U2start.com | Bootleg Round Table

Originally posted by Ali709[..]

Yes...it's probably because of the new prime minister
BTW, Nate...or should I say, Mr. Popmartian!! Congratulations

oh, and Drew...they did answer my email about Rapidshare, they said it was a "judiciary order" to block it

Thanks for the congrats!

ReclinerMan

17 years

This may be the only proper time for me to post my thoughts, because tomorrow I'm seeing my aunt get married.

Moderator’s Notes:

1997-04-28 - San Diego, California - Jack Murphy Stadium

My Thoughts:

To say that the early PopMart dates are rough is an understatement. This show went down in flames. As I listened to it, I felt that the band played amateurishly and Bono wasn't even trying to get the words and rhythm right. The only song that wasn't a complete embarrassment was "With or Without You," and even that wasn't great. Obviously, this comes from the lack of rehearsal that the band had at the time. But if I was paying for this show, I'd want my money back.

It's sad, really. Too sad.

djrlewis

17 years

Originally posted by drewhigginsI like changing. Plus it's Saturday, meaning the end of the week. 52 avatars per year.

Got myself six bootlegs tonight...awesome. What's the quality of Sao Paulo (first) like from 2006?

Are you gonna join in with us sometime Drew?

djrlewis

17 years

Originally posted by Ali709[..]

I have it!

Good stuff

djrlewis

17 years

Bootleg Review:-

1997-04-28 - San Diego, California - Jack Murphy Stadium

General comments

First up, I should say that I'm a massive fan of Popmart as a tour. It was my first live experience of U2 and I was absolutely blown away.
I believe that the later gigs (Europe, Rest of World) are up there with U2's strongest, even if Bono's voice is a little weak at times.

I chose this gig because I've heard lots about how crap they were in America and how poorly it was received. I wanted to find out for myself.

So, that said, here we go

Sound

I was on an iPod again and found the sound to range from very good to really quite poor. Some bits were very quiet (Do You Feel Loved, Mofo), other bits much better (later in the show).

Audience were intrusive at times and flat as a pancake a lot of the time (compare to the European and South American crowds)

I would personally rate it as 3.5 stars, not the 4 it gets here.

Performance

At times, there were some good bits. Best for me was the performance of Miami. Bizarre choice, as regular readers may know this is one of my least favourite songs. But this is the first time ever I haven't skipped the song and it wasn't because I was listening to it for the round table.

A lot of the songs were average. They just seemed to lack bounce and vitality. Not bad, but not good either for the bar that this band sets themselves. Bono seemed to keep needing to reassure himself that they were doing ok ("I like San Diego", "Are we doing alright?", "Can you hear us ok" etc). This has probably got a lot to do with the car crash that was Las Vegas the gig before (he even says at one point "Did you see what we brought you from Las Vegas?! This is like our first real show"). I couldn't work out if they genuinely felt it went ok or were just trying to convince the audience and themselves.
I liked the drums for Sunday Bloody Sunday at the end of Please too, but wasn't sure if this was intentional on Larry's part or a mistake? It didn't flow with the transition to Streets particularly well.

Bad points

Mofo - much prefer the arrangement used later in the tour,this was a weak start.
I Will Follow - Did Bono remember any of the words except I, Will & Follow?!
Do You Feel Loved? - A poor live song; love it on the album, glad they dropped it here
If God Will Send His Angels - Ditto
Staring At The Sun - worked better acoustic I think (but at least they performed it ok).

Generally Bono seemed to forget the words to nearly everything. His ad libbing was good occasionally and just poor at other times. The Edge made a couple of mistakes, missed vital riffs in Please certainly that I noticed but overall the rest of the band seemed solid.

Overall

It wasn't as bad as I was expecting. Not as good, by a long way, as they can and should be but not the total failure that other members of this forum and the U2 fanbase at large have written it off as. They still knock the socks off most other live acts even with an average gig like this. Trouble is they set the bar so high for themselves and us as fans that these sorts of things become more obvious and therefore less accepted. I can guarantee that had I been there and you add in the visuals etc that I would have been happy. Happier at other gigs later in the tour, but happy non the less.
That not with-standing, it will be a one time listen on my iPod and will be coming off. But it will stay on my iTunes library.

