gvox
Ghost of Love
So, how was the dance music scene like in the early 70's, oops, 80's, when you went clubbing? Depeche Mode, Linear Movement and Soft Cell were all the rage?
So, how was the dance music scene like in the early 70's, oops, 80's, when you went clubbing? Depeche Mode, Linear Movement and Soft Cell were all the rage?
For real. Can we just assume that the stupid-calling goes on ad infinitum and just go on to the next thing?
My advice is to not worry to much about these things, they tend to sort themselves out.
Damn. Move me a motherfucking mountain cause I think I just got blown away watching that
I love the lyrcis of Mofo, but for some reason can't get into the music of it (i.e. the heavy electronica). But the lyrics are so raw and honest and heart-wrenching that I will still listen to the song from time to time and enjoy seeing it performed. And I don't hate the electronica of Mofo, it just seems kind of out of place. If more of Pop or some other albums had been heavy electronica like Mofo, it would have something greater than itself to belong to.
Agreed...which makes Pop fussy and undefined as an album. After MOFO you go into something like IGWSHA which is trance-like and maybe, just maybe 'trip-hop'...and then you go into Last Night on Earth which is plain 'rock'...but what the hell is Do You Feel Loved...? I just never got into that song whatsoever...the vibe is just boring. I did not enjoy it when they broke it out live on the opening night in Vegas (which I did attend). It is one of those songs that does not translate on CD or live for me.
The album is all over the place musically, which is why it doesn't resonate with me...
I agree with absolutely nothing stated here.
There was nothing to agree with, it was my opinion. I will never state irrevocably, that Pop is 'this or that'...I don't find it particularly exciting, but it is a tremendous album to some and blah to others. Just like ATYCLB is to some here.
The difference when it comes to discussing those albums is that those who love Pop find nothing good about ATYCLB. To each his own...I just find it frustrating how one album can be held to such high esteem, described as innovative and experimental, and the other torn to shreds as derivative and a sellout.
The Popmart shows were interesting and different, and when U2 found its feet the shows were solid and spectacular. The album just didn't translate live (I mean really, how many Pop songs have they broken out live in the past 15 years?). So they not longer play them live.
U2 lives in the live setting. Pop, as different and musically diverse as it can seem on CD, does not leave the band anything hang their hat on live. MOFO...energetic tune live...how many more times have they played it since the Popmart Tour? Pop is not a true snapshot of who U2 'really' is as a band. It's U2 stepping out and trying on new shoes...great...they out grew the shoes fairly quickly.
As generic as the sound is on ATYCLB there is continuity to the sound, and it's basically the band playing together, without so many outside sounds incorporated (Eno and Lanois use their ambient, even modern sounds, but nothing like Howie B. did on Pop). It translates better live because it's back to basics, and truly representative of the band U2 is.
Call ATYCLB boring or sellout, or a cash grab or whatever negative monitor you want to put on it (and I'm not referring to you djerdap) but it sold, it produced some classic U2 songs that they continually showcase in concert and it brought U2 back from the abyss that Pop and Popmart left them in.
Pop is exactly what U2 are to me - bold, daring, versatile and poignant, which are the characteristics of all of their best records. That's completely your opinion that it is not a "true snapshot" or whatever. U2 was never a back-to-basics band in my mind. They have constantly evolved and reinvented their sound and all that came to a halt as soon as they started to write bland, cheesy and derivative stuff, which is the majority of their output in the 00s.
Calling Popmart an "abyss" is overdramatizing it to say the least. The tour was a huge success in Europe and South America and has produced some of their best and most legendary concerts. Nothing post-2000 comes close to the power of the Leeds, Sarajevo and Santiago performances for me.
As for Popmart surpassing anything that came after, you couldn't be more wrong. As far as spectacle it was match by 360 Tour, as far as emotion, nothing compares to the end of the Elevation Tour.
I did not say Popmart was the pinnacle. That was ZooTV. And some Lovetown performances. But yeah, as far as Bono's vocals, song selection and the overall energy level go, I prefer it in general to the subsequent three tours. There were some amazing concerts in the last decade as well, but no, none of them rival my favourite Popmart gigs.
I realize Popmart seems more like a failure from a North American perspective, but the concerts overseas were wild and hugely successful. I love some concerts in the 2000s - Slane I is an excellent one - but it's not even close to something like Leeds 1997, which is just tour de force U2. The only "legendary" concert that I was actually referring to was the Sarajevo one, which despite - or almost because of - Bono's voice is one of their most emotional and breathtaking performances. Just listen to Edge's performance on one of their weakest live songs - that being Pride - it is unique in its intensity. Leeds and Santiago hardly have the reputation of the NY Eve concert you mention, and I agree that one isn't even in the top 10 Lovetown concerts (the 26th of December is another story).
It would be nice if you could try to think of the world as beyond North America for one second, eh?
I don't know about the London shows, but I was at the second night in Rotterdam and it was definitely not sold out. Bono spent most of the first 30 minutes of the show shouting at the empty seats and the people in the VIP area who barely managed to get of their seats for 30 seconds of the POP Muzik / MOFO intro.Also, U2 barely soldout the 2 nights in Rotterdam and the 2 in London.
I wonder what Axver would say that the band was going through the motions on that night. Especially with those versions of One Tree Hill, Streets and With or Without You...
I'm not sure if the 360 tour would have sold out a third show in London, but that's up for debate. I mostly look at this from a bootleg collector perspective. I have seen U2 on the last three tours. Ironic, isn't it? But I believe a high-quality bootleg gives an unbiased look at the band's performance. The concerts I went to don't offer great sounding bootlegs unfortunately. The vibe when one is attending the show depends on so many different factors. It certainly had that effect on me and I was left underwhelmed by a couple of them, which wasn't necessarily completely the fault of the band. The band can deliver a fantastic performance - like the December 26 one - but one can still have a vastly different perspective on it, as shown on the example of your friends. The 3rd Dublin show and all of the Rotterdam ones are fantastic performances, so that we can all agree on.
What I do feel is that the North American audiences are very much biased towards Popmart. It was a great tour and it had a lot of moments that were very important in the band's history - but it didn't connect with all the parts of the world as ZooTV did, and it certainly didn't have the emotional impact for USA as the Elevation Tour had. Calling it an abyss is absolutely absurd and ignorant. I could honestly care less whether they would have sold out another show in London back then. But what I can say is that it has, along with the peaks of ZooTV and Lovetown, the best concerts I've heard from the band.
I completely disagree that a live bootleg is completely representative or even the best indicator of how a concert was.
I completely disagree that a live bootleg is completely representative or even the best indicator of how a concert was.
It is definitely not an indicator at how the overall concert experience is. Not even close. In terms of band's performance alone, I feel it shows a much better perspective. But the band's performance is only one of many factors to a concert experience in my mind. I have been blown away by some concerts I've seen and then I checked the bootleg and noticed that the performance wasn't that great and vice versa. In the end, it's all relative.
As far as Popmart and its success in Europe goes - sold out concerts are also not necessarily a measure for me as to how much the gig resonated with the audience who did show up. There have been many great concerts in the past where a band was playing to half-empty venues (this has happened more or less with Popmart in NA but nowhere in Europe). All I'm saying is that some of those concerts were fabulous in terms of band's performance, audience interaction and even historical significance (Sarajevo and Reggio Emilia concerts - the latter still being the most attended non-festival show in U2's history).