Performance:
So here we are. Where are we, and where are we going? Looks like we're going to Turku, and here we are in Turku, for a U2 show in Turku. Great!!! The show starts with Gloria, pretty much a standard performance. Nothing about it really makes me go wow this is the greatest Gloria ever but it's still good and can't say much to knock it.

Next is one of my favourite U2 songs ever, I Threw A Brick Through A Window from probaby my third-favourite U2 album ever. Nice loose vocals, nearly just 'I'm singing because I'm singing-like' and backing vocals work for me in what's one of my favourite performance. But the falsetto - don't bother, it sounds off-key. The bass of course is prominent here as it is in most early U2 songs (Boy - Rattle And Hum) and already by this song, it sounds like the singer is out of breath. So good.

A Day Without Me follows, and again those loose vocals which I'm starting to like a lot. The drums are pounding and that's what I like - bass and drums together; and the guitar work is not bad for an early show. I've heard better but we'll live. Again like Gloria, standard and nothing outstanding, but does it for me. I love Bono at the end 'listen to us when we play, ok'. That's the spirit!!!

Yay, another Boy song this time 'An Cat Dubh' and would you shut your hole. This is a great performance so be quiet. Really bringing the show up - with the people sounding bored, they gotta go a bit higher and they do. The solo at the end, I don't remember it being that great in these early shows so I'm happy.

What can I say about 'Into The Heart'. It is what it is, and has a nice bass bit at the end. Easy, that's that. Next up is Rejoice and it's another simple performance, made better by the fact the drums are literally just screaming out and that I like. Great guitar, weird vocals, pounding drums and something happening with the bass; this is early U2 and it's sloppy but it's got a real charm.

Alright next we have 'The Electric Co.' with 'The Cry' and it's yet sounding like a straight-up performance, until the guitar kicks in. TEC is all about the guitar and drums and here, I love it - listen to it, it's like it had taken something. And then the yelling vocals - this is The Electric Co, the way I like. It ends far too quickly at five minutes, then we go into yet another brilliant October track called 'I Fall Down'.

It starts out with a speech about heights, blah blah blah and it's why he joined a rock and roll band. Yeah yeah great get on with it. But the performance is worth waiting for. Sloppy, disjointed, messy and anything that makes live rock and roll worth being part of. The piano makes its first appearance here and it has a real charm, a real kick I like.

The first of two 'I Will Follow' performances. Fast and live, this is the way it should sound, and the crowd loves it and I love it. Those drums again, seriously this drummer should be in a rock band. He's got something - who is he? Next we're into 'Twilight' and - never got into the song so I can't say I really like or hate it. Thankfully, it's over before it becomes unwelcome. Next is one of those great mainstays 'Out Of Control'. I like how it sort of segues from 'Twilight' to this. Again a great performance and probably one of the better performances here. Good night 45 minutes in?

Time for a hello and 'A Celebration'. Rarely heard for maybe good reason, it's a good performance of something I can't really do what it asks because I don't like it, but like peace I'll give it a chance - because it's just under three minutes. Can you hear the singer, the singer asks? When he sings? Oh yeah, I'd listen when you play ''11 O'Clock Tick Tock'. Nice and long with an instrumental breakdown just half-way in. Works for me, not too shabby, not too bad, not nearly long enough.

Then it's slowdown time with 'The Ocean'. Who's in the mood for some short ambience, some metallic-like bass line and drums? Not really, but I don't mind the song. A great way to play another repeat afterwards, but not before a fair bit of audience karaoke. 'I Will Follow' makes a second appearance, and this one bether than the last. I like it a lot if only for the reason it sounds so out-of-kilter.

At the last song 'Southern Man' - noted as 'a special song for you'. They learnt a song, fancy that. This band has real potential. I haven't really heard this song before but I like it a lot - it adds a hard rock-style ending to the show, and for what this show was and what it is, it needed it - perfect playing together, and in the end that's what it's all about. And that's it, 16 songs at 70 minutes.

Audience:
They're loud, they're there, they've come to rock and don't get in the way too much.

Sound quality:
Sound isn't bad for a recording from 1982. Sure there's hiss, there's dead air but it sounds live. Some parts sound like they're warbling but not overly bad to the point it sounds horrific.

Overall:
Varies from good to great to not-so-great. But it's U2, they don't play terrible shows and a festival show, especially early days are always good. A good choice of show.

Performance:
Pretty much the band was doing a good show here. Wouldn't say it was their greatest show but there were lots of good performances e.g. Streets (as nearly always), Bad wasn't too bad and was nice to hear Shine Like Stars as well. Also liked the Love Is Blindness rendition here for some reason, probably one of my favourites. The vocals in Love Comes To Town, just amazing - and Larry on Dirty Old Town was randomnly funny, like some guy who's angry at the world just decides to shout.

And hearing an Adam vocal - well, that was unexpected.

