U2unes - U2 bootlegs with an Apple flavor | 1998-01-31 Sao Paolo "Sao Paulo" Silver CD

Monday, March 30th 2009

1998-01-31 Sao Paolo "Sao Paulo" Silver CD03/30/2009 11:12 AM

OK. Fine. I'll toss you weirdos a bone. I haven't shared a P p p p p . . . . a Paww . . . . Pawwwp . . . .

Sidebar time. Ya know, I can say Poopmart without any reservations or hesitations at all, but I am simply incapable of correctly writing out the real thing. You'd think in time I would develop a taste for The Tour Which Must Not Be Named, kind of like coffee. I'm in my thirties and I still don't like coffee at all, either, so you folks shouldn't hold your breath waiting for me to like anything that comes out of this tour. OK, end sidebar.

Anyway, it's been thirteen months since I last shared any bootleg from U2's dark ages in the late 90's. I figure I owe some of you something. Fortunately for everyone involved - mostly that means me - I was able to find a bootleg that I actually seem to enjoy. It's a silver CD, which more often than not means decent sound (not always, but it's true in this case). It's the audio from a TV broadcast, which is darn near close to having pro-shot soundboard material (the pre-broadcast material is more desirable to serious collectors, but broadcast is usually darn good anyway). And finally, it's from Sao Paolo, meaning the end of the tour, when U2 had had some time to correct the problems in various songs that made them suck so much on The Album Which Must Not Be Named. To be honest, I find myself actually enjoying the renditions of "Mofo" and "Gone" from this performance. I also particularly enjoy and recommend the various Achtung Baby songs that appear because they are still fairly young and fresh and lack the aged flavor that seemed to weigh them down during the Vertigo Tour (especially "One", which almost died under the burden Bono placed on it). One thing in particular that I have found I really solidly enjoy is when U2 transitions seamlessly from one song to a similar song, as is the case here when "Last Night On Earth" blends smoothly and logically into "Until The End Of The World". They built a strong moment by the end of the prior song and just kept it going into the later song.

Getting technical for a moment, there's a cut between "All I Want Is You" and "Staring At The Sun". I'm not happy that it's there, but it's not disruptive. The same thing happens after "Sunday Bloody Sunday" at the change between discs. Those of you who burn these bootlegs to CD to listen won't have a problem with this, but for people like me who listen to bootlegs as files in iTunes or on their iPod it's another skip to be aware of.

This bootleg tastes like coffee-flavored ice cream with lots of chocolate and caramel sauces, whipped creme, and three - not one, three - cherries, and a large scoop of vanilla ice cream. Yeah, the coffee flavor is still there, but it's buried under so much goodness that it becomes a tolerable - almost likable - tweak to the dessert. Poopmart haters like me might actually enjoy this bootleg. Just don't start holding your breath yet.

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Comments :

1. Ron2009-04-01 08:26:48

It is a shame that they skipped the 10th year anniversary of the pOp in 2007. A nice re-release with a lot of b-sides and rarities would be a welcome addition to the collection. At least you have 10 more years to appreciate the album! lol.
Thank you for sharing the bootleg with us.
Personally, I had more problems with HTDAAB. Although, I liked the vertigo tour.

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