The advance hype surrounding their 1997 "Popmart" tour promoted it as an audiovisual spectacle that had never before been seen. It would be bigger and more audacious that their already audaciously big "Zooropa" tour. The giant, gleaming yellow arch (a half-McDonalds logo that represented a critique of bloated consumerism or a brilliant piece of cross-promotion, or both, who really knows) would be hauled from town to town and had to be seen to be believed. Oddly enough, this was the only time I ever saw U2 in concert. These days, even their fans see the tour as classic overreach, a creative speed bump on the way to getting back to basics with "All That You Can't Leave Behind" in 2000, and re-connecting with their fans in a more direct way without the Mephisto-like avatars and technological gadgetry.
The U2 of 2023 probably wishes that the Sphere in Las Vegas had been around in the 90's. Instead of constructing those gaudy sets, they could have simply projected them onto all-immersive, super-IMAX-like LED board. Finally, their wildest ambitions can be straightforwardly turned in to (virtual) reality. The city of Las Vegas is betting a couple of billion dollars that this experience is the future of concert-going.
The video clips look absolutely spectacular. The problem is that U2 almost feel like an afterthought at their own concert. People flocked to see Laser Floyd because of the lasers, not because of the Floyd. The attraction wasn't in seeing a band, it was the bombardment of the senses while the music played in the background. Does any of that matter to U2? No doubt they're making enough money to make it well worth their while not to care.
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