I'd liked (not loved) to have been at this show, particularly getting six or seven Achtung openers to start. That's not a sign of having balls but having confidence. I've never been to a U2 show or even any show where they've played more than five songs off a new record, let alone in a row.

Audience:
They were pretty excited during some songs there e.g. When Love Comes To Town (why you'd ruin a good song I have no idea, unless you're THAT girl) and Bullet The Blue Sky, they went off for those. Except when they started (or rather, THAT girl) started the screaming, I got a real headache.

Apart from that, they were in it and generally receptive. THAT girl also messed up what was going to be a good Bad (pun intended), but THAT girl, she needs a lesson in shush.

Sound quality:
Not bad for the age and the source of the recording (audience). Heard better, heard worse - it was listenable unlike some previous shows that we've reviewed before.

Overall:
THAT girl ruined some songs with her damn screaming - people next to her probably went home and dismantled their eardrums for fear of hearing noise ever again. Apart from her, the band gave a good performance, nothing spectacular but worthwhile. Again, not a brilliant show but it was good Sunday afternoon listening.

Performance:
What a brilliant fucking show. Pretty much standard fare from this tour, but this show stands out heads and shoulders above the rest.

Stand By Me kicks off proceedings and the band comes in about half-way through, and this adds great effect to the song. You can just tell when they come in - listen to that Osaka crowd. Intense shit right there. An odd but needed rearrangement of the set list makes this one even better with songs like Pride and New Year's Day front-loaded and songs like Desire right at the bottom - not that Desire is a bad song but it does become a little tiresome. Which of course all the songs bar Love Rescue Me are worth listening to; that song just never got me like it should have.

I kept mentioning about one certain performance and possibly the best of that song ever. It happens to be my favourite Joshua Tree song, One Tree Hill. Perfectly executed in every way! Bono is able to hit the notes like he never could, Adam's bass is phenomenal, Larry's cracking of the drums - BOOM! - and Edge's short yet killer solo makes the show worth getting just for this outstanding performance.

Sadly no Unforgettable Fire but the songs that are in place of it more than make up for it.

Audience:
A great Japanese crowd, getting right into the show. And that's what we want. No real screamers or talkers getting in the way so that scores an extra point.

Sound quality:
When you can pick up every instrument and the intensity of the players, that's when it's good and a testament to how good the recorder was - remember taping equipment wasn't as advanced as it was on the more recent tours or even the 1992 / 1993 tours.

Sometimes the instruments overtook vocals (a perfect example being during BB King's speech) but that happens at a proper show, whether it's U2 or some other great band so I guess what can you expect?

Overall:
The band was on fire here and their equal awesomeness in participation made the show well worth listening to. Epic performances of Gloria, Bad, One Tree Hill and All I Want Is You only increased the enjoyment further. Bono's ranting and raving with that guy was a good laugh.

A note of interest is this show has the first full performance of Slow Dancing, even though a studio release wouldn't happen until 1993.

Props to the chooser of this show. Excellent choice to kick off the BRT!

Performance:
A small gig in Devore, California from May 1983, just before the historic Live At Red Rocks performance, is a 13-song performance which definitely eclipses anything done before it and probably for the next few years after. These early performances are the best of the best for U2, as you get awesome renditions of the early material - raw and ready to go.

Every single song is nailed - except for one snippet: Give Peace A Chance. I'd be asking to Give Chance Some Peace - it's utter tripe. I love the young lady and her utterly brilliant dancing skills during the Let's Twist Again snippet in Two Hearts Beat As One - and not a bad looker, either. A definite highlight (for me, anyway).

You've gotta love the band's enthusiasm in these days. They're all over the stage, going from side to side, and are pretty free to go wherever they like (within possibility), which it hasn't changed so much in recent times, but they just seem less shackled here and more relaxed, less choreographed and staged.

Audience:
Enthusiastic and right into this 'New Wave' band. Great, great participation...

Sound quality:
FOR SOUND: The sound here is excellent (for 1983), but you do hear a lot of clipping, which was to be expected - most of these television broadcasts have the same problems from the early 80s. However, as a pro-shot, it's a soundboard and a good one at that, if not very good.

The instruments are easy enough to pick up (Adam's bass in most songs is perfectly audible and so is Edge's guitar) and so is the audience at the end of each song. Sometimes the vocals get lost in the mix and the backing vocals too, but they're definitely there. No major issues with Larry's drumming, except sometimes it's mixed way too loud and that's where the distortion comes from.


FOR PICTURE: The picture quality for this show is very nice, again more than acceptable for 1983, of course dependent on the video transfer method. You don't see too many artefacts or PQ errors you shouldn't be seeing - whether that's due to the condition of the master tapes or just damn good transfer by a genius, I don't know. Because it's a pro-shot, you get to see all the action - which is important for any kind of live film.

Regarding direction, the whole video is directed beautifully and in the way a concert video should be. The camera keeps on the main subject at the time, moves with brilliant precision and just does what he's meant to do, which is directing the show in such a way that isn't seen anymore, even in U2's recent videos since the Elevation era. I also love the fact that during New Year's Day, the camera gets so close to the piano - which is another credit to the film crew.

