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
