comment: hmmmm "Adult Contemporary love-ins"--what an interesting concept. I think if the last tour was a love-in, this one is going to be a LOVE-IN, what with the whole crowd wailing 40 every night.
love, Anu
Similar threads
- Locked
- Sticky