Overall:
A great relaxed, fun gig and at times, even better than the Red Rocks release.

Performance:
Starting with The Fourth of July as the introduction (of most shows during the tour), you don't hear too much of the crowd. But when the band come in and 11 O'Clock Tick Tock starts and you hear that unmistakable guitar sound, you definitely hear them - and make their presence known. That energy, the flawless performances, epic versions of some songs really ropes you into this show and keeps it that way for 90 minutes. In fact, I listened to the whole show in one sitting - it is that good.

For several reasons the recording is known as The Unforgettable Night, and without question alluding to that name, living right up and over it. Where else (or when else) can you have the Italians going mad for songs like A Sort of Homecoming, Wire, The Electric Co, Bad, Sunday Bloody Sunday, Seconds, Pride, I Will Follow and of course, ''40''?

You can hear the already-mastered bass lines from Adam, the stunning drum beat in Sunday Bloody Sunday and ''Eddie Van Edge'' solos; and of course, an unforgettable 12-minute Bad with five snippets. Bono also acknowledges the crowd for the difficulties of trying to score tickets for the show and gives them, what I believe, is a true sincere gesture of thanks.

And of course, a few little speeches make the songs all that much more conceptual.

Audience:
The crowd here knocked on U2's door, and U2 gave them a response-and-a-half. Every single song they know the words to - even if English isn't their first language.

Sound quality:
For a recording from 1985, you would expect some problems with the tape transfer or even some sort of digital artifacts. Nothing of the sort here, you have a great audience recording all instruments and vocals coming through from both sides.

Overall:
Brilliant audience, flawless performances, awesome recording, great show...need I say more?


''La prima ma non l'ultimo volta''

Performance:
Going by the current temperature in Washington, Bono's vocals here are stellar, even hitting some of the higher notes for both songs; an unfortunate fact is that some of both Pride and City of Blinding Lights are pre-recorded.

The little parts about the American dream and the American references were great - and to think it was 46 years ago on Tuesday since Dr. King had a dream. What else can you play for a history-making event?

"We fell in love with America and America fell in Love with us".

Audience:
What else can you expect from a 400,000-strong audience ready to make history?

Sound quality:
An excellent broadcast recording with no audible problems whatsoever.

Overall:
Excellent show; nothing more than that.

Performance:
A cold Thursday night, thirteen years to the last show. First, we get told to Wake Up and then we're into City of Blinding Lights in the City of Churches. Bono certainly makes sure everyone knows that they're in South Australia and Adelaide at the end of the song.

Vertigo is just Vertigo with some Irish speaking, but then you get to Elevation. It's such a fun little number here, with the Spinning Around snippet (one of several Kylie Minogue references throughout the show), with Bono trying not to laugh and the crowd having a laugh at it. The countdown from that song starts and then "Aaaahhhhhhh!!!" and being strung out-like-a-gee-tar.

We then get a hit from the Boy album with I Will Follow - love ya as Bono says if you listen carefully, and then introductions to the band in New Year's Day. A fantastic rendition of Beautiful Day follows next with several prominent Adelaide references. Not an overly long "touch me" note - there was another Australian show with a longer note, it may have been a Sydney show or the 19th Melbourne show.

Stuck In A Moment from the previous album is thrown out to the Adelaide 60 000+ strong crowd next, dedicated to the late Michael Hutchence, and the "good-humored" Angel of Harlem with the second Minogue reference of the night is up next, with several clever changes to the lyrics. We get a thanks from Bono to the crowd before Sometimes You Can't Make It On Your Own kicks off (how nice) and says that U2 have learnt something from this certain song, with the "reason I sing" note held tightly; I'd say he's holding that like his memories of his dad when he passed away on the last tour.

As with most shows, next is Love and Peace, followed by Sunday Bloody Sunday dedicated to the victims of the Bali bombings, with a funny moment between the young boy, Emerson, and being called fearless after asking whether he's afraid of Edge, Larry, Bono or Adam. Bullet The Blue Sky is next, followed by Miss Sarajevo, which if you listen to the operatic part, is a stunning note. Hard to believe that kind of note can be held, and at the end of the song asking "is this the time".

Another Pride follows, which holds the tradition of "another Pride", seguing into Streets, which the crowd goes ballistic for. For the first time on this entire tour, you get the feeling that the band actually enjoy playing the song, no matter if it's been on every tour since it was released.

One is next. There were several innaccuracies here; first was that we can "turn Telstra into a Christmas tree". This is AAMI Stadium, not Telstra Dome or Telstra Stadium. And that "it's Christmas". Clearly if Bono had bought a calculator and a calendar to Australia, he would have realised that there was over a month at the time to go. No matter; the performance was pretty slow and sounded like a rehearsal, with the out-of-tune audience singing along.

