A lot of what you're observing Daktari is a progressive phenomenon within the music industry to mix and master the "product" with increasing levels of dynamic compression, which by default can and often does augment the bass levels disproportionately. The ultimate outcome and purpose of this is that it makes the recording sound "louder" and distinctly noticeable in an environment full of distracting ambient noise. It's essentially a marketing tool used to insure that songs get noticed in an environment (car, busy household, club, et al.) that is competing for consumer attention, and the amount of compression in audio recordings has been progressively increasing withing the recording industry for the past 50 years.
Another factor to consider is that as the recording and live sound industry has progressively become more successful at amplifying and reproducing bass instruments, it has been discovered that bass itself is a marketable commodity. Bass sells records. It's the element of a recorded song that most consumers consciously associate with a quality recording, and subconsciously, or consciously promotes record sales.
Parallel to the progressive augmentation of bass in recorded music, contemporary genres have evolved to feature exaggerated and over-compressed bass as part of what makes their style distinctive. What would a good hip hop album be without a punchy, loud and compressed kick drum that cut through the rest of the mix? It's something that this generation of music consumers have come to expect. The downside is that the overall dynamic range has subsequently been crushed to death, and many otherwise intricate aspects of a recording are forced to fall back into the mix, but sometimes, as much as it is a hard pill to swallow, we're dealing with an industry that is marketing a product, and, to reiterate, bass does sell, whether consumers are aware of it or not.
Your experience at the U2 concert could have a couple different factors, like your proximity to the mixing board, which is always where the best sound in the arena is gonna be since it's the FOH engineer's point of reference for his mix. Being on the side, as opposed to the center of the arena can drastically alter the perception of the perceived mix. Another thing, and it's often the case with big ticket shows, is that the arena where you saw the band wasn't designed for it's acoustics, but rather for how many people can be crammed into it. It's definitely been my experience that large indoor sporting arenas or and similar venues are an acoustic nightmare.
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