U2 Took Us Inside the Sphere

Where do we even begin? With one of the world’s most revered rock bands, currently having their first residency? How about with the world’s most technological venue, 16K resolution dome wrapping screen, beamforming sound, and a 2 Billion dollar price tag? Cleverock was invited to experience the marriage of these two great things in what can only be described as the best sounding and best-looking concert experience by us in the 20+ years Cleverock has been going to shows.

U2‘s “Achtung Baby” celebrated its 30th year recently, giving the band the perfect set list for this Las Vegas stint at The Sphere. The last time the band hit the road in 2017 and 2019 and played “Joshua Tree” in its entirety. Seeing this combination of another full album concert mixed with a brand new venue, it’s like a moth to a flame (Or maybe a Fly on a Wall?). This building is visible from almost any part of Las Vegas, especially if you are at all elevated or in a plane! The Sphere is entertaining no matter if one is inside or outside. To call a show here a concert dilutes what this is really like. It’s an adventure, and the experience begins before you even set foot inside the venue.

The moment you walk into the building you are reminded that what you saw on the outside is just the appetizer to what is happening inside. The entire atrium, hallways, and gathering spaces are blanketed with ambient speakers. The sounds played over the whole space are cut-up segments of U2 songs from the Achtung album. The touch, feel, and sounds of U2 are omnipresent. It’s like you’re walking into the world’s largest U2 tranquility room. You know something is special and it’s more than just walking into a venue and getting ready to see a concert. The feeling of awe and almost quietness is new. The acoustics of the space, along with the purposefully designed sound treatments of the building are unique to The Sphere. Gone are the people yelling trying to find their friends or beer vendors, yelling that they have no line, and we have not yet even stepped foot inside the theater.

Walking into the actual theater, it is impossible not to be entirely distracted by the 160,000-square-foot screen that makes up your field of vision. On the screen is an image displayed of what appears to look like we are inside a silo of a nuclear power plant. U2’s stage is incredibly minimalistic. The giant elevated square stage is also topped with a step-up and rounded platform that looks like the band is about to perform on an enormous turntable. This theory is later to be proven true! The lighting is also simple, with four overhead motion-controlled lights that move throughout the night. They are meant to resemble the needle of the record player. There are thousands of U2 fans in all directions and are behind and above and blanket the floor. As we wait for the band to take the stage, we are all left curious as to what kind of entrance U2 will take. A band that doesn’t do anything by accident and a venue that is designed to wow, we have pretty high expectations. That being said, no matter how great our expectations were, they still failed compared to what happened.

The audience is filled with excitement. The world traveled to THEM instead of waiting for them to tour near their hometowns. Everyone inside the giant orb wanted to be there and made special arrangements to be precisely there. So when all of a sudden, all four members of the band walk up separate stairs and appear on stage simultaneously, about 20,000 people cannot contain themselves. Everyone expected them to start with “Zoo Station,” the first song of the 1991 “Achtung Baby,” what we didn’t expect was for the whole room to crack and for the walls to come crumbling down!

One thing is for sure: U2 worked closely with The Sphere production team to create a truly cohesive experience. This could have easily been a simple concert with cool videos playing on screen, but U2 and their team knew this wasn’t just another simple concert. Each song had its own unique element to it and used the screen and space differently. That doesn’t mean The Sphere’s team didn’t work with the band’s team to take full advantage of what this venue could do. It just means that just like a band, where everyone relies on one another to work together to create something magical, U2 and The Sphere did the exact same thing.

The setlist jumped around and was not exactly like it was on the album. For instance, U2 played “The Fly” second instead of “Even Better Than the Real Thing.” The change in the setlist was a creative decision that helped keep the concert moving and exciting. Playing all songs in order for the sake of playing all songs in order doesn’t necessarily mean that it would lend well to the venue and the visuals, so making this change kept the audience on its toes as well.

The combination of band performance, theatrics, and visuals was never over the top. While leaning into new technologies and opportunities could very easily become overdone, U2 expressed necessary restraint. Not every song needed to be that of an acid trip shared by 20,000 people. Instead, sometimes they let the backdrop be a gorgeous visual that was just there to impress but also give U2 room to be one of the greatest rock bands of all time.

