Mac Phisto’s Lament - “ZOO TV,” U2's Visceral Mindbender Hits Home Video

"ZOO TV's ravishing opening sequence is still virtual Viagra. Everyone that experienced the event will recall the moment the house lights were shut off and the whole world went weird."

— Adrian Deevoy

Only those who were there can tell you what it was like - slam bang insanity, smoke and mirrors, crank phone calls and a virtual slide into the deep, dark void between politics and paranoia.

This was U2's “ZOO TV” Tour. And some of you are still recovering.

Taking a vast departure from the anthems and devout politics of “The Unforgettable Fire” and “The Joshua Tree” albums, and putting the unexpected failure of “Rattle & Hum” behind them, U2 came back with a vengeance in 1991 with their undisputed masterpiece, “Achtung Baby.”

Inspired equally by late 1970s Manchester David Bowie and Sex Pistols-esque punk scene in the U.K., “Achtung Baby” was sonically more eclectic and adventurous than U2's earlier work. The album debuted at number one throughout the world and spawned Top Ten hits with "Mysterious Ways" and "One," not to mention introducing the world to classics like "The Fly," "Tryin' To Throw Your Arms Around the World" and — my personal favorite U2 song — "Until The End of the World."

“Achtung Baby” was a visceral and lethal departure from their previous works and highlighted a changing of the times, not only for their fans, but for the world as a whole. With the birth of cable tv and the ability for the likes of CNN to show 24/7 coverage of the First Gulf War, a monster had been built and the first signs of insanity and addiction were beginning to seep through the protective linings of our souls.

"Everything you know is wrong!" became the credo of the new times. And “ZOO TV” became the pill to cure all ill when we needed it most.

Released on DVD in a 2-disc special edition, “U2 ZOO TV — Live From Sydney” (a single-disc version is also available, but not nearly as entertaining without the extras), brings it all back for us, letting us re-witness the beginning of the end of our cultural innocence - misinformation, manipulation and insanity whilst channel surfing through an endless barrage of lies disguised as news and trash posing as art.

Have times changed at all since then? Absolutely not, which makes the release of this DVD and a resurgence of the greatest tour in U2's history all the more apropos.

Directed by famed music video helmer David Mallet, “U2 ZOO TV — Live From Sydney” and filmed on November 27th, 1993 amidst 60,000 transfixed, yet jiggy Australians at the Sydney Football Stadium, this was a U2 that no one had experienced before. Who were these guys? What the hell was going on? But five minutes into the show, with an innovative blend of multimedia electronics, featuring a stage filled with hundreds of video monitors, suspended cars, satellite dishes and cellular phone calls, all became quite clear. This was an assault on the mind sterilization machine that rose from the ashes of truth.

Nothing was as it seemed and U2 was fighting fire with fire on this tour.

Bono led the revolution as his alter ego, The Fly, for the first two-thirds of the show, highlighting a set list consisting of now-classic songs like "The Fly," "One," "Mysterious Ways," "Numb" and "Lemon" (both from the experimental “Zooropa” album U2 recorded during the ZOO TV tour), "Stay (Faraway, So Close),"Where The Streets Have No Name," "Until The End of the World," and many more.

For the encore, the crowds were introduced to the devil-horned MacPhisto, Bono's second alter-ego, with a mind-blowing rendition of "Daddy's Gonna Pay For Your Crashed Car," a song I have not heard them perform since this tour, and a few more tunes before calling it a night to recharge themselves for the next evening's sonic assault on our senses.

This was media overload at its finest!

For the techno geeks reading this, I'll get into the video/audio details. Keep in mind, this concert film was produced ten years before the invention of digital video - it may shock some people to see this video, full-frame, in analog video format. BUT...for this DVD, the analog video has been digitized, picture has been re-graded and remastered. Added degrees of sharpness and contrast have given us a sharper, far more striking picture unavailable even when the performance was originally filmed.

For audio-philes, the DVD also features PCM stereo and separate Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Sound and DTS 5.1 Surround tracks that will appease any sound system you may have. But come on...image quality aside, imagine the audio capabilities this mindbender would have in Blu-ray with a lossless 7.1 DTS-HD track!

Special features include a never before seen "Video Confessional," a private room set up outside each of the stadiums where concert-goers spilled the beans on all of their worldly secrets and sins. Also included are a trio of vintage documentaries that delve into the conception, creation and meanings of life in the way of all things ZOO TV.

For U2 fans, casual and die-hard, this DVD is truly a must.

And as long as we keep MacPhisto happy, then the war for our sanity will be won time and time again.