I hope the rest of you didn't completely hate it and got some value from it. Bring on the Joshua Tree next week.

Ali709

17 years

1997-04-28 - San Diego (Second night of Popmart)
-----------------------------------

The Recording:

>> Pros:
*It's a good recording, a great feature of it being that you can perfectly hear Adam's Bass which makes everything much cooler. You also get a good listen of the other three.

>> Cons:
* The vocals again, Bono's voice gets drowned in the music a few times, but it's not that much noticeable. It's probably partly because of Bono's voice and not the recording.
* I (as someone who really enjoys hearing the audience reactions) didn't get enough of the audience...at times when they were singing along, you could hear them but it's very low, doesn't show the power. But you probably can't just get everything in a recording unless it's an official DVDrip or some broadcast.

The Show:
I must confess that I expected this to be a terrible show, having my ideas of Popmart + hearing about the beginning of Popmart and that they were underprepared ...but I was proved wrong. I DID enjoy this show despite of all mistakes and problems, and it was much better than what I had expected.
Clearly it's not their best show, and as some of you have said it's a very bad one. They weren't prepared of course, therefore most of the new songs are just screwed up, but the old songs are mostly well done. Details...
* Although it's a new song, Mofo is done quite well, and as you get the bass and drums, the music is just amazing!
* One of the old songs not done so well is I Will Follow, probably because they didn't play it during ZooTV.
* Last Night On Earth is done better later on Popmart, but this one isn't bad either, and Bono's voice is actually quite good. It does get messed up a bit, like around 4:40 "You gotta give it away"...there is something wrong with it! They also screw up the ending, doesn't sound good!
* Gone, what a beautiful song, yet Bono sings it badly, specially the ending is kinda irritating ("gone, gone, gone,...") !
* Until The End of The World is performed well, there seem to be technical problems tho, a bit in the beginning and specially the end. There is something wrong with Edge's guitar sound in the end (before and during "lalala...lalala").
* IGWSHA, I didn't know it was ever performed live, it was interesting to hear it, but they absolutley fuck it up. Why is it performed like this?! They seem very confused during this one! The "I like San Diego" bit in the end sounds pathetic...as if he is trying to make it up to them! :-|
* Staring At The Sun is better in acoustic, but it isn't that bad here either. Bono's fine on this one.
* Daydream Believer is quite nice actually!! If I'm not wrong, that is The Edge singing! A highlight of the show in my opinion!
* Miami is done mostly like the studio version, not bad, not so good either.
* Please is fine, Bono messes it up a bit in the middle, around 3:05 when it goes silent and Bono has to sing "So love is big...". Why are there Sunday Bloody Sunday drums in there?!...They weren't able to show the beauty of "Please into Streets" but it ain't bad, and Streets is done quite well. You gotta love that guy in the audience who yells “Where the streets have no name!!” when it’s about to start!
* Discotheque is well done. WOWY is just amazing, mostly because you get all of Adam's bass which makes it awesome.
* HMTMKMKM is messed up in the beginning, they don't start the music right after the alarm like song in the beginning, the rest of it is ok. Mysterious Ways is fine and so is One (older songs, as mentioned above).

Overall:
As a bootleg it has a good recording, you get what you have to get of the music very well, you don't get all the audience, but it's fine.
About the show, it's an interesting one to have, see them mess things up and compare it to when they figured it out. But, if you are looking for a bootleg to show you what Popmart was all about don't go near this one...try Mexicofo or something else.

fenderman

17 years

PopMart - San Diego, California - 1997-04-28

Sound: Not too bad. This is a decent recording. Bono, Edge, Adam, and Larry can all be heard fairly well. There is not really a standout part of this recording.

The good:
Do You Feel Loved? - just because it was played. It didnt sound that great though. I dont feel like this song works live even though I really like the album version.
If God Will Send His Angels - once again because it was played. very short though
Daydream Believer - Edge karaoke was just cool. probably the only thing that really saved the 1st leg of popmart
Miami - i'm a big pop fan as u can see. I just dig Bono yelling out MIAMI!

