Yet one need only view Popmart Live alongside the Rolling Stones' contemporaneous Bridges to Babylon 1998 long-form video to grasp U2's underlying passion and conviction. While Popmart trumps the Stones (ringmasters of the original rock & roll circus and among the principal inventors of stadium rock) in terms of sheer scale, U2's presentation still strikes thematic sparks missing from the Stones' more conservative designs for the Bridges stage.

With its vast, ramped stage and enveloping video backdrop, the Popmart set serves the band's posttechno impulses, yet the music remains rooted in U2's passionate, high-flying rock style, using its skittering dance rhythms and garish pop-art motifs to support the band's underlying themes, not replace them. Filmed in Mexico City before a huge reverent crowd, the concert balances close-ups against the quartet's often mesmerizing staging effects; the camera work sustains a sense of the show's outsized physical setting, while expertly closing the distance between us and the band.

The band also shrewdly integrates older songs into the pumped up, burnished arranging style heard on Pop while stripping down newer material in less varnished, more vulnerable settings. A series of duets with just Bono and the Edge on acoustic guitars underscores that strategy. --Sam Sutherland

Their first video, "Live At Red Rocks Under A Blood Red Sky" (1983) featured a very young U2 banging out the best of their first three albums, "Boy," "October" and "War." The video and sound quality is nowhere near spectacular, but you cannot fault the band for it as the video was shot on a very stingy budget, and in a sometimes driving rainstorm. However, their youthful energy more than makes up for the technical shortcomings.

1988's "Rattle And Hum" was a theatrically-released concert film. U2 was more confident on stage and in front of the camera, and it showed. My main qualm about "Rattle And Hum" is that it's a bit too somber and melodramatic at times, especially the concert footage. But, like "Live Under A Blood Red Sky," the energy of the band makes up for it. Bono, Edge, Adam Clayton, and Larry Mullen Jr. matured greatly as musicians and entertainers between 1983 and 1988, and it's readily appearent in the film.

"Zoo TV" was a tad too theatrical, although the band never sounded better. It seems U2 was trying to make an artistic statement with the stage. Once again, the music drove the show, but the emphasis on technology detracted from it.

"POPMart Live From Mexico City" is nearly perfect! The stage, featuring a mammoth video screen and a giant arch added a lot without being in the way. With the exception of moments during "Hold Me, Thrill Me, Kiss Me, Kill Me," Bono avoids his alter egos (The Fly, MacPhisto) of years past and is just Bono. One definite high point of the video is the Bono/Edge acoustic set. Bono forgetting a verse to "Desire" and breaking into "La Bamba" was funny. Edge get an all-too rare turn, singing "Sunday Bloody Sunday" before breaking ionto the best live version of "Bullet The Blue Sky" I've ever heard. Another great moment was their performance of "Pride."

SIMPLY AWESOME. A "must buy!"


I Loved it!!   June 18, 2007
 9 out of 15 found this review helpful

I saw The PopMart tour in Dallas and Houston. It was an amazing show filled with great visuals. It's nice to see that this is finally available on dvd. A must for any fan of live concerts.


Great Concept - Poor Execution   October 2, 2007
 9 out of 12 found this review helpful

I saw this tour when it came to the Ohio State Stadium, and I remember it like it was yesterday.

I have to agree with the reviewers who said the Mexico City night must have been an "off night" for the band. There wasn't the confidence in the material nor the show like you see in ZooTV or those that came after. And it's not even the new material that seems to throw them. Desire falls apart in an awkward ending, Bono has a few false starts in Pride, and Adam was, well, Adam. More than once in "Streets" he was just a beat or two off. The whole concert feels like a walk-through. Maybe by the time they got to Mexico they were tired of the lemon and the self-parody and were now just going through the motions to get to the end. Who knows?

Others have metioned the videography not being up to par, and again I must agree. The camera quality is pretty bad, with shots frequently washed out. It looks like it was shot with early digital technology, and the sample rate just wasn't there to really capture a crisp, clear picture. Furthermore, many of the shots are jittery, bouncy, like the cameramen were in constant motion, but not in a 'cool artsy' way, rather it feels clumsy.

I love U2, and I'm glad they finally released PopMart on DVD. Of course I purchased the deluxe edition, as I do with all of their DVDs, and I have no regrets about owning this piece of rock history. It's one that I will return to and watch over and over, like the others. I think hindsight is a hinderance here...after the mind-blowing Elevation DVD, the homecoming family atmosphere of Slane Castle, the confident Vertigo production, PopMart comes across as a transitionary piece...it survives on the knowledge that the band grew and flourished both before and after.

Let me add, too, that I am one of the few who actaully loved the songwriting from this period of time...POP is one of my all-time favorite U2 albums.

Can't wait for their next tour.


the dopest show   November 27, 1999
 8 out of 9 found this review helpful

i can't remember how many times i've seen this concert, and it easily tops the charts as my favorite concert of all time. i have only one gripe with the video (for those of you who are fans of pop, you should know what i'm talkin about here). the last song of the night is "wake up dead man", it's one of my favorite songs of theirs and it deserves more respect than to have credits rolling as it is played. it always leaves a sour taste in my mouth. other than that, the concert is by far the best concert i have ever seen. it makes me feel so damn good. it makes fun of being "larger than life" while at the same time being that which it mocks. almost every song is presented with its own changes to the stage, the screen, etc... every song is brilliant, the energy is infectious, and the stage puts all others to shame. i rarely feel so good as when i watch this concert on a good system with friends who know what it's all about.