Bono gave us everything. One could think that doing this same show in the same town over and over could allow members to become stale or complacent. Not Bono, he was running all over the lit-up stage. His voice was as good as ever. It was his showmanship that we were welcome to see. Whether he was lying on the ground singing, coming off the stage and into the front row of the audience, or hanging from the pole on his spinning platform, center stage, giving the stage its full turntable effect, he loved every moment with the rest of us. He had particular fun during “Tryin’ to Throw Your Arms Around the World.” During the song, an enormously long rope dropped from the ceiling. It was someone reminiscent of the “Vertigo” tour days in which Bono mounted his mic to a rope and cable and swung it around the stage. Instead, this rope was exactly that but attached to a digital balloon. They had some fun with this. In the time it took to perform the song, Bono walked around the whole stage carrying this balloon. He walks up to a door that appears for the song, and rings the doorbell offering up the balloon. AS fun as that was it didn’t take away from the hundreds of amazing moments that could have been frozen into a classic rockstar pose. Bono is a true showman and gentleman who was constantly sharing gratitude with the audience and his bandmates.

The Edge was his wonderful beanie-wearing, falcetto singing guitar master self. His guitar tones were fantastic sounding. Even when not standing in front of stacks of guitar amps, he could still be The Edge. Watching him play “Mysterious Way” was a fun highlight. It’s one of the songs off Achtung with some more effects and pedal work that many guitar players try to duplicate. He, of course, plays it effortlessly while stomping and moving around with Bono. This is also where Sphere and U2 technology shined. During the final refrain, The Edge dances and plays along with a motorized camera that creates a literal larger-than-life visual and Sphere climax! Did we mention we were only four songs into the show at this point? While this was the “Achtung Baby” show, we were also privileged to hear favorites like “I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For,” “Elevation,” and “Vertigo.” A favorite moment that was not only musically but visually stunning came later on with “Where the Streets Have No Name.” The whole screen filled with a lifelike desert screen with a flagpole with a smoke banner. For everyone seeing this, it was near impossible to tell if what we were seeing was real. This realistic nature of actually watching the sunset as if life was moving in fast forward. The Edge was on fleek, as the kids say.

Adam Clayton was the most normally named person on stage with the most stylish hair of all. Larry Mullen Jr. unfortunately had to sit out for these shows in Vegas. It was the first time in a while, ‘Not since October 1978 has this band played without Larry Mullen Jr. who we want to send our love to,” according to Bono.. Filling in for him is Bram van den Berg (See what we meant by Adam being the most normally named person on stage!) Adam is a force to be reckoned with. The emotionless-faced bass player makes up for so many of the amazing sounds that The Edge does not produce. His style is clear and welcoming. He doesn’t just pick his strings he sustains them. It’s like a combination of bass and low-end synth. It’s so cool to hear and even cooler to see. Adam plays it cool, like it’s no trouble at all.

U2 was phenomenal. This isn’t something we say lightly. The band sounded as good, if not better, than they ever have. This time around, they had some of the world’s latest technology backing them, but that was still only as good as the artists’ performance. One thing that really led to this feeling was because of the unique nature of this building. No matter where you are sitting, you are near speakers. Whether the speakers are behind you or behind the screen, there are ways to project the sound to each goer with amazing efficiency. Why are we mentioning this? Well, 99% of all concerts only sound good if you are next to or near the soundboard that’s about 75% aware from the stage. This also means that the majority of PA speakers are on or near the stage. This means that they have to blast those distant speakers loud enough so that the whole room or arena can hear the musicians. This means that there is actually a small location at almost all shows that can sound really good. This is not the case at The Sphere. Nearly every seat has the ability to be near a reasonably distance speaker and, therefore, listening at a reasonable volume. No more blasting sounds that can only be enjoyed truly in one location, but here, everyone hears the band at their best.

Photo passes were not issued nor necesary for this show. Instead, we were provided some breathtaking photos from the bands’ management. We collected some of our favorites to share with you here!
©Kevin Mazur/Getty Images, ©Rich Fury, ©Ross Stewart, ©Stufish Entertainment Architects