The bad:
Mofo - I love this song live, but this one was crap
Last Night On Earth - boring version, uninspired
This show was just flat all round

I don't want to shit all over the show but it was still kind of crap. The momentum hadn't picked up yet. I'm a big believer in the fact that Popmart was a great tour. This is an example of a subpar show from Popmart. Better than the 1st show but very low on the genius that is U2. Doesn't do Popmart any justice. Popmart changed so much once the guys got more comfortable with the songs, Then they became brilliant!

Overall rating: 3 stars - sound
2 stars - show quality

Its really hard to rate this show higher on sound quality due to the poor performance. Just cant get my head around it. I'll probably listen a few more times though.

Ali709

17 years

Just a comment here...now, after having read Reclinerman and Dan's comments, I have to agree more with Dan. I don't think I would have asked for my money back, I mean, if I was there, I would be totally blown away by the visuals and even the performance, I wouldn't notice all the mistakes. As Dan said, they are perfectionist and this show wasn't perfect...kinda makes me sad to hear Bono's self-reassuring comments

germcevoy

17 years

1997-04-28 - San Diego

~General Comments~

Not a lot to say on this one. The show wasn't as bad as I had expected it to be but it was still poor. This was a band who were suffering from stupid decisions made on their behalf. They were so under rehearsed it was actually painful to here. Why play songs that when you literally don't have a clue how to (Do You Feel Loved, Angels, Staring At The Sun. . .) I think the band tried its best but Bono ended up being the weak link with his come and go vocals and forgetful lyrics.

Sound

#Varied at times but worthy of 4 stars.
#It's great to here a really great bass bootleg and this is one of them.
#Didn't like the crowd. They were good in places but generally flat and impatient and humorless (they just didn't get Daydream Believer. Listen to Singin in the rain from Leeds to hear the contrast)

Performance

#Why was Bono so in love with this show. 'If every nights like this then we'l be fine'. Good one. Apart from Bono the only weak thing was the show itself. The rest of the band were good.
#Adam's bass was fantastic.
#Great setlist but poor delivery.
#Mofo intro was poor, I Will Follow, Do You Feel Loved, Angels, Staring At The Sun and Bullet were all poor.
#Have to make a special note for the performance of Miami. It's a song that I hate (and always will) but it would be harsh to fault Bono's delivery.
#WOWY was fantastic. Adams Bass was awesome and there was a slight dance edge to the drumming which sounded equally great.
#Everything else was alright but below par

Summary

I'd rather have free space on my ipod rather than this show. It wasn't brutal but it was still poor. Could you imagine seeing them on ZooTV then seeing this

. My dislike of most things Popmart has not been altered. I did feel kinda sorry for the B-mans spirited attitude during the show. He was only kidding himself.

Next show please. . .

djrlewis

17 years

Well then.

Apart from Reclinerman we all seem to feel pretty much the same. We all agreed on the poor songs (mainly the new ones massively under-rehearsed) and general poor performance by Bono. But we all felt the show wasn't as bad as some press would have you believe.

Sound-wise it earns its rating of 4-stars here.

Performance-wise sub-par by U2 standards and if you want a really good representation of Popmart look to Mexico, Leeds or Sarajevo (to see how a show can be amazing even with fucked up vocals).

As Gerard says, next show please. I believe Reclinerman wants a JT show this week. I hope he logs on to give the boot tonight as I can't download next week. Plus Megaupload would be good for Ali.

germcevoy

17 years

Originally posted by djrlewisWell then.

Apart from Reclinerman we all seem to feel pretty much the same. We all agreed on the poor songs (mainly the new ones massively under-rehearsed) and general poor performance by Bono. But we all felt the show wasn't as bad as some press would have you believe.

Sound-wise it earns its rating of 4-stars here.

Performance-wise sub-par by U2 standards and if you want a really good representation of Popmart look to Mexico, Leeds or Sarajevo (to see how a show can be amazing even with fucked up vocals).

As Gerard says, next show please. I believe Reclinerman wants a JT show this week. I hope he logs on to give the boot tonight as I can't download next week. Plus Megaupload would be good for Ali.

good summary Dan. Spot on i'd say. I also hope reclinerman can get the next show picked before the night is out

Ali709

17 years

Originally posted by djrlewis
Plus Megaupload would be good for Ali.

Thanks for that Dan...

But don't let that keep you Reclinerman, if it is only on Rapidshare I'll either find a way to get it or just won't take part in the round table this time.

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