After 40 shows, U2 wrapped up their Las Vegas residency, U2: UV Achtung Baby Live at Sphere, this weekend with shows on Friday and Saturday.
They were the debut act at the $2-billion dollar venue, which they opened on September 29th and 30th followed by 12 shows in October; three in November; eight in December; three in January; 10 in February; and two in March.
Drummer Larry Mullen, who sat out the residency as he recovered from back surgery, was in the audience for both shows, and Bono pointed him out saying, “That is the man who pinned the note on the notice board at Mount Temple Comprehensive School all those years ago. And we are very grateful that he did and that he’s here with us tonight. We wish him a speedy, speedy, speedy recovery. We love you, Larry Mullen Jr.” The band then launched into “Beautiful Day.”
Afterwards, Mullen took to Instagram, saying, “What an incredible night at [the] Sphere. So Grateful to Bono, Edge, and Adam [Clayton], and of course [my replacement] Bram [van den Berg] for an amazing job –very emotional night for me personally.”
Also on hand was Daniel Lanois, the producer of Achtung Baby, who came out to play guitar on one of that album’s songs, “One.” (Dave Grohl, Brian Eno, Achtung Baby‘s other producer, and First Lady Jill Biden were in attendance.)
Another surprise was a virtual duet with Neil Finn on Crowded House‘s “Don’t Dream it’s Over,” which they’ve been doing, minus Finn, to honor Russian opposition leader, the late Alexei Navalny.
Bono set up the duet saying, “The other day we got a beautiful email from Neil Finn, who wrote this bewilderingly beautiful song. Attached to the email was a version of the song he said we could play whenever we wanted. It’s a new version that he did, and we’re going to try and record it.
“Neither party has spoken to our record label [about releasing this], so this might be the only recording that might ever exist. Please take your phones and send it to whoever loves freedom you know. Maybe send it to people that don’t [too]. There’s a few of them around.”
And, seeing as how it was the 40th and final show, it was only appropriate that they end with “40” off their third album, 1983’s War, which they hadn’t played since 2016. Going into it Bono said, “It’s been 40 days and 40 nights in the desert. What’s a fellow with a messianic complex going to do? Here’s a song we wrote in 40 minutes. I opened up the sacred text of the Psalm of David. I just kind of read it out. That was the lyric.”
U2 have not announced what is next, but perhaps they’ll get back to recording their next album, which they say is “guitar driven.” This is the longest they’ve gone in their career between albums with new material. The last one was 2017’s Songs of Experience.
And, there probably will be a visual release from the Sphere as cameras were rolling for the past two weekends.
Up next at the Sphere is Phish from April 18th to the 21st followed by Dead & Company with 24 shows from May 16th to July 13th.
U2 – UV: Achtung Baby Live at the Sphere, March 2nd, 2024:
- “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”
- “All I Want Is You”
- “Desire”
- “Angel of Harlem”
- “Don’t Dream it’s Over”
- “Acrobat”
- “So Cruel”
- “Ultraviolet (Light My Way)”
- “Love Is Blindness”
- “Elevation”
- “Atomic City”
- “Vertigo”
- “Where the