DISCONNECT
September 23, 1997 Sarajevo, Bosnia-Herzegovina - Kosevo Stadium |
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DISC 1 - [68:39] 1. Intro / Pop Muzik 2. Mofo 3. I Will Follow 4. Gone 5. Even Better Than The Real Thing 6. Last Night On Earth 7. Until The End Of The World 8. New Year's Day 9. Pride (In The Name Of Love) 10. I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For 11. Stand By Me 12. All I Want Is You 13. Staring At The Sun 14. Sunday Bloody Sunday 15. Bullet The Blue Sky |
DISC 2 - [64:45] 1. Please 2. Where The Streets Have No Name 3. Lemon (Perfecto Mix) Intermission 4. Discotheque 5. If You Wear That Velvet Dress 6. With Or Without You 7. Miss Sarajevo (w/ Brian Eno) 8. Hold Me, Thrill Me, Kiss Me, Kill Me 9. Mysterious Ways 10. One 11. Unchained Melody |
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Sound Quality: Very good broadcast. Comments: © "FLOM - A Guide To U2 Bootleg CDs" / Sascha Kremer: One of the better shows from the PopMart Tour. Bono's voice cracks up a bit, but the band makes up for it. This is one of the nicest bootleg I've seen; it's almost perfect! The concert is very emotional. You definitely feel that playing Sarajevo was very important to the band. Highlights include "Gone", "Sunday Bloody Sunday", "Where The Streets Have No Name", "Miss Sarejevo" and "One". This is the best version of "One" I've ever heard; Edge's guitar is blistering and Bono's speech in the end ("To be united is a great thing, but to respect differences perhaps an even greater thing. So for the city of the future, Sarajevo! City of the Future! Sarajevo! City of the Future!") always gives me goose bumps! Bono's voice breaks after about 6 songs, but it holds up through the show except for "With Or Without You", when he really struggles. The whole band plays incredibly well, and Bono makes up for his lack of voice with emotion and intensity. You really feel for him, because you can tell how frustrating it is for him not to be able to give Sarajevo his best. The crowd helps him out though; singing along with (and for) Bono when he can't throughout the entire show. In fact, determination and the crowd's generosity end up creating an atmosphere probably more intense than it otherwise would have been. This is a beautiful concert and will definitely stand as one of the most memorable in U2's career. This CD has front and back inserts. The liner notes feature a Reuters report of the event, with a brief history on Bono's promise to go perform there and complete '97 PopMart tour dates. The booklets features lots of Pop-era pictures. Clever use of colors and design makes this 16-page booklet well worth looking. Both CD's have cool graphics on them. The packaging is extremely well done, it might as well have been an official release. Considerable time has been spent on layout, graphics, text and photos. It really is beautiful. At Sarajevo, Bono may have lost his voice mid-way through, but U2 have found theirs. Relying on a bedrock of older concert pleasers, The Edge's guitar shines through and Larry Mullen drums even sound heavier. As Bono predicted after the lame start of the PopMart tour, U2 need a warm up period to get their act together and this evening's song selection bears that out. They've strategically placed all their new 'Pop' sounds in-between old songs. Opening the show with a recording of "Pop Muzik" segueing into their live rendition of "Mofo" then hotfooting to the safety of "I Will Follow" gives the new songs a foundation. "Staring At The Sun", the best tune on 'Pop', is played acoustically to emphasize melody and is then followed immediately by an acoustic version of "Sunday Bloody Sunday", with The Edge singing and playing it solo. The crowd enthusiastically joins in. The other high point of is when Bono sings snippets of Talking Heads' "Life During Wartime" (with a terribly relevant lyric "This ain't no party, this ain't no disco, this ain't no foolin' around") inside U2's "Discotheque" makes an immediate connection with the crowd. And when the show slacks with a tediously slow "If You Wear That Velvet Dress" from the new album, U2 know how to salvage proceedings when The Edge's guitar lines lead into "With Or Without You". They also come away from Sarajevo with their rep intact but probably less wealthy than before. U2 spent $1 million to set up their mega show far he Bosnians and charged low ticket prices to attract the 50,000 crowd. Bono has been using U2 concerts as far back as the Macphisto (Zooropa) shows to attack the West for failing to stop the Bosnian war. When he tells the crowd he wrote "Miss Sarajevo" for them, they scream gratefulness. PopMart has been about caricaturing the commercialism that's prevalent in pop by being a megahype itself and finally U2 have managed to stand inside that market and yet to be untainted. At least their rock 'n' roll attitude is intact, if their new music is less exciting. When they close the show with "One". U2 are at their bravest ("Have you come here for forgiveness?... Have you come here to play Jesus?") making clear their uncertainty, but also connecting with their Christian roots. It's a reminder that their music has always stood for something. Whoever chose the title for this bootleg has shown that bootleggers can get straight to the heart of the matter. Throughout their recent shows, U2 have been fighting to stay relevant and DISCONNECT is anything but about their failure to communicate. The way DISCONNECT has been recorded, with the crowd noise always engaging in the mix, makes this a happening event despite Bono's voice breaking at times. Probably the most relevant U2 gig in recent times and the one to get for a taste of PopMart '97. A nice bootleg. | |
