PopMart Tour Rehearsals
Sam Boyd Silver Bowl
Las Vegas (Nevada), USA.
24 - April - 1997.
Rehearsal
Disc 1 (78:28)
01. Discothèque (warm up)
02. Discothèque
03. If You Wear That Velvet Dress
04. With or Without You (different lyrics and much slower tempo)
05. Staring at the Sun (false start)
06. Staring at the Sun (partial - fade out)
07. Do You Feel Loved (fade in)
08. Pride (In the Name of Love)
09. I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For
10. Sound tests
11. Last Night On Earth
12. Gone (partial - fade out)
13. Until the End of the World
14. If God Will Send His Angels (attempt aborted)
15. If God Will Send His Angels (retry)
16. Staring at the Sun
17. Daydream Believer -karaoke-
18. Miami
19. Bullet the Blue Sky
20. Intermission
21. Please (with Sunday Bloody Sunday drums and guitar at the end)
Disc 2 (79:04)
01. Where the Streets Have No Name (fade out)
02. Mofo (fade in)
03. I Will Follow (improvised lyrics by Bono)
04. Even Better than the Real Thing
05. Do You Feel Loved
06. PopMart sounds
07. Last Night On Earth
08. Gone (with alternate lyrics)
09. Until the End of the World
10. If God Will Send His Angels
11. Staring at the Sun (false start)
12. Staring at the Sun
13. Miami
14. Bullet the Blue Sky (fade out)
15. Please
16. Discothèque
17. Discothèque
18. If You Wear That Velvet Dress
19. If You Wear That Velvet Dress
20. Discothèque (warm up)
21. Discothèque
22. If You Wear That Velvet Dress (false start)
23. If You Wear That Velvet Dress
24. With or Without You (much slower tempo - fade out)
Recording Equipment - History
First Generation Cassette > Line-In Tape to Wav Conversion with Sound Forge 5.0 > mkwACT > SHN > CDR
Conversion by: Mofo23 - Notes/Comments by Mofo23:
about
editing: I used Cool Edit Pro to reduce tape hiss and manually track split from cassette wav copy. The fades as noted in the track listing were not on the original cassette, they were abrupt starts and stops with the recorder. I also removed some portions of silence (or background noise without performance), as well as a take of If You Wear That Velvet Dress that was so drowned out through most of the performance by wind, that it wasn't worth keeping. This worked out in the end however, as the two CDs clock in at just under 160 mins (CD 1 is 79:13 and CD 2 is 79:23).
about performance: Some of these tracks are really great versions, especially Discotheque and With or Without You. It's interesting to hear some of the ideas that U2 were thinking about while rehearsing. Some really good stuff, well worth the listen.
about sound quality: For being outside the stadium with all the wind and all the cars and all the people, this tape came out exceptionally well. There are times when the wind partially overtakes the music, but it's only occasionally, and doesn't significantly detract from an enjoyable listen. The background noise from people talking and cars going by can only really be heard during lulls in the rehearsals. I would say it's comparable to the Hersey Tapes in terms of sound quality.
Comments
As Mofo23 said, recording is done outside the stadium. Cars and people can be heard often. Wind also can be heard, sometimes laying over the music. Considering all that, recording is quite good. Some hiss / background noise still remains in the background. All in all, very interesting stuff, with a decent quality.