U2 - Mexico City, 1997

Just got back from Ireland, and boy is my shillelagh tired.

Not a big fan of U2's "ironic disco" phase...hell, not really a big U2 fan at all. But I did happen to catch their infamous PopMart Tour at the Los Angeles Coliseum, and -- with the help of my bro David D. and about nine hits of ecstasy -- managed to have a righteous blast. "Bullet the Blue Sky", with its Roy Lichtenstein jetfighter combat graphics across that vast goddamn video screen, was absolutely fantasterrific -- especially from way up top at the rim of the stadium, where we climbed in order to behold the entire stage, the crowd, the universe, man.

People thought of PopMart as a bad joke at the time. But here we are now and gone are the days of stadium concerts, it seems...I mean, what band of the last ten or fifteen years could even come close to filling stadiums for an entire tour?

Love it or hate it, here's a nifty document of the production, a 2000 fan club-only release entitled Hasta la Vista Baby! The fact that the best thing about the show is the opener, a slammin' technoid remix of M's 1979 hit "Pop Muzik", kinda says it all...

U2 "Hasta la Vista Baby!"
Foro Sol - Mexico City, Mexico - December 3, 1997 (SBD)
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