U2: UV
The Sphere
It is now the most incredible show on earth. The hype is real. I stood in The Sphere line, approximately two blocks long, pacing in place nervously. The Sphere was lit with an astonishing display of optics. I could only wonder what was on the inside awaiting me and approximately 18,000 other concert attendees.
I approached The Sphere cautiously. The time had finally come: U2:UV Achtung Baby Live in The Sphere. It was electric and felt daunting as I walked in and looked around. I knew I was in for something big and was only in the lobby. I had the distinct feeling of being immersed in something beyond comprehension with no way out. To further enhance my entrance, the spirited older and newer rock n roll (Rock the Casbah, Living on a Prayer, Viva La Vegas, Take a Walk on the Wild Side, and more) music played throughout the venue before showtime at enhanced sound and decibel levels of 1000 Sphere speakers had me in an otherworldly state of sound and mind.
The October 5th show I attended was more than two hours long with spectacular results. Initially, I believed it would be just the ‘Achtung Baby’ album, but the setlist was much more than that without drummer Larry Mullen Jr. out due to surgery. Bram van den Berg of the Dutch rock band Krezip took his place admirably. It was still U2 with Bono on vocals and guitar, The Edge on lead and acoustic guitar and vocals, and Adam Clayton on bass guitar. U2’s 22-song set list was brilliant, with Achtung Baby played entirely but interspersed with additional U2 originals and some superbly performed covers. I should have known better they wouldn’t limit their setlist. Tonight, the Church of Elvis also made an appearance with visual snippets of “Love Me Tender” and bits of “Suspicious Minds” and the movie version with the music of the song “Viva Las Vegas.” Pretty cool stuff.
“We’ve got an Elvis cathedral here. Let’s get married, said a smiling Bono.”
As for the staging of U2, they were on a giant turntable stage with virtually nothing but four band members, their instruments, and four tiny monitors, and when the overhead lights faded out, as they often did, the turntable radiance displayed a myriad of colors that is a lot like looking at a state-of-the-art record player in the dark. It almost seemed unreal that there could be so little on stage with the visual and sound levels coming forth. But with U2 and in this venue, it was an unimaginable live experience.
The Sphere’s inventors have created a sound system that targets concertgoers wherever they’re sitting, so sitting in the 400 level visually (366 ft tall overhead visuals) and sonically was still terrific. Sometimes, the overpowering full overhead visuals were turned off entirely or reduced to a simple single (or quadruple) live image hovering gently and unobtrusively over the stage. The goal of offering a massive scale studio-quality sound on a vaunted 22nd-century sound system was realized. It is sensory overload at play here.
U2 and The Sphere might be the best shotgun wedding Las Vegas ever presided over (Chris Willman, Rolling Stone).
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