It was 2021, if not earlier, when I first saw the concept art of a brand new venue, shaped like a giant globe, being built in Las Vegas. I was interested, but wondered if it would ever actually happen. When I saw a commercial during this year's Super Bowl announcing that U2 would be the first act performing at the new venue, I thought "OK, this might be something." And when U2 announced that there would be tickets as low as $150 fees and all, it became "I have to do this."
The Sphere is an 18,000+ seat venue, with a 16K floor to ceiling, wraparound LED screen on the inside, and 580,000 square feet of LED display on the outside. At night, it's a moon. At sunrise, it's a giant emoji, that yawns, opens its eyes, and says hello to the city. It's been a basketball, a jack-o-lantern, a snow globe, and since it's in Las Vegas, it's often a giant billboard.
The venue sits off-Strip, and the path to the Sphere winds through the Venetian-- down hallways you'd only see if you were using the convention center or ballroom. Eventually, you reach the bridge from the convention center to the Sphere: a stark, brightly-lit, dystopian-future kind of tunnel that leads you directly to the lobby of Las Vegas' Death Star. The developers did a great job making it feel like a big deal. It feels like the theme from 2001: A Space Odyssey should be playing as you enter the building.
The seating in the arena is steep, and the screen is all-encompassing, so there doesn't appear to be a bad seat. From the beginning, the venue is part of the show. A digital bird fluttered around the top of the Sphere every 15 minutes or so, before escaping through the (also digitally created) opening at the top. Later, a single blue balloon would do the same. It was fun watching people around me notice these details for the first time.
The opener was a DJ, in a car-shaped booth that moved through the general admission crowd on the floor during his set. His mix of 70s funk, 80s New Wave, and 90s dance music was a hit with the crowd, which was pretty solidly 35-and-over.
U2's set is a 30th (OK, 32nd) anniversary show for Achtung Baby, so they play the album in its entirety, with a few other hits mixed in. "Who's Gonna Ride Your Wild Horses" has always been a favorite, "Acrobat" was intense, and of course "One" is fantastic. Bono, always a passionate and eloquent speaker, shared his thoughts on the shooting at UNLV that morning, which gave "One" added weight on this evening.
U2 didn't use the full power of the Sphere for every song, but they used it to great effect when they wanted to. On main-set closer "Love is Blindness," the entire screen was solid blue, and the crowd was bathed in that same blue light. One by one throughout the song, black bugs-- butterflies, beetles, etc.-- appeared on the screen, as if the viewer was inside a dome, watching things fall on it. By the end of the song, the arena was nearly blacked out. It was a powerful visual to go with a haunting song. I wish I could have captured it, and fortunately someone did. I'll attach the video. Enjoy the song, and if you don't care about it, at least skip to the middle of the video to see the visual effect I'm talking about.
In the encore, during new song "Atomic City," the screen created the Vegas skyline, which the audience then saw get disassembled until it was the bare desert again. That wide-open desert remained for the epic "Where the Streets Have No Name," the centerpiece of the encore. I may never see a show at Red Rocks, but holy crap, I've seen this.
U2 has long been a band that embraced technology and visuals for their live shows, from the Zoo TV tour that supported Achtung Baby in 1992-1993, to the massive "spider" that housed the 360-degree video screens on their last stadium tour. So they were the obvious choice to introduce the Sphere to the world. It's a one-of-a-kind venue, and I'm glad I took the opportunity to see it. And this is just the second time I've seen U2, the first being 18 years ago this month, so I'm glad I got to see them again while they're still touring.
The set list:
Zoo Station
The Fly
Even Better Than the Real Thing
Mysterious Ways
One
Until the End of the World
Who's Gonna Ride Your Wild Horses
Tryin' to Throw Your Arms Around the World
All I Want is You
Desire
Angel of Harlem
Love Rescue Me
Acrobat
So Cruel
Ultraviolet (Light My Way)
Love is Blindness
(encore)
Elevation
Atomic City
Vertigo
Where the Streets Have No Name
With or Without You
Beautiful Day
cerebus666:
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