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U2 Storms Las Vegas
The elaborate two-hour show--billed as "PopMart"--was a rock extravaganza of the highest order. The Dublin quartet performed under a massive yellow (not golden, the band is quick to add) arch, with a 40-foot lemon and over 100-foot swizzle stick (complete with giant cocktail olive) on the side. Behind them an IMAX sized screen that, as you enter, reads PopMart, but during the show explodes into a riot of images both familiar and obscure (paintings, icons, logos, etc.--but as opposed to their ZooTV tour, almost no text), as well as a video screen for the band's performance.
When the images and music worked together, as in the animated pop art dogfight between Roy Lichtenstein's "I've Been Hit!" and James Rosenquist's F-16 during "Bullet the Blue Sky," or the witty series of drawings showing man evolving from apes into a consumer, complete with shopping cart, the effect was breathtaking. But more often the images had little or nothing to do with the music, or even took away some of it's power--for instance, the melting Warholian Marilyn's accompanying "With or Without You."
The show had it's glitches and some of the stagecraft seemed creaky-when the band played their new single "Staring at the Sun" from a satellite stage at the end of a 100-foot catwalk, not only did they look small in comparison to the rest of the show, but the transitions to and from the main stage were less than smooth. At this juncture, PopMart has to be considered a work in progress; it's probably a good bet that the show will evolve as the tour moves along to 40 cities across North America before heading overseas.
The band leaned heavily on their more earnest material, such as "I Will Follow," "I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For," "One" and "Pride (In the Name of Love)" although the newer songs from Pop sounded much better, especially "Miami" and a stripped down "Discotheque."
The always rowdy Rage Against the Machine got the festivities rolling with a blistering set. Rage is splitting opening duties with Fun Lovin' Criminals and, believe it or not, Oasis in their first performance stateside since their ill-fated tour last summer.
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