Review: U2 Dazzles with Stunning ‘UV Achtung Baby Live at Sphere’ Concert Experience in Las Vegas

Vegas Information

With each concert tour over the past three decades, U2 has managed to one-up the competition by utilizing some new audiovisual technology in a unique way.

U2: UV Achtung Baby is no exception.

Late last month, the spectacular production celebrating one of the veteran Irish rock band’s best and more successful studio albums helped launch Sphere Las Vegas. Located adjacent to The Venetian Resort, Sphere is the world’s biggest globular structure (516 feet wide; 366 feet tall).

Built for immersive concert and film experiences at an estimated cost of $2.3 billion, it contains a huge wraparound screen with 16K resolution and 270 million video pixels – the largest anywhere. The venue can hold up to 20,000 people with combined seating and standing room configurations.

Rock Cellar attended the Oct. 5 show. Social media posts described concertgoers at the first three gigs who apparently bought tickets just to experience Sphere and didn’t know much, if anything, about U2. After witnessing the band’s Las Vegas performances, it was pretty apparent that anyone with a ticket will surely be won over by the band’s powerful music as well as the awesome sights.

Inside Sphere, the atrium has an eye-catching, translucent midnight blue and lavender interior. Planetary images align one wall and multiple metal ringed mobiles hang in curved patterns from the ceiling. There was plenty of leg room between the rows in the lower 100 section, firm cushion seats and cupholders placed in front. Kudos to the venue for being unusually customer service friendly: several U2 fans wrote online about being able to exchange obstructed-view seats for better ones.

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The turntable stage was designed by longtime U2 studio producer, musician, and visual collaborator Brian Eno, alongside Willie Williams (another U2 creative team fixture since the ‘80s), Es Devlin and Stufish. Eno devised a lighting algorithm that created a rotating color palate for the stage hue.

Devlin’s Nevada Ark sculpture collage spotlights 26 of the Silver State’s endangered species. A video sequence by Marco Brambilla features a mind-boggling array of AI-generated Elvis Presleys, real and imagined (Austin Butler’s film portrayal of “The King” among them). Other visual art participants include John Gerrard, Industrial Light & Magic, and Treatment Studio in London.

U2 just released its spirited new single “Atomic City” and its music video, shot on Fremont Street in Downtown Las Vegas. Sphere concerts are the first in the band’s 45-year history without founding drummer Larry Mullen Jr., who bowed out due to back surgery. Bram van den Berg, of the Dutch rock band Krezip, is his temporary replacement.

At the Oct. 5 show, DJ Pauli PSM (Harry Styles’ musical director/percussionist) did an hour-long warmup set inside an illuminated, specially painted Trabant, the German car used as a spotlight during the Zoo TV Tour for Achtung Baby in 1992-93.

A “Lemon” remix and Eno’s “Choral Intro” served as U2’s Sphere walkup music. Bono immediately put on his fly shades and got down to business as the group kicked off an exhilarating two-hour, 22-song performance with “Zoo Station.” Their images were projected on panels; Bono spun around and hung on a microphone stand as he sang.

The audio mix was pristine, as expected, with more than 1,000 Sphere speakers. Although Bono, guitarist/singer The Edge and bassist Adam Clayton hadn’t toured since 2019, they sounded great.

Quick, random rotating words and phrases, such as “Everything You Know is Wrong,” flashed on the wall during “The Fly,” a throwback from Zoo TV. A dizzying array of “The Matrix”-styled numbers and letters then appeared to rain down the screen. Edge added a fresh squalling guitar sound at the end. An optical illusion made it appear as if the ceiling was collapsing. “Even Better Than The Real Thing,” paired with Brambilla’s circular and floating downward cascade of Elvis at various career junctures, was a wonder to behold.

“What is this strange orb, a cathedral in a city where love and lust fight it out?,” asked Bono, adding “We’ve got an Elvis cathedral here. Let’s get married.”