Time for an encore! Zoo Station rocked the house and so did The Fly, with Bono's old-time snippet of Singin' In The Rain, but it's dragged down again by With or Without You - if it had a Shine Like Stars snippet, it might have been something good, but alas, it was out the back having a smoke, or got lost on the plane. Three songs to end the night; The Saints Are Coming didn't disappoint the crowd. A fun, rockin' electric rendition of Rattle and Hum's Desire is next, with Bono telling the crowd that 30 years ago, U2 played its first gig!

And right on target, we have a fantastic Australian-style version of the epic Kite with Tim Morriaty on didgeridoo; it adds a real element to this song, and hopefully is played in future shows, no matter where. The band did Kite justice after six years.

"Thankyou Adelaide, don't forget about us".

Audience:
Looks like the Adelaideans loved the show. They cheer for the popular songs and even at the ones not so well-known like Miss Sarajevo and The Saints Are Coming, which had only been played a handful of times since November. Plus I even got to hear some conversations.


Sound quality:
The sound is on target for a decent audience recording. All instruments are audible and I didn't notice the fuzzy sound for some reason - I'm sure it's the same source. Anyway, it's a nice recording and you get to hear how big that crowd was. I think it was one of the biggest crowds in Adelaide for a long time.

Overall:
A nice show if you're looking for a more laid-back 2006 Vertigo show.

Performance:
As usual in the Elevation Tour, a fine performance and of course, they're on fire. However, unusually the show was started out with Until The End of the World, which might have been just a few shows of that beginning.

Also unusually is a promo show with a full setlist, excluding Streets. I'm sure there's more than enough bootlegs around with that song, so no great loss. They're at their best with songs like Bad, All I Want Is You, Desire and Discotheque. And of course, some awesome snippets like Sympathy For The Devil and Ruby Tuesday, plus a great ending to the show with ''40''.

Audience:
They're certainly audible, but the girl screams became annoying very quickly. But they're singing along to all the songs too. Hear the individual at the beginning of Staring At The Sun - X-Factor material, I say.

Sound quality:
It's audible, yes, but distant. The drums are very clear and loud.

Overall:
A nice promo show with a full setlist and well worth a listen. No lowlights or highlights, it's just a nice show - like the rest of the following tour.

4 / 5 rating for being a good show, but a itsy-bitsy point taken off for the audience.

Performance:
he third-leg of the Vertigo Tour seemed to be an experimental leg, with songs that hadn't been played for a good while recieving a dust-off and replay. A typical third-leg set with the highlights being Miss Sarajevo, Fast Cars, The Electric Co, The Fly, Discotheque and Miracle Drug.

Bono telling jokes when Edge had problems with his equipment was a bit of a laugh at the beginning of Yahweh, and the 'Edge From The Future' speech is always a cool little addition. Hearing Discotheque from the band that seems to have officially disowned Pop was interesting, and nice to see they gave it a good run.

Audience:
You don't hear them too much through an IEM recording, but they are audible at the end of some songs, and from that, are right into it. It makes you wonder what their reaction was when they heard Pop Muzik starting up.

Sound quality:
As aussiemofo has pointed out in his very detailed review, there seemed to be a lot of noise and static as well as some dead air. Either the sound recording equipment was utterly crap or bought from Wal-Mart. Not a good recording at all.

It's also an unfortunate fact that some songs were cut. Also, the vocals are way too prominent and sounds flat. If you truly want this show, the lossless is your best bet. The MP3 version is way too poor-sounding, and you will notice the difference.

Overall:
While no means the best or one of the best late 2005 shows, it's a good listen (neither brilliant nor poor) and a keeper if you like IEM recordings. 3.5 stars.

Performance:
Back to Las Vegas, four years later after the 1997 screw-up (one of the best U2 screw-ups, mind you). Like aussie has already pointed out, Bono's voice was not too great towards the end of the tour, but it was decent enough, and he seemed tired. I find Please to be a great song, but an acoustic version just does not do it justice. I won't even bother with tracks 1-11, I can't be stuffed writing about them.

Larry, Edge and Adam, however, are on fire in Las Vegas and it only got better for them towards the end of the tour. Maybe they were looking forward to a holiday!

Why they bothered with Gwen Stefani is beyond me - she might be a special guest, but Bruce would have been better on I Still Haven't Found. Probably starting from Bad through to Walk On, the show picked up a bit of pace with some real good tunes - New York is one of my favourite songs from the whole album and they were on this one real well. Kite was truly painful and not in a good way. I Will Follow is always a great track to stick in anywhere, and this was one of the only good performances at this show. Even Walk On, which live sounds like the 7EP mix, was a bit lacklustre.

Sadly, you get a standard set-list here, which is a bit of a disappointment.

Audience:
It's Las Vegas, the most energetic crowds in the whole US of A - and nothing can be too strange there. They're loud enough to give U2 a real applause after almost every show, but not so loud to ruin the recording, which is always a good thing.

