Attention 'POP-Mart' shoppers!

U2 has plenty of tricks and treats in store for fans at Silverdome tonight

Bono and his "POP-Mart" mates from U2 play the Pontiac Silverdome tonight.

Unlike any other current performing band, people who have an opinion of the band U2 either love 'em or hate 'em.

The latter group is of interest for the following inquiry. Those who strongly dislike the band often say, "I used to enjoy U2's music before 'The Joshua Tree,' but now the new music is too commercial.' This group of people who I will call the anti-U2-ers, oftentimes admit to not listening to entire U2 albums; rather, they have heard the "new" songs from "Pop" on the radio and have seen the accompanying videos on MTV.

So these anti-U2-ers have gathered their information from the television set or the radio, commercial means. Yet they fault U2 for trying to reach its audience through these very mediums.

PREVIEW
	U2 Tickets available Tonight at 8 Pontiac Silverdome

In addition, U2 fans remember them in particular constructs, ones formed through past events in the anti-U2-ers' lives. In other words, they say, "U2 is not what it used to be and is trying to be too cool!" Quite right.

If one chooses only to look on the surface, the anti-U2-er is correct. U2 has adopted the persona of rock stars because of our culture, which makes, adores and breaks its celebrities. Rather than running from the rock star image, U2 has chosen to embrace it - and mock it.

This superficiality is what U2 is attempting to exploit.

The screen at tonight's "POP-Mart" concert in the Pontiac Silverdome is the largest television screen in the world, containing hundreds of thousands of light bulbs, or enlarged pixels.

Images of the band will be painted on the screen like Warhol's works and the "cartoons" of Lichtenstein and others will most likely be burned upon your retina. In front of the screen, a single arch will stand, one ironically similar to the "Golden Arches" of McDonald's.

KEVIN KRUPITZER/Daily U2's enormous "POP-Mart" stage was erected at the Silverdome yesterday.

Underneath these entrapments will stand four musicians who have been playing together since 1976. If this visual carnival is not enough, the music these four men will perform will assuredly entertain you.

The set list will include songs extending back to U2's first album, 1980's "Boy," and touch upon nearly each album that has followed.

Much like the funk band Parliament and strangely reminiscent of the film "Spinal Tap," U2 will emerge from its encore inside of a mirror ball lemon.

Ultimately, the band will attempt to communicate the same message it has always aimed for, that of the emotion love. Beneath the surface, yet over the heavily groove-laden funk, Bono's lyrics will be questioning the boundaries of love, both the durability of peace and the lusting of immediacy.

The eye candy of U2's "POP-Mart" is bigger, brighter and badder than any band today.

One needs only look to the massive stage ensemble for confirmation of this claim.

U2 is definitely not the band it used to be. At a time when so many bands are not creating music but rather copying what already has been heard, U2's efforts are refreshing, regardless of the current lack of media acclaim.

10-31-97