“Mysterious Ways” was funky as ever, Clayton’s bass work standing out; the ballad “One” found the crowd singing along loudly. Bono used a revised lyric from 2023’s reimagined Songs of Surrender collection and continued the practice later on a few other songs. He had no trouble nailing the high falsetto ending, a minor concern, after having lamented the dry desert air’s effect on his throat around the residency launch. Still, Bono did engage in a few “let the audience take over singing” gestures.

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More Elvis Presley references arrived with a snippet of “Love Me Tender” (bits of “Suspicious Minds” and “Viva Las Vegas” also crop up later). Van den Berg acquitted himself well in the timekeeper’s seat, particularly on the thunderous “Until the End of the World” (where Bono added some Edith Piaf) and a more pop inflected “Who’s Gonna Ride Your Wild Horses.”

The languid “Tryin’ to Throw Your Arms Around the World” saw Bono pull on a rope attached to an animated balloon and then invite a French female fan onstage to sit in a rope swing. “We’re renewing our vows with the band and the U2 crowd,” said the singer. “Our vow is we wouldn’t be boring bastards.”

No chance there.

A stripped-down, four song segment focused on 1988’s Rattle and Hum film soundtrack album downplayed the visual effects. The romantic “All I Want is You” contained a “Walk on the Wild Side” snippet and was dedicated to Eddie Vedder in the house (too bad the Pearl Jam frontman couldn’t have hopped onstage for a guest spot). A fiery “Desire” finished with Bono’s wailing harmonica work. Some of Bono’s lyrical tangents were familiar and expected; others, obviously a surprise even to Edge and Clayton. Both occasionally looked bemused at their frontman. One can only imagine how van den Berg felt.

The tender Bob Dylan co-write “Love Rescue Me” was dedicated to doctors and nurses that worked tirelessly during the COVID-19 pandemic. Edge deftly moved from electric piano to guitar when U2 transitioned into Achtung Baby Set 2 on a streamlined “So Cruel.” He really proved his mettle with supple backing vocals for the haunting “Ultraviolet (Light My Way)” and a stunning, crystalline guitar solo to cap off “Love is Blindness.”

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U2 raised the excitement level several notches during the encore with high adrenaline-fueled renditions of “Elevation,” “Atomic City” (a realistic Las Vegas strip scene courtesy Industrial Light & Magic was projected on the wall), “Vertigo” and a dramatic “Where the Streets Have No Name” (dressed up with an exact replica of the Mojave Desert landscape). The Edge had to quickly change guitars mid-song, but it didn’t detract from the sound. The band looked as if it was actually performing in the ocean on “With or Without You.” Finally, Devlin’s fascinating animal collage sculpture changed colors in tandem with the life-affirming lyrics of concert closer “Beautiful Day.”

U2’s set list from Sphere, Oct. 5, 2023:

Zoo Station
The Fly
Even Better Than the Real Thing
Mysterious Ways
One
Until the End of the World
Who’s Gonna Ride Your Wild Horses
Tryin’ to Throw Your Arms Around the World
Turntable
All I Want Is You
Desire
Angel of Harlem
Love Rescue Me
Achtung Baby
So Cruel
Acrobat
Ultraviolet (Light My Way)
Love Is Blindness
Encore
Elevation
Atomic City
Vertigo
Where the Streets Have No Name
Beautiful Day

All told, Sphere was definitely worth the hype, and U2 the perfect band to inaugurate it.

The first part of the residency is mostly sold out and concludes Dec. 16. The group has a two-year contract at the venue. Additional shows are expected to be added in the near future.

Click here for the full schedule & ticket details.

A side note: U2 fans attending future shows would be wise to arrive a few hours early to enjoy the free Zoo Station Fan Portal at the Venetian Resort. It has rare and iconic U2 images by longtime band photographer Anton Corbijn grouped by year, a pop-up merch shop, concert films (for an additional fee) and several photo opportunities, including a Trabant.