Sound quality:
As I've pointed out numerous times, a recording obviously cannot capture the true sound of a show, but it was a decent recording. No audible clicks, pops, stutters or anything else await you - but it was only a small venue, so the recording should have been more than decent, which it was.

Overall:
Overall, I'd have to give it a combined rating of three stars. Not too low, not too high but about right on average. No U2 show is absolute crap, but they can be lacklustre, and this is one of the perfect examples of being lacklustre and unexciting. But then, the supporting album is not exactly the most exciting thing to hit me in the last few years.

Performance:
Always putting on a ripper of a show in East Rutherford.

In the early part of the Vertigo '05 tour, U2 were at the top of their game (well, as much as they can be). All the songs were played really well - Bad is always a surprise in any recent show, as is a snippet of Please. But seven songs from one album and none from others is kind of a let down; but you gotta flog your wares somehow. ; )

An excellent performance of Gloria is featured here and the little Zoo segment is always a nice surprise - Zoo Station, The Fly, Mysterious Ways...about Gloria, it's kinda funny how Bono says it's from the Boy album, then quickly corrects himself that it's from the second album (October), not played for around 15 years or so, and The Ocean to compliment that, another track not played for many years, possibly since the Boy Tour.

It just goes to show elaborate stage setups can't distract from well-performed songs. They certainly rocked the house.

Audience:
An unusually quiet audience, even for somewhere like East Rutherford. Maybe it's where the taper was situated, but apart from that, you don't have any annoying whistlers or very personal conversations like about hot dogs - there's more than enough of those on other recordings.

The quiet audience factor is great, because you get a better recording. Naturally, you can't capture a reaction of the audience through a taping, but what's here is excellent. If they'd done what they did the previous night at the end of the show, the reaction would have blown the floor apart (Larry drumming from ''40'' seguing into Vertigo, gradually getting faster).

Sound quality:
For an audience recording, it's excellent. No skips, jumps or stutters in the recording at all, and all instruments, lead and backing vocals and whatever else is prominent enough on the MP3 recording.

Apart from maybe seven or eight other audience recordings from this particular leg of the tour, this is one of the best (two are from Chicago).

Overall:
Worth a download and a decent listen. This show and the Glendale (April 15) show were my first two Vertigo shows, and even over two-and-a-half years later, I remain impressed by the enthusiasm U2 shows to impressing an audience.

A job well done.

Performance:
A good performance here. Not great, but good; and some nice touches along the way with songs like Discotheque, I Will Follow, Bad, Gone, In A Little While etc - the usual suspects as well - funnily enough, I didn't find the band to be "on fire" as they are in every single one of my other reviews.

For two songs being played for the last time on this particular tour (In A Little While, The Fly) and the last-ever performance of Gone, they just didn't seem to get off the ground as well as they were probably hoping - and the audience were hoping. I also enjoyed the speech about the Drop The Debt Campaign and the G8.

Quote:

"I just buried my old man and it's a great time for the family. My old man's got a new body now because his old one was hell."

Audience:
Screaming at the top of their lungs, singing along and having a ball...like only the Scottish can. A great audience.

Sound quality:
Not a bad little recording at all, and it certainly deserves a bit more credit than 3 stars - give it 3.5, I say. A decent recording again, and with the usual audience issues, like small distortion, reverb and warbling. It's a fact of bootlegs, however, and doesn't ruin your appreciation of a nice intimate show like this.

Overall:
A nice little gig, relaxed and a good two or so hours of enjoyment

Performance:
Nick chose a great show here, and this happens to be in the top five Popmart performances over the two years of the entire tour - including Edmonton, Miami, Santiago and Johannesburg. I absolutely loved Mofo here. It's always a great performance but here the entire band gave it their all - the opening after the ending of Pop Muzik was particuarly awesome with Bono's chanting style. Was he saying Foxboro or something?

Like Zooropa, seven (yep, seven!) songs from Pop are played here. Confident? Nope, just fucking brilliant, in no less than two words.

I don't think there were any particularly bad performances, because by this time they'd fixed a lot of the songs up and rehearsed them properly. I always liked the Discotheque > If You Wear transition. Like Aussie, I found it better than a lot of previous and future shows. And MLK and Rain at the end of the show - hell yeah.

Stand By Me happens just happens to be a great song for U2 to play, All I Want Is You seriously needs a revisit because it is one of their very best songs live, and Miami - almost as good as the studio version. I could have cared less for karaoke and even Edge doesn't do it any good (and has officially ruined Suspicious Minds). The Fun Loving Dicks made the karaoke bearable - I actually found the whole thing quite funny.

The old classics (New Year's Day, With or Without You, Mysterious Ways, MLK...) for some reason sounded stale on other shows, but for some reason, tonight they gave it their all. The latter song is of particular note and haunting.

It's a real pity that The Playboy Mansion was never played as a full song.

