by Ted Stapleton

Well, I wasn't a big fan of the POP album before I went to see this concert. Actually, I'm still not a big fan of Pop muzik . . . at least the versions that are on the commercial album. I wasn't a big fan of the Zooropa commercial album, either. In terms of the die-hard fans that usually write into these things, I think that I'm in the minority. In terms of the general population of music listeners, I think that I'm in the majority. I have since then grown to love the songs from both Pop and Zooropa . . . as they were played in concert. Paul McGuinnes once said that he wished that they could tour for 6 months and THEN put out an album based on the songs played live because as they played them live, they improvised and improved on their originals. That was certainly the case for POP.

When they came to Camp Randall, they were selling WAY overpriced tickets (although you have to aplaud their efforts to not take corporate sponsorship and for creating the best visual effects ever seen in a concert) to see a concert that had primarily music from an album that the public wasn't buying (both at the stores and as musical enjoyment).

But, the band came out and played a great set . . . They seemed to play a lot better on their new songs than on the "tried and true" hits of their earlier albums, though. At the time, I thought that this was a marketing ploy. Make your new songs sound good to increase record sales and make your old songs sound bad so that people will stop concentrating on JUST their previous work. That may have been going on to some extent at this concert, but I think that as a band, they get tired of playing With Or Without You for the one-hundred-and-fifty-thousandth time. In any event, while my ears were bleeding listening to the old songs, I couldn't help tapping my foot at the new songs. They really were played welll">Ano's voice was strong, Edge's guitar rattled off complex and flawless rifts and Adam and Larry both put out strong performances as well.

But, I have to confess that when I went to the concert, I didn't know the songs very well. I tried to listen to the crap that they put out on the commercial release a few times, but it just wasn't worth it. I'm a U2 fan, but I'm not going to force myself to listen to bad music just to jam the tune into my head like a TV commerical jingle.

I don't think that the rest of the audience knew the new songs either . . . The stadium was only half full where as 5 years before the tickets for that same stadium had sold out in only a day and a half. Many were sitting down and really only cheered for the old songs. Can you blame them? I don't think that the band did. Bono made a very strong appology during I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For. He talked about the band's desire to go in a different direction, which is fine. Unfortunately, they took a wrong turn this time. Hopefully, this failure will make them "kick a bit harder" for their next album.

Overall, here is how I'd rate the concert:

Performance 8.0
Audience Participation 4.5
Value (ticket price) 3.0
Visual Effects 10.0
Setlist 6.0
Overall 5.875

For the AVERAGE listener, I wouldn't have recomended this concert. For someone like me and you (huge U2 fans) it was well worth it.

BTW, if you don't have them, get the boots of the Mexico and Santiago shows. They show how the Pop songs should have been released on their album.

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