Las Vegas CNN –
For several years now, a mysterious spherical structure has loomed over the skyline of this desert playground, in recent months tantalizing visitors with its wraparound LED screen that transformed the giant sphere into a planet, a basketball or, most distractingly, a blinking eyeball .
Now we can finally go inside.
Sphere, the $2.3 billion company billed as the entertainment venue of the future, made its public debut this weekend with two U2 concerts.
Does Sphere live up to the hype? Are the interior views as impressive as the exterior views? Is U2, the popular Irish band now in the final stages of their career, the right act to christen this massive gem of an arena?
Yes, yes and yes – with a few reservations.
Describing the Sphere concert experience is a challenge because there is nothing like it. The effect is a bit like a giant planetarium or a packed IMAX theater in a giant spaceship.
Built by Madison Square Garden Entertainment, Sphere is considered the largest spherical structure in the world. At 366 feet tall and 516 feet wide, the partially hollow arena comfortably accommodates the entire Statue of Liberty, from pedestal to torch.
Its cavernous, bowl-shaped theater contains a stage on the lower level, flanked by what is said to be the world’s largest, high-resolution LED screen. The screen envelops the viewer and, depending on the position of your seat, can fill your entire field of vision.
In today’s multimedia entertainment world, overused buzzwords like “immersive” are often used. But Sphere’s huge screen and pristine sound really deserve the designation.
I interviewed a few audience members after the show and everyone loved the venue.
“It’s a visually stunning experience … it was stunning,” said Dave Zittig, who traveled from Salt Lake City with his wife, Tracy, for Saturday night’s show. “And they picked the right band to open it with. We’ve been to concerts all over the world and this is the coolest venue we’ve ever been to.”
A spectacle from inside and outside
The venue’s inaugural offering is called “U2: UV Warten Baby Live at Sphere,” a series of 25 concerts centered around the Irish band’s groundbreaking 1991 album Achtung Baby, running until mid-December. Most shows sell out, although the best seats cost $400 to $500.
The show kicked off Friday night with an avalanche of excitement and a red carpet premiere attended by Paul McCartney, Oprah, Snoop Dogg, Jeff Bezos and dozens of other celebrities — some of whom were probably wondering how they did their own Sphere appearances can book.
Next week sees the premiere of Postcard From Earth, a film from Darren Aronofsky that promises to take full advantage of Sphere’s massive screen by giving viewers a, yes, immersive tour of the planet. And more concerts will follow in 2024, although no artists have been announced yet.
Visitors can walk through alleys and across parking lots to reach Sphere east of the Strip. However, the easiest way is via a pedestrian path from the Venetian Resort, a partner in the project.
Inside, you’ll find an atrium with a high ceiling, hanging sculptural mobiles, and long escalators leading to the upper floors. But the real draw is the cinema and its wraparound LED screen with 268 million video pixels. That sounds like a lot.
The screen is impressive and so dominant that it sometimes overwhelms the live actors. Sometimes I didn’t know where to look – at the band playing live in front of me or at the stunning images happening everywhere else.
Your idea of the ideal seat depends on how much you want to see the artist up close. Levels 200 and 300 are at eye level with the center of the giant screen, while seats on the lowest level are closer to the stage, but you may have to crane your neck to look up. And some seats in the back of the lowest section have limited visibility.
The huge LED screen conjures up both spectacle and intimacy
The venerable band — Bono, The Edge, Adam Clayton and guest drummer Bram van den Berg, who filled in for Larry Mullen Jr. as he recovers from surgery — sounded as passionate as ever, moving nimbly from driving rockers (“Even Better Than “The Real Thing”) to tender ballads (“One”) and beyond.
U2 has a huge, loyal following, writes terrific songs and – particularly on their Zoo TV tour – has a long history of pushing the boundaries of technology, making them a natural fit for a groundbreaking venue like Sphere.
The band performed on a simple stage set up like a record player, with the four musicians mostly rooted to the round turntable, although Bono roamed around the sidelines. Almost every song came with animations and live footage on the huge screen.
Bono seemed to like the Sphere’s trippy imagery, saying, “This whole place feels like a distortion pedal for the mind.”
The wraparound screen conjured both grandeur and intimacy as Bono, The Edge and other band members performed in 80-foot-tall video images projected across the stage.
Sphere’s producers promised state-of-the-art sound thanks to thousands of speakers installed throughout the venue and they didn’t disappoint. At some concerts the sound is so muddy that you can’t make out the artists’ stage chatter, but Bono’s words were crisp and clear and the band’s volume never felt strained or weak.
“I go to a lot of concerts and usually wear earplugs, but I didn’t need them for this one,” said Rob Rich, who flew in from Chicago with a friend for the show. “It was so captivating,” he added (there’s that word again). “I saw U2 eight times. And that is now the standard.”
In the middle of the show, the band left “Aehrung Baby” and played an acoustic series of songs from “Rattle and Hum.” The visuals became simpler and the stripped-down songs produced some of the night’s best moments – a reminder that while bells and whistles are nice, great live music alone is enough.
Saturday’s show was only Sphere’s second public event and they are still working out some kinks. The band started about half an hour late – Bono blamed it on “technical problems” – and at one point the LED screen seemed to stop working properly, leaving several songs frozen for a few minutes.
But more often the visuals were spectacular. At one point, the screen created a dramatic optical illusion, as if the venue’s ceiling was lowering towards the audience. In “Tryin’ to Throw Your Arms Around the World,” a real rope made of knotted bedsheets is connected to a virtual balloon high above.
And “Where the Streets Have No Name” featured a stunning time-lapse video of the Nevada desert, complete with the sun moving across the sky. For a few minutes it felt like we were outside.
Sphere is an expensive venture and it remains to be seen whether other artists can use the unique space so creatively. But the venue is off to a promising start. If they can keep this up, we may be witnessing the future of live performances.