Audience:
The Foxboro locals gave it their all, and stayed on fire for the whole of this show. Of particular highlights is upon hearing the beginning chords of One and the falsetto on Please - they loved it. A lot of the songs they are singing along, in time to. That's indication of a great band and an even greater show.

Sound quality:
The sound is a definite four stars (and even 4.5 if it came from a lossless source). The bass and instruments are all clear and very audible. An impressive recording, even if we don't know about who it was - the metadata gives nothing away. It sounds like a DAT tape, and a great recording - a lot of those sound too open-spaced and wobbly, but this was balanced perfectly on both sides.

Overall:
The whole show is a definite contender for Top Five Popmart. Easily five stars, great choice Nick.

Performance:
Starting from late 2005 onwards, this show from Chicago, or as Bono put it earlier in the year "This is the Vertigo Tour, forever", the performances in North America through to South America, Australia / New Zealand and Tokyo were nothing short of fantastic. If this show was filmed, I'd claim Hamish Hamilton as a legend.

This particular show, for some unknown reason, really sticks out in my mind and one of the many reasons I've kept it. Songs like "The Ocean", "Elevation", "Beautiful Day", "Yahweh", "One"...which I could have cared less for, really were truly amazing here. The band was on fire in the Centre and really showed that when four brilliant musicians come together, you can make something work.

You get some great U2 tunes here such as The Electric Co (no Cry snippet?), Miss Sarajevo, Who's Gonna Ride Your Wild Horses, Bad, The First Time, Fast Cars, All Because of You...what more could you want besides Acrobat and more Pop.

I must point out two key tunes...Electric Co. and Bad. Electric Co. here was the best performance of it since the last Joshua Tree gig (almost 20 years before) and Bad was the best Vertigo version, bar none.

Audience:
The audience were loving this from the "Wake Up" to the last beat from Larry's drums on "40". Of extra note was Bono introducing "a song, we haven't played for a while, and I don't know why"...and the crowd goes off when they hear "Dangerous..." - from Wild Horses. I don't think I heard that reaction since they played One Tree Hill to Tokyo on the last shows, and Pavarotti's vocals from Miss Sarajevo.

They go nuts to hear the guitar on One and generally made this show a real pleasure. Even when the opening notes by Adam start up for City of Blinding Lights, they go off yet again. You'd love to take this crowd out for dinner - imagine when they see the schnitzel.

Sound quality:
For an audience recording, it's bloody brilliant. No skips, no stutters and the taper is in a great position because you hear the bass clearly, the guitar like it was meant to be and the drums are all there.

Overall:
The highlight is the best version of Vertigo - any show - to date, beating the socks off any other American, Pacific or European shows.

I'd say the lowlights (and not just for this show, but all of the two years in Vertigo) is the lack of Pop and terrible attitude towards playing more Zooropa songs. Sure, we get a Please snippet here, two performances of Discotheque and If You Wear That Velvet Dress back in Europe, but bring it out and show us what you can do.

Other than that, download and enjoy. I did.

Performance:
All the good songs are played here, so nothing really poor as far as I'm concerned. All the songs are played to their ultimate potential - and this boot I think is a serious contender for the best version of TUF. Apart from that, as others above me have said, it has to be the best Bad next to the R&H from the 80s.

MLK is so haunting here, I got shivers up my back. Songs like Electric Co, Gloria, Bad, ''40'', Sunday Bloody Sunday, I Will Follow....might be played on more recent tours, but they could never match up to what you're in for here. The band have as much energy as Mick Jagger, but they carried this show off in such a way, you want to listen over and over (again they were only 20-something years old). No wonder this band are still the biggest in the world.

Some other highlights was Bono yelling at someone to stay out at the beginning of Wire or MLK - it was one of them, the killer scream during TUF, the almost opera-like part during Electric Co, the racing guitar riffs in Pride, Gloria and New Year's Day, and the almost nine-minute Bad. And ''40'' should always be the way to end a U2 show. Too, too many highlights to name, but that's just a few.

Audience:
This part is only rated, not commented on.

Sound quality:
First up, the sound is immensely better than the Adelaide show I recently picked with no serious sound defects, sound drops or problems, but it sounds like a mono recording - but that loses none of the sheer brilliance here. If a lossless one day comes up, I'll be more than happy to take it.

Overall:
I'm gonna say exactly what I thought: FUCKING AWESOME

Performance:
One of the four Point Depot 1989 shows, the 27th excels in every way possible. The band are on fire, blowing the roof off the Point Depot, all vocals and instrumentals are perfect and every song has possibly the very best that U2 have ever performed them. It's great fun to experience this show and even better than the other shows hundreds of times over.

BB King is very welcome here for When Love Comes To Town and the big man with the big voice makes it extra special. "You've gotta help somebody!", he yells and the audience go right off. Pride also has a great moment: "Sing this for...sing this for yourselves!" - get a crack of that.

Edge's guitar rings right through the Point, Larry's drumming is at its peak and Adam's bass during songs such as Two Hearts Beat As One is something to behold (and witness), if you've ever seen U2 on tour.

