PopMart Live From Mexico City

U2

In the mid to late 90s, U2 was on the precipice of an identity crisis. Having conquered the world in the 80s, and recasting themselves as street smart Berlin provocateurs in the early 90s, the only place left to go was…sideways? Well, not exactly, but that’s what it seemed like as they struggled to follow up the wildly inventive Achtung Baby! with something just as brilliant, shocking and unpredictable. That didn’t quite happen with Zooropa and Pop, but concert goers still invaded U2 shows like soldiers crawling across the beaches of Normandy. The concept of pop culture was Bono and company’s next logical step in understanding the mentality and mindset of late 20th century humanity. Pop, the ensuing album, did little more than graze the idea; yet in an effort to meet the precedent set by the group’s own ZOO TV production from five years earlier, the PopMart tour stared it down and made it wiggle. A decade later, the PopMart Live From Mexico City DVD shows just what was prodding the famous Irish quartet during one of their more strange and mercurial periods.

All through the 90s, U2 doggedly tried to distance themselves from the same strain of fame that empowered them. Bono mastered the game, mocked and poked fun at himself and his image, played indifferent to the hilt, and always came out on top with a smile on his face and three days of stubble sprouting from his jowls. PopMart presented the perfect vehicle for U2’s ability to make an average record as big as life. The imposing McDonalds arch and shopping cart dangling over the stage, a 100-foot cocktail stick skewering a giant olive, and a 50-foot mirror ball resembling a lemon — props like these and a LCD screen the size of a football field for a backdrop would make just about any band look great; with U2, it's monumental. After the audience forgives them for opening with “Mofo,” a useless piece of disco filler from Pop, the boys set aside their test tubes and blast off with “I Will Follow.” Another one from Pop called “Gone” brings the momentum down a notch, but then “Even Better Than The Real Thing” comes along and lifts the naysayers from their doldrums.

The visual spectacle of PopMart comes close to devaluing many of the new songs. Even so, for every trip down Memory Lane — be it “Pride,” “Sunday Bloody Sunday” or the ever requisite “One” — the audience is forced to endure U2’s newest pet peeves from Pop, an album full of tunes the band would never touch again after this tour. It’s a typical situation where the group is so huge and enterprising, they can get away with making a bad album here or there. Call it the Paul McCartney syndrome, if you will (although McCartney fans may take exception). When Bono swings his guitar above his head before singing the first line of “Until The End Of The World,” it’s as if he didn’t need to bother with the previous track from Pop. Who knows — in Mexico City, maybe it meant more trips to the bar for cerveza preparada. A bit of acoustic wrangling between the singer and the Edge on “Desire” and “Staring At The Sun,” the best song on Pop, and the audience turned to putty. Once they play “Where The Streets Have No Name,” the U2 grip allows for more Pop madness, brought to the fore when the four band members are summarily hatched from the lemon mirror ball and fall into the elementary beatso bop of “Discotheque.” Free of the frills at last, U2 closes the show with “Wake Up Dead Man,” the morose finale of Pop. As easily as the memory fizzles and U2 advances to the next stage of their monstrous career, even a cock-eyed presentation like PopMart makes perfect sense. And if you can't get enough of this lemon, the expanded 2-DVD set with a flurry of documentaries and extras will surely keep you in stitches till day break.

~ Shawn Perry

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