Tom Dunne in Las Vegas: U2's gig at Sphere is truly magnificent
U2 on stage at Sphere, Las Vegas for the opening night of U2: UV Achtung Baby Live at Sphere. (Photo by Kevin Mazur/Getty Images for Live Nation)
It may be Las Vegas outside, but U2’s Sphere is pure 21st century Hollywood: brighter, shinier, even better than the real thing. Sometimes you only appreciate the majesty of it all, life that is, on the biggest screen, with the best speakers and the best band.
Then it floors you.
You spot the Sphere as you fly in, like a new planet briefly tethered to Earth. U2 is emblazoned on it like the Batman logo calling everyone to play. The streets buzz with expectation. Fans are bejewelled, some in costume, dressed to the nine. It feels like Bladerunner.
The taxi driver tells me, “I don’t get U2, but people have come from New Delhi and Australia.” He seems surprised, but he shouldn’t be. He could soon also meet Lebron James, Jason Bateman, Matt Damon, Maria Sharapova, Lars Ulrich, Katy Perry, and Paul McCartney.
It is the hottest ticket on the planet.
Inside the Sphere appears initially not unlike some other modern arenas. The lobby is beautiful, but the theatre itself has the look of a lean, mean, performance machine.
It takes the band – and team - to bring the magic. They launch into Zoo Station and The Fly. It takes you a minute to adjust to there being no Larry. The founder is missing, but we carry on.
The first transcendental moment arrives. If feels like the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel is descending upon you. The entire sphere is suddenly a blaze of vivid colours and animations, like a huge VR headset. But the god praised here is Elvis, with a living breathing montage of his every movie. There is a collective intake of breath.
As the night wears on wave after wave of stunning visual effects wash over you. Las Vegas, exactly as it would appear if the Sphere wasn’t there is deconstructed before your eyes, dawn appears to break, a huge ball floats out of the sea to envelop you in a huge panoply of birds and flowers.
I had talked to Adam and Edge earlier. I was going to ask them if the emotion of the songs might get lost in all that tech. I was so glad I hadn’t. As they hit their stride on One, I realised, if anything, it just helps capture U2’s bruised, spectacular, heart all the better.
Many people were crying at that point. Someone said, “we all have our U2 story” and we do. U2 is a band we have carried in our hearts a long time, and they have carried us too. It was a moment it seemed just to mark all that and reflect.
New song, Atomic City, was magnificent. It is a wonderful nod to all the disparate punks that had led us into this desert. To Las Vegas, the Glastonbury of gambling, to worship in the church of Elvis.
This is a remarkable show from a remarkable, unique band. Sound and vision have never before, been combined to such stunning emotional effect.