Unusually, Love Rescue Me was actually the best version of the song ever performed, even though in all dead honesty I cannot stand it. Two Hearts Beat As One gets a special mention for having the most mentions by Bono of "shit" and the killer Billie Jean snippet at the end.

This show would have to be my favourite one of all time (not from Lovetown but from every other tour), and it's hard to find any others that top this - it's a good reason why I've kept it for all this time.

Audience:
The Dublin audience are on fire like the band. They rip right into every single song, singing along with all the songs, giving U2 and you a great night, and make the show a great listen.

Sound quality:
The sound for 20-year-old tapes is amazing, even by today's standards. Sure, you get a little bit of tape dropout at the beginning of some songs, but that's to be expected and doesn't lift even half a star off my rating. The bass could be stronger but what can you do.

As mentioned, an awesome upgrade of this was recently added and tops the quality yet again - it is coming from a soundboard, so it should have excellent quality which it does. Which also reminds me, could Remy add a six-star rating?

Overall:
Standouts here include all the songs including All Along The Watchtower, Love Rescue Me, beautiful renditions of ''40'', The Unforgettable Fire, Bad / All I Want Is You and a haunting version, not heard since the 2002 Superbowl, of MLK which literally sent shivers up my spine.

No low-lights here at all. If this was U2's last ever performance, it is a mind-blowing and beautiful show. Six stars, without a second thought. I love it.

Performance:
U2 kicked off their six-show Australian tour for 2006 firstly in Brisbane, Queensland, rescheduled from March 2006 as we know - the first U2 performance since February 1998 on POPmart - as we missed out on Elevation. I still can't believe that the greatest band in the world was here almost two years ago, yet it feels like yesterday - I can still remember listening to the very first rehearsals that I was sent a day after they took place, and seeing all the photos.

I don't think any of the songs here were really performed badly (unlike the late 2005 stuff in North America), but have a go of the vocals during Beautiful Day. Bono held his notes beautifully here, and for the first show of the last leg, Miss Sarajevo was performed greatly. So the Australian performances got what they missed all those years ago with plenty of ATYCLB - Beautiful Day, Walk On and Kite were just great.

I've said that I'm not a huge fan of One and never have been (it's just missing something) but for some reason on all of the final 2006 shows, I found it to be a real beautiful song and I actually enjoyed it. I don't know why. As aussiemofo has said, there were some brilliant Australian moments (Streets of Your Town, Young Americans (changed to Young Australians) and Bono's plea for David Hicks to face a fair trial). I'm sure many people would know his treatment was a sick joke.

And that performance of Kite was something to behold. Throughout the entire Australian set, every night this got the justice it deserved back on the Elevation Tour, because it is a beautiful song, and the crowd getting into The Saints Are Coming was nothing short of brilliant. This is gonna take off on the next tour, if it is indeed played ever again.

Audience:
This part is only rated, not commented on.

Sound quality:
Certainly not the best Australian Vertigo show I've heard related to sound - I'd say some of the Sydney shows (and even the Melbourne ones) sounded way better. It seemed like the taper was just too far away from the speaker stacks, and probably more towards the back - I've heard better, but it was there.

The good thing was that I could pick up Larry's drumming, Adam's bass and Edge's guitar, particularly during the first hour. For a recording supposedly not one of the best Australian ones going around, I could certainly pick them up. Did anyone else think the recording made the show sound like the audience was hardly there?

Overall:
All in all, a wonderful show and I would have loved to have been there.

Performance:
Memorial Stadium is a great place for a concert (the Rolling Stones obviously thought so too) as opposed to Apollo Stadium (now demolished and just a block of houses), Football Park and AAMI Stadium which U2 played when they arrived in the City of Churches for previous tours.

Unfortunately I didn't get to go to this one so it's a great souvenir. I thought during Streets was good: "I can sing!", as due to Bono's voice problems which seem to be a bit better but not brilliant. I should point out if it wasn't already known, that three Sydney shows were pushed over to November 1989 after New Zealand, due to those vocal problems. Also of interest is that songs from Rattle and Hum, The Unforgettable Fire, The Joshua Tree, War and Boy were all played...however nothing from October makes an appearance, much like Vertigo and Pop.

As aussiemofo says, Bad is cut, sadly, and if I remember on another show we reviewed from Lovetown, I said Love Rescue Me was pretty crap - and I'll say the same for this show. It probably killed BB King to only be doing maybe two or three shows a week as opposed to his five or six per week but he did a pretty sturdy job and deserves a round of applause for his awesome efforts right across this whole tour along with the BB King Orchestra.

Audience:
This part is only rated, not commented on.

Sound quality:
I'm not sure whether it's the way it's been encoded, but the sound here is terrible. It's not so bad you can't listen but it hisses heavily and muffles at any given time and sounds like it was recorded through a wall. The great thing is that unlike the next Adelaide tour bootleg (which was Zooropa), there is an actual audience that you can hear. Just for a soundboard it's not that great. Ah well.

