Performance:
top notch! about as good as it gets

Audience:
very enthusiastic and probably at the perfect level so as to add to the show without spoiling the sound

Sound quality:
for the most part probably one of the best audience recordings i've ever heard but for some reason the quality of the fly, EBBTTRT & MW are not as good as the rest so can't give it a full 4 stars

Overall:
i think this bootleg has been largely overlooked to an extent. an amazing show that as a boot sounds great, the band are on fire and most importantly, for me it contains my favourite encore of probably any U2 concert featuring my second favourite performance of ultraviolet and my favourite ever performances of WOWY and love is blindness. i have listened to this show a lot but i have listened to the encore THOUSANDS of times! i honestly do not think you ever will hear a better version of love is blindness than the one performed at this show. very very dark

so apart from the 3 tracks mentioned earlier where the sound is not up to the standard of the rest of the show i can't say a bad thing about this boot!

get it!

Performance:
to put it nicely - deeply flawed performance by the band here... the show actually starts quite well up until do you feel loved? and then it's pretty much downhill from there... not only are the band on terrible form but songs like mofo and gone still need time to develop into the monsters they became later on the tour and so feel quite unsatisfying to listen to in their underdeveloped form here. probably the only two songs that stand out for me are please with its drum sample ending and velvet dress which is performed pretty much as the album version.

Audience:
the audience (unlike the band) are pretty much on top form here

Sound quality:
very good sound - perfect for hearing all the cringeworthy mistakes !

Overall:
the now legendary (among U2 fans) first night of the popmart tour makes for a very uncomfortable listening experience...! if you put yourself in the position of the band its hard to imagine how awful they must have felt on this night.
a few mistakes are to be expected and totally acceptable on the first night of a tour but this is something else... NOTHING seems to go right for them at this concert and then when you consider the fact that they are performing in front of the world's press, trying to sell their new tour to the world, it's quite embarassing to hear them sound like they simply don't know how, or have forgotten how to play their songs!
most people consider staring at the sun to be the lowest point of this gig but for me its discotheque... even when they get the chance to leave the stage after streets and regroup and most likely have a crisis talk. they have been given a chance to redeem themselves after the pretty awful main set with a killer encore, they come out of their lemon to play discotheque and edges guitar completely breaks down... they must have to literally wanted to be anywhere else on earth but in that stadium at that point...
it's easy to look back, knowing what we know now about how the tour was booked before the album was completed and they had no time to get up to an acceptable standard but i still find this show very uncomfortable to listen to and my heart goes out to the band here.

after listening to this you will need a heavy dose of popmart leeds to cheer you up and remind you just HOW amazing this tour became once they got their heads around how it all worked...!

Performance:
pretty much faultless. er... if i HAD to pick some faults... - edge's guitar briefly goes slightly out of tune (i think?) near the end of One and bono's voice goes slightly out on the last line of Please...?

honestly cannot think of any other faults with this performance!

the band are on ABSOLUTE top form and that is all i can say....

for a popmart show bono's voice was absolutely as good as it ever got - just listen to new years day - it's almost like the 80's again!

Audience:
on the FM radio broadcast 5 stars - on the audience recording 3 stars (maybe the taper was standing somewhere strange?)

Sound quality:
download the FM radio broadcast - although the audience version is as good as an audience recording could get, the broadcast version just has such a massive, full sound to it. this is the best sounding popmart show i have ever heard.
the ONLY bad point to the radio broadcast is where the french voiceover has been edited out. in most places it isn't a problem and has been expertly edited but in songs like gone, pride and streets where the frenchies decided for some reason to speak just as the song kicks in, it is a bit irritating - but whoever edited it has done the best job anyone could possibly do under the circumstances.

Overall:
absolutely the best popmart gig in my opinion - there are a couple of other shows that might be considered equally as good but we've all seen/heard mexico 1000's of times and the other well known highlights from the final shows of the tour and of course sarajevo which were all great but this gig just has something else about it for me. the band seems to be relaxed but at the same time on TOP form, and refreshingly there are no serious moments, not even from bono who just seems to be having a great time.

every song is awesome but the (many) highlights are"

mofo-i will follow are the best you will ever hear them bar none, new years day is as good as it ever got in 97, miami-bullet will blow your face off (i have never heard a more brutal sounding first few bars of bullet). please is intense, discotheque with its whole lotta' love outro is my favourite version of this song ever, velvet dress has the extra verse, HMTMKMKM is perfect, mysterious ways is also my favourite version ever - the george harrison outro just works SO well!! and the the closing cover of rain is the icing on the cake.

if you're a fan of the popmart era this has to be in your top 3 MUST HAVE shows! you will listen to it over and over again