From a distance, immersed in the grandiose décor of Las Vegas with its uber-competitive casino hotels, The Sphere's size seems almost reasonable. In the city's pharaonic landscape, the high-tech bubble merges between the glass pyramid and the recreated monuments.
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But once we get to the front, we gaze in wonder at this 112-meter-tall, 157-meter-diameter silver dome (which cost $2.3 billion), whose surface sparkles with the animated message: “U2: UV Caution Infant”.
The Sphere opened in August with a film by Darren Aronofsky (“Postcard from Earth”) and has been hosting the new U2 show since September 29th. Posts on social media immediately revealed the unprecedented scale of what this space seemed to offer: a visual and acoustic experience that had never been seen or heard before. And the viewers were really shocked.
The arena-shaped hall offers space for 18,000 spectators in its dizzying stands. And even though tickets cost at least $400, you'll definitely want to stock up. In a moment we will easily understand why…
In the middle is a square stage, as if abandoned in the middle of nowhere, enveloped by all the 8K LED screens spanning 15,000 m3 and 167,000 speakers.
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A sonic explosion
At the appointed time (8 p.m.) the lights go out and an electrical hum fills the room. Three silhouettes walk on the stage, immersed in darkness, and take their place in the sober black square. The outlines of Bono, The Edge and Adam Clayton stand out clearly. Larry Mullen, sick, the drummer, is missing from this series of concerts, replaced by Bram Van Den Berg with a very U2 look and a style close to Mullen's, as we will hear for 1 hour 45 minutes.
With the first sounds of “Zoo Station,” the walls of the dome transform into a wall ready to crack, behind which an intense white light tries to penetrate. It breaks up, decays, pouring in a gigantic halo of photons until it forms a giant white cross through this virtual wall. From the start we are impressed by the size of the proposal. It's an explosion of sound, overwhelming but never saturated, and visually we open our mouths (gape) and never close them again for the evening. The Sphere has transformed into a space shuttle, is taking off and we are with it.
Bono is in total control
On the huge screen, streaks of light break through a cosmic tunnel and give the feeling of reaching the speed of light. You could imagine being hopelessly entranced by the barrage of visual effects until you forget you're watching the band play, but no. The scene is finally close enough that our eyes can move from one to the other almost naturally. Bono appears to be in total control, neither adding nor subtracting anything, performing minimalist choreography but in complete harmony with the music and projections around him. The Edge plays The Edge, just like Adam Clayton, with his legs spread like the punk bassist he was when he was younger. And the drummer of the hour, Bram Van Den Berg, handsome as a god, ideally completes the rest of the group.
The saturation of “The Fly” penetrates the sphere, a flood of images pours over us and releases neurotransmitters in abundance: nausea, euphoria, trance… The digital vortex designed by New York video artist Jonathan Nolan is so intense, The fact that he closes your eyes doesn't change anything! An injection of “Mysterious Ways” allows you to regain some semblance of gravity. But the titles follow each other non-stop, especially:
The boundary between spectator and group is erased
“Even Better Than the Real Thing,” one of the highlights of the show with a carousel of hallucinatory images of Elvis Presley, neon lights, slot machines, famous characters, a sort of “Sgt Pepper” cover. It feels like you're being sucked into a psychedelic wormhole overlooking the spooky heart of the city. It's difficult to distinguish up and down, reality and virtual, because it's everywhere, from floor to ceiling! The boundary between spectator and group is erased. Each of the protagonists is immersed in this incredible flood of images.
After this adrenaline rush, U2 slows down with “One,” dedicated to the victims of war. Martian landscapes pass by on the vault, dotted with flags at half-mast and showers of light. The assembled assembly gives the impression of floating in interstellar space. U2 then explores more ethereal lands with “Who’s Gonna Ride Your Wild Horses.” In an effect of spatial-temporal expansion, the musicians' faces appear on a supernatural scale, floating beneath the vault like benevolent deities.
An almost mystical connection
When we look at their huge gazes, we feel an almost mystical connection. Their dilated pupils reflect ours like mirrors. Thanks to The Sphere's interactive visualization capabilities, the crowd appears to be sublimated by this unprecedented psychic community.
Then things get dizzying with “Until the End of the World”. The surface of the blue planet then shatters and explodes before our hypnotized eyes, opening the door to the infinity of the cosmos. Here we find ourselves in a space-time tunnel towards unexplored territories!