I could hear the drums, guitar and bass really well but then I could hear the heavy winds too.

Overall:
Give it an 8.5 for performance. Sound, on the other hand....

Performance:
Excellent performance -
Particularly during Love Is Blindness and Ultra Violet, and Dancing Queen is absolutely excellent with the legends that are Bjorn and Benny from ABBA. I think it was eight songs played here straight off the bat from Achtung Baby - that is an achievement, and proof you must be confident, it must have been Acrobat the only one missing

Audience:
Have a go of that audience when the TV channels are changed just before Even Better Than The Real Thing! One other thing: they happen to know all the songs and can sing along. And not just to One either

Sound quality:
Apparently it was broadcast to some MTV competition winner. And it certainly deserved to be too. So you won't go wrong with the sound being a broadcast

Overall:
This part is only rated, not commented on.

Performance:
Stand out moments...

- Beautiful Day - what an opening! Almost like the Vertigo / Everyone opening but better!
- The 'One' speech about generic AIDS drugs and hard stance of the pharmaceutical companies.
- The NYFD and NYPD onstage during Walk On - a beautiful salute to these tireless legends.
- New York had changed lyrics, which I thought was pretty cool and Shine Like Stars appears.

Audience:
This part is only rated, not commented on.

Sound quality:
4.5 Stars maximum make it an excellent recording. No more needs to be said.

Overall:
This is church! You'd want to go here every Sunday.

Performance:
First Spanish show ever, and first performance of Spanish Eyes (fittingly). As always, Shine Like Stars appeared - always nice to hear.

Audience:
This part is only rated, not commented on.

Sound quality:
Decent sound. About as good as some of the other European JT shows. Not too bad.

Overall:
Este es un lugar muy grande, pero U2 y vosotros somos mucho mas grandes! (something like "This is a large place but U2 and you are bigger!")... 115 000 people here so a pretty big crowd (compared to 60 000 - 80 000 in recent times).

Always a great show where U2 and Spain are concerned. Excellent job to whoever chose it.

Performance:
I noticed some great songs were played here like ASoH, Pride and 40. 11'O Clock isn't the best way to open a show but then it's not high on my favorites list. The earlier shows are probably better because of New Year's Day how it's got the fast opening riff. And Do They Know It's Christmas was a nice little snippet to add as was Sympathy for The Devil during Bad. I really liked Bad here, certainly apart from the Joshua Tree / Lovetown versions it was like that, and Bono had a deep voice to pull it off.

Audience:
This part is only rated, not commented on.

Sound quality:
The sound amazed me even if it was still 128Kbps (on Megaupload's version anyway). Still sounded pretty good even 20 years later (the magic of digital media).

Overall:
Way more emotion put into the performances than what was shown during Vertigo (both in North America, Europe, South America and Australia)

Performance:
Almost north of brilliant. What can you say about a band that decides to open their show with six songs from one album? You can just sit back, listen in awe and say to yourself; "Well, they're certainly a bunch of confident guys, aren't they". And they are.

You get a brilliant Shine Like Stars snippet and an awesome guitar solo by Edge for Love Is Blindness. But the performance did have a downside (as 99.91% of them do), and I feel the same way as Jeremy - the acoustic set of Angel of Harlem and I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For. What a piss-weak effort. Hopefully it's never played like that again. Ever. And because I didn't like it, I'm gonna take one-and-a-half points from my total rating. But Bad and Sunday Bloody Sunday. One word...wow. Not since the Joshua Tree Tour (and even Lovetown) had I heard anything from U2 so very amazing and inspiring from the opening riff to the last drumbeat.

The mistakes on New Year's Day, Bad, Pride and Desire I actually thought brought a new kind of element, just like The Fly in U2:3D; to those songs. A shot in the arm to give them life, because you can't be 100% perfect all the time - even one of the best guitarists in the world can't be perfect.

Audience:
But no audience left me wondering whether they enjoyed it or not. Going by how good the Zooropa Tour was, I'd say more did than not....

Sound quality:
The original source of which I had (I may have ripped it from a DVD) had lots of distortion and hissing, even when filtered with some audio editing software. To be fair, I compared both that and this new upgrade and I will say the upgrade sounded more refined to my hearing.

From Where The Streets Have No Name to Love Is Blindness, it still had hissing and distortion, but not as audible. Maybe the soundboard couldn't handle it properly, maybe the original lossless encode was poor to begin with and was never filtered and EQed as it should have been.

Luckily, the performances were top notch in that section, so it didn't stop me from listening. The bass, guitar, drums and vocals here are more than audible at all times with no stretched tape effects, and I doubt you'll find a better soundboard from the Zooropa Tour in 1992 sans crowd. Again as I said in a previous review, I'm amazed how these tapes continue to circulate in such high-quality, because surely they'd be worn out by now.

Overall:
This part is only rated, not commented on.