a.k.a. "Calling The White House"

1. Zoo Station
   
2. The Fly
   
3. Even Better Than The Real Thing
   
4. Mysterious Ways / Love To Love You Baby (snippet)
   
5. One / Unchained Melody (snippet)
   
6. Until The End Of The World
   
7. New Year's Day
   
8. Tryin' To Throw Your Arms Around The World
   
9. Angel Of Harlem
   
10. I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For
    
11. Satellite Of Love
    
12. Bad / Candle In The Wind (snippet) / Walk On The Wild Side (snippet)
    
13. Sunday Bloody Sunday
    
14. Bullet The Blue Sky / The Battle Hymn Of The Republic (snippet)
    
15. Running To Stand Still
    
16. Where The Streets Have No Name
    
17. Pride (In The Name Of Love)
    
    encore(s):
    
18. Desire
    
19. Ultra Violet (Light My Way) / My Way (snippet)
    
20. With Or Without You / Shine Like Stars (snippet)
    
21. Love Is Blindness
    
22. Can't Help Falling In Love

bootleg reviews

We found 12 reviews for this bootleg, you can read reviews by clicking on the arrow next to a shown review. You can click here to write your own review, if you already wrote a review you can also click here to modify it.

author performance audience sound overall

germcevoy

This review is written by germcevoy and written on 2008-07-19 12:32 pm. Performance: Relaxed performance and it does show at times but this show does not deserve the criticism that i've heard raining down on it in the past. The band were still at the early stage of the new mammoth setup and introducing a few older tracks to the set and obviously it was always gonna show. I enjoyed the performance. I like to hear the band nursing a few nerves and teething problems and they dealt with it pretty well. Good solid performance, it won't rock tyour socks off but you're gonna download it anyway because it's a soundboard aren't you?? WOWY is a stunner, ISHFWILF would have been ewquisite had the crows ambience been present. Audience: Default rating as this is a soundboard recording so therefore cannot be heard so i'll leave this as 2.5. Can't praise or fault them if we can't hear em can we? Sound: It's an excellent soundboard. The drums and bass pack so much power and Bono and Edge are not lacking either. This is a proper soundboard taken fro a pro-shot VHS so therefore hardly any crowd noise present but this only lets us hear the band more. Powerful, punchy recording. Sounds a little icy at times but this all comes with the soundboard genre of recordings. Get it. And if you can get in lossless then please to. It is stunning in lossless. Overall: Ity's a soundboard so it's automatically popular. Don't believe the bad press you may have heard before about New Year's Day etc, download the gig and give it a listen. A welcome addition to anyones collection. WOWY is the standout, but Ultraviolet is hardly lacking and Larry's drumming on the Fly will blow your head off.

MWSAH

This review is written by MWSAH and written on 2008-07-19 12:36 pm. Performance: Quite good, not the best Zoo TV show but I love these 92-shows. I just love the setlist more. Highlights for me were Trying To Throw Your Arms Around The World, Until The End Of The World (Not that special, but it just a complete and strong performance), With or Without You (It's not the best and that solo was used at almost all of the 92-shows, but this one has a certain feeling, a certain sense...it's great), Ultraviolet (very good) and Love is Blindness with a powerfull Edge solo at the end. The acoustic set isn't that bad. I love it, but I do prefer a normal ISHFWILF instead of this acoustic one. Angel of Harlem is nice as always. I prefer the powerful Elevation ones, but this is quite good too. Something different. The mess-ups aren't bad either..it let's us see that U2 is human too. Audience: Default mark as the crowd is not heard because of the soundboard nature of the recording. Sound: Brilliant. The first one was already quite good but with this upgrade, the sound is phenomenal. The bass is perfect, Larry's drums are great, Bono's voice topnotch and Edge is prominent too. All four in perfect harmony to each other. It is a soundboard so there's hardly any audience. I don't care. I love audience recordings, I even prefer them, but soundboards like this are top-drawers too. The show sometimes can sound a bit distorted, but this is a taping problem I think. Overall: A good setlist, a good performance...it's a special one, for me in the same list as Sydney, Dublin, Milan..although it can't match the latter for performance quality.

easports43

This review is written by easports43 and written on 2008-07-19 12:38 pm. Performance: Top notch performance. Zoo Station and The Fly were almost flawless. You have to love Bono at the start of Real Thing: "Will you catch me this time if I fall? If I fall, if I fall?" this is obviously a reference to when he broke his arm in DC during the Joshua Tree Tour. Middle section was great, with the exception of New Year's Day, although, as Gerard said, it was bound to be shaky. Still love it though, as it was quite raw, and I love U2 raw. (Must be why I like Popmart Vegas, lol) TTTYAATW is great live, and I don't think the studio version does it justice. I could've lived without the acoustic set, especially Angel and Satellite. Loved Bad into SBS, as well as RTSS into Streets, which I would really enjoy seeing on the next tour, but only if RTSS was ZOO TV style. I've always been quite fond of Zoo TV Desire, and this one was just as good, if not better, than the version on the Sydney DVD. Not really much else to say about the encore, other than I liked it... Audience: Default rating as the crowd noise is not present due to this being a soundboard recording. Sound: Sound quality is quite good, although there is a slight hiss. Nothing real noticeable though, I think we can all agree that a hiss in a soundboard is way less annoying than in a audience recording. The upgrade is much, much better (current links on this page are the upgrade referred to). Comparing the two side by side, is amazing, definitely a difference there. Overall: An essential bootleg. Grab the upgrade though, and you should be pleasantly surprised.

WojBhoy

This review is written by WojBhoy and written on 2008-07-19 12:40 pm. Performance: This is U2 at their rawest, for sure, but it makes for a great show. The band sometimes appear to be a bit tipsy, shall we say, but like I say, it gives the show a more edgy feel. My favourite bit has to be Bono's talk before EBTTRT, he just sounds like he's totally forgotten where he is and what he's doing lol, but it's moments like these that you have to treasure in the light of nowadays' well-rehearsed speeches to encourage us to extinguish poverty... The opening set is, despite the flaw now and then, mindblowing and delivered with vigour, if not perhaps the most accomplished performance on a technical level - the version of The Fly has become my favourite because the rhythm is that much clearer, and with that the whole song has that bit more venom behind it. A great version of One, I love Bono's bit of impro. on the outro instead of the "You hear us coming" to help cover up for Edge (I'd assume) getting the soloey part wrong! He is human afterall...another classic moment happens during a particularly out-of-sorts New Year's Day, Bono comes out with another classic quote just before the first chorus - Adam and Edge are all over the place, so he shouts "ONE TWO THREE FOUR!" in a bid to get everyone back on track and it seems to work! Great version of TTTYAATW too, although after that, the acoustic set doesn't really do much for me - ISHFWILF definitely wasn't a highlight for me...but the show does get back on the road with terrific versions of Bad, SBS & BTBS before the classic segue of RTSS into Streets. Gets me everytime, and it's a terrific version of Streets for me - again, it's most likely the fact that this is a soundboard recording, but again, like with the Fly, you get a full blast of the rhythm from Larry, and it drives the show along in terrific fashion. As for the encore, need I say anything? I love the ZooTV arrangement for Desire with Edge's mad sound, but that's then followed up by great performances of Ultra-Violet (can't forget the classic quote "Tell the president to watch more TV!"), WOWY and Love Is Blindness. Simply fantastic. Audience: Default rating as the crowd noise is not heard due to this being a soundboard rescording Sound: I had no issues with the sound, but let it be known the upgrade quality is much clearer than the original. It is weird not having that much of a crowd noise in the background/foreground, whatever you want, and thus it that regard I think the recording loses something, but the quality of the performance itself is great, so you can't really complain that much. Overall: Must-get. No doubt. If you want the perfect combination of U2's magic and fallibility in one show, this is a bootleg to get.

djrlewis

This review is written by djrlewis and written on 2008-07-19 12:46 pm. Performance: Highlights:- + Zoo Station, EBTTRT, UTEOTW. Blistering opening. One is strong but was better at other shows as mentioned above + "Ramp it up, come on, DC" in SBS - superb. + Superb Bullet + Excellent coda to Bad - especially Larry's drums. Didn't mind the backing track glitch at all; thought it was deliberate to start + "You know something, you're one fucking ugly son of a bitch" before an amped up Desire with the classic I have a Vision speech. Then followed by a classic phone call "The President of the United States isn't available to me?! Oh, I musn't be as important as I thought....... Watch more Television" + "I was all fucked up" in Ultraviolet - always welcome + WOWY - WOW. Nothing more to be said. My favourite recording of it, no questions. Stunning + LIB - also amazing + ie the entire encore is one of the strongest on the tour and ever performed. Not so Good (warning - extreme pickiness alert!) - Falsetto not as good in Mysterious Ways as other shows - New Years Day messy for the first verse but rescued by the "1, 2, 3, 4" from Bono - No "Hear Us Coming Lord" in One - I missed the fish/bicycle in TTTYAATW - is it there at all? Audience: Default rating as no crowd noise present due to this being a soundboard recording. Sound: For a soundboard, very near perfection. Not quite up there with RDS Dublin on the Zooropa leg, but very nearly. Crystal clear 99% of the time with only a couple of lapses to my ears. But you don't get audience noise, as others have mentioned, which may be a let down to some. I miss the feedback in certain songs (eg Angel of Harlem, Pride) that adds to the performance and feel. I'm sure it was there, just not on this boot. Overall: If you have this already, please get the new source, it's an excellent upgrade. Increases the listening pleasure significantly. If you don't have the show, download it and give it a listen - it's a great and there's a couple of stunning individual song performances. There is better (as above) but this is Top 10 ZooTV for me, easily.

aussiemofo

This review is written by aussiemofo and written on 2008-07-19 12:47 pm. Performance: A very fine performance when the boys were at the peak of their ZooTV prowess. The third leg in, and the band was comfortable in all their songs (ok, maybe not NYD) and Bono's showmanship was spot-on. As usual, the opening set was delivered impressively (one of the best The Fly versions I've heard thus far) and this continued through to UTEOTW which was solid without being remarkable. I've have to disagree with the criticism of NYD. Despite the obvious execution flaws, I really enjoyed this rendition. Having not played it at all during the first two legs, it sounded fresh and Bono had some feeling behind it. I always enjoy hearing TTTYAATW live but this version was a stand-out. It sounded like there was an extended loop and keyboard to it in this one. The only downside to this show for me was the lacklustre acoustic set. U2's acoustic sets have never appealed to me but this one was abysmal. ISHWILF should never be played that way again - it just doesn't work. Satellite of Love was perhaps the best I've heard it but it's still a dud. The lull soon evaporated as we were treated to a fine rendition of Bad with excellent snippets. Did I hear Bono sing out 'symbols' around the middle? What was that about? I forgot SBS was included in the third leg and this was a pleasant surprise - was it a bit faster than usual? The RTSS into Streets into Pride segment was classy as always but it was the encore perfomance which sealed the deal for me. I've always enjoyed Mirrorball Man's desire but Ultraviolet and WOWY were the show's standouts. WOWY's shimmering intro was a nice touch and Edge's extended solo with Shine Like Stars made me remember how great WOWY can be live - unlike recent tours. Audience: Deffault rating as no crowd noise heard tdue to this being a soundboard recording. Sound: No complaints in terms of sound quality. There was a near perfect balance between all instruments and vocals. Extremely audible with occasional, but very infrequent hiss and flicks (most notably during RTSS) the only black marks. With most soundboard recordings I feel detached from the concert and this bootleg was no exception. Not much beats an excellent audience recording. Overall: A ZooTV monster worth keeping on your iPod. If you want the pinnacle show from the tour when the boys were at their peak, this is a worthy snapshot. It's actually got me hooked on that brilliant era again. I've since downloaded Milan.

fenderman

This review is written by fenderman and written on 2008-07-19 12:49 pm. Performance: One of the most enthusiastic performances of The Fly I've heard from the ZooTV tour. Mysterious Ways is blistering HOT! Shit this is the boot to get. Ok, maybe its the beer tonight, but I'm so into this boot right now! Great performances all round. The band has definitely settled into the ZooTV setting and delivering sensationally. Until The End Of The World sounding superb! Little flub on New Years Day but hey... they're human. I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For was absolutely great. The acoustic verison hits the spot for me! There's not one bad track here. Everyone in attendance had to be blown away. Other notable tracks are: 1. Satellite Of Love - I belive this song was perfect for ZooTV, really captured the essence 2. Sunday Bloody Sunday - great to see it in the set for ZooTV 3. Running To Stand Still - I don't even have to say anything This show ends with 4 unbelievable performances. Ultraviolet is perfect and rocks your face off! One of the best boots for this song I've heard. Audience: Default rating as no crowd noise present due to this being a soundboard recording. Sound: Fantastic. Some hiss here an there, but this is one you can definitely crank up on 12 in the car. Would like to feel more of the drums here, if you know what I'm mean. I like to feel the bass drum. There is something about Larry's kick that just drives everything. You can hear it pefectly here but it doesn't hit the complete high I'm looking for. Overall: Get this show if you don't have it. A truely sensational date to cherish. I'll be searching for a better one from this tour

Ali709

This review is written by Ali709 and written on 2008-07-19 12:51 pm. Performance: >> Positive… * It’s ZOO TV y’all! Can’t go that wrong. * Seriously now! As others pointed out, they do an amazing job up until NYD. Every song is nailed, the performances are all awesome. * The mistakes. Yep, positive point for me. Makes it much more interesting! We’ve all heard NYD so many times; it’s cooler when there is a mistake in it!! Even the technical issues such as the synth cutting off during Bad are still nice! * The show has many of the special ZOOTV moments, the encore break with the confessions, the white house call, etc. * Bono isn't the one fucking up the show...he is who saves it a couple of times actually (this is true about most of the ZOO TV shows tho). >> Negative: * As stated before, ISHFWILF doesn’t work when done acoustic! * There are better ZOOTV setlists…SBS really doesn’t belong there (ok, I’m being picky!) Highlights: * The beginning with the intro up till before NYD. * RTSS and Streets are amazing as usual. The second verse ‘Streets’ nicely changed:”Don’t wanna take shelter from the DC rain, these are the streets without name!”, Bono in top form and improvising! * TTYAATW, this song has become a favorite of mine. Wish it had the fish and bicycle part tho! * The stuff that Dan said, such as Desire and the “ugly son of a bitch” or UV and “when I was all fucked up!”…cool parts. * Of course the white house phone call and the encore break. Audience: Default rating as no crowd noise presend due to this being a soundboard recording. Sound: >> Positive… * Soundboard. That should describe it. Every instrument and the vocals are clear and in good quality. I had lots of fun with Adam’s bass on this boot, you don’t get the bass so clear on other bootlegs. >> Negative… *As others pointed out, it’s a soundboard, so there is a big lack of audience in it. It’s not that clear in the middle of the songs, but you really expect there to be something in the more silent parts…but. One part where I really missed it was in the beginning of ‘Streets’ specially when they turn the lights on with full power. Overall: The bootleg includes the full intro of the concert, which has the “drug of a nation” bit and the one with Bush doing “We Will Rock You!” Of course you get the Fly, and you have him playing around with the TV. You get the now famous RTSS into Streets. Then during the encore break (which is very well included in the download as a separate mp3) you have the confession videos which are pretty funny (and are another of those special ZOOTV stuff). You then have Mirrorball Man, and you have a white house phone call which is something that ZOO TV is famous for. To conclude, this is a bootleg that shows very well what ZOO TV was about, it’s got all of what’s interesting about ZOO TV. It’s also got great quality, if it had an audience matrixed with it, it could end up as one of the best ever. The video bootleg is a must tho, if you’re going for this bootleg, I suggest you give the DVD a try, a good proshot of a lovely show.

drewhiggins

This review is written by drewhiggins and written on 2008-07-19 08:53 pm. 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: 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 of the bootleg isn't reviewed, only rated.

haytrain

This review is written by haytrain and written on 2008-07-19 08:57 pm. Performance: Another aspect of the show that has both good and bad. The first seven songs (Zoo Station - UTEOTW) were on fire. I personally didn't have anything to complain about, and everything seemed to be nailed dead on by all members of the band. That all changed once they started New Years Day and sloppy mistakes just kept adding up after that. This is about as inconsistant as I've seen U2 (not counting the atrocity that happened when they opened Popmart in Vegas. Yikes .). I don't know if they just got lost and forgot where in the song they were, or the fact that the band was just coming off a month and a half break, but some of the songs are outright sloppy. So, what started off as an amazing show was mired by some surprising mistakes by a usually focused band. Rating: 3 out of 5. Sidenote: "Bad" seemed to have problems with the synthesizer track cutting out unexpectedly, and it made me wonder if someone's playing along live with the band under the stage (thought I saw someone hanging out under the stage at a keyboard during a special feature on the Boston DVD?) or if it's all pre-programed and the band has to play along with a pre-recorded arrangement. Show Highlights: "Zoo Station" through "UTEOTW" - Everything nailed perfectly. Zoo Station was especially good. "Ultraviolet" - Brilliant Edge's solo in "With or Without You" - Need I say more? Show Lowlights: Surprising mistakes by the band during "New Years Day," "Bad," "Pride," and "Desire." No crowd noise makes it feel like this isn't even a real show. I absolutely hate the "acoustic set" of Angel of Harlem and ISHFWILF. A complete waste of setlist space, if you ask me. Audience: The bad part of the sound is fairly obvious: there's no crowd whatsoever Sound: This is a strange one. It's got it's good, and it's got it's bad, that's for sure. To start off, the good is the balance of the instruments in the mix. Everything sounds pretty clear to my ears, and no member of the band is too loud or too soft. I'm not sure why someone would go out of their way to eliminate the crowd noise like they did. There were also some weird blips throughout the show, and in some songs, Bono seemed to be a maxed out, causing some minor distortion (Bad comes to mind.) If there would have been "normal" crowd noise, I would have rated the sound a bit higher, but as it is, I can only say it's an average sound quality Overall: There's some really good tracks on here, but some other tracks are ruined by some technical glitches and uncharacteristic mistakes by the band. Worth a listen, but not staying on my hard drive

SalvationTambourine

This review is written by SalvationTambourine and written on 2008-07-19 09:00 pm. Performance: From Zoo Station to Until the end of the world this performance is superb. Then, New Years Day was pretty average, as was Tryin' To Throw........ Still Havnt just doesnt work like this and its obvious why they dont play it like this normally. i thought that was pretty crap to be honest. The performance lifts again from here on but it still never reaches the heights of the opening songs with the exception of one more magic moment (Ultraviolet). Audience: This part of the bootleg isn't reviewed, only rated. Sound: I liked the mix. well able to hear each instrument. maybe a little more drums would have been nice, the toms sound great in this.the lack of crowd noise is disapointing but since its a soundboard recording thats to be expected i suppose.a little bit of hiss here and there to but overall the sound was great and no major complaints from me Overall: The AB tracks are great in this 1 and definetly worth a listen. As for the rest of the show, there's better performances of those songs

derrickrossignol

This review is written by derrickrossignol and written on 2008-07-21 05:37 pm. Performance: Great overall performance, WOWY is a real standout, the solo is just beautiful guitar work. Audience: As good of an audience that you can expect Sound: A little bit distant at times, but very listenable and enjoyable Overall: High point would be WOWY and a great setlist, no low points come to mind.

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notable live performances

With Or Without You 10 contributions

Ultra Violet (Light My Way) 6 contributions

I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For 3 contributions

The Fly 3 contributions

Zoo Station 3 contributions

Soundchecks

Available artwork