After this intergalactic Big Bang, the Sphere ship smoothly returns to its mother planet.
An unforgettable memory
As with any concert, the middle of the show offers an opportunity to regain your senses. “Tryin' to Throw Your Arms Around the World” and “City of Blinding Lights” offer a moment of calm. In short, because “Pride” and “I Still haven't found what I'm looking for” immediately got the machine going again. On a minimalist “Acrobat,” accompanied only by The Edge’s guitar, Bono launches and wanders a giant white balloon thanks to a rope lowered from the vault, followed by a virtual glowing orb in a magical moment. One more. After “Ultraviolet” and “Love is Blindness,” the show begins its…temporary end.
All viewers know that there are too many important titles that they haven't played yet for us to be entitled to an “agreed upon” encore. But in this new type of space, no one knows to what extent we will be well served and beyond…
They return to “Elevation” full of excitement, almost sober. Visually. The sphere is decorated with an immense shade of blue, the stage on which U2 plays is brought to life with colorful rays. This is the right place and not somewhere else. The room unanimously adopts the chorus. Before you experience a new “shock”.
A new song: “Atomic City”
For this concert series, U2 composed a new song: “Atomic City”. In reference to the US Army's first nuclear experiments at the Nevada Test Site, which turned Las Vegas into a spectacle in the desert, about a hundred kilometers from the city. While the song probably won't remain as a classic, the combination with what's suggested here certainly will. Before us today is a wide-angle shot of Las Vegas at night. Throughout the song we can see each of the casino hotels being deconstructed in reverse time lapse. Then another, and another, and another, we see how much The Strip has grown since the 1950s and the Rat Pack era. And the dismantling of the city continues until he leaves the place where the city was born: an empty desert at dawn, shrouded in pink light. Stunning beauty.
The room is overwhelmed, but U2 continues with “Vertigo.” Two giants then occupy the screens, Bono and The Edge, while the stage is decorated in bright red and always draws the eye “live” to the group. Then it's a return to the image of the barren desert, but in the middle of it stands a huge column with white smoke coming out of it, forming a flag for “Where The Streets Have No Name”.
“The Future of Rock'n'Roll”
On “With or Without You” an infinite sea appears, in the middle of which floats the sphere in which we have been traveling for more than an hour. And that we never want to leave again, outside of time and space, how we feel now. The further the song progresses, the closer the image of this sphere becomes. An eye opens and envelops us in a monumental arch covered with hundreds of animal species, some long extinct, others on the verge of extinction. The message is clear and even the sepia lighting almost creates a kind of unease. This fragile inventory will never leave us, as U2 continues, ending with a poignant “Beautiful Day.” And a glimmer of hope: some species have regained their colors. The group disappears, leaving us stunned under this vault, a kind of Sistine Chapel of the apocalypse.
Little by little the sphere lights up again and our ship slowly returns to land. The return to reality is almost brutal after this unprecedented extrasensory journey. In 1975, after Jon Landau (who later became his manager) discovered Bruce Springsteen on stage, he said that he saw “the future of rock and roll.” Without being mistaken, we can repeat that we see “the theater of the future ” have seen.
U2: already the third most lucrative “residence” in Las Vegas
The band had planned to perform 25 concerts, but due to demand added 11 additional concerts in January and February 2024.
According to Billboard Boxscore, U2 has sold 281,000 tickets and generated nearly $110 million in 17 concerts since the start of its Las Vegas residency. The average ticket price is around $400. This is the third-largest residency in Las Vegas history, behind Celine Dion ($385 million for 717 concerts between 2003 and 2007) and Elton John ($131 million for 197 concerts between 2011 and 2018).
Since 19 concerts are still planned until February 2024, total sales could reach $330 million. And that puts U2 in 2nd place, behind the untouchable Céline.
Setlist:
1. Zoo station
2. The fly
3. Even better than the original
4. Mysterious ways
5.One
6. Until the end of the world
7. Who will ride your wild horses?
8. Try throwing your arms around the world
9. City of Blinding Lights
10. Pride (in the name of love)
11. I still haven't found what I'm looking for
12. Christmas (Baby, please come home)
13. Attention baby
14. Acrobat
15. So cruel
16. Ultraviolet (Light My Way)
17. Love is blindness
Memory
18. Height
19. Atomic City
20. Dizziness
21. Where the streets have no name
22. With or without you
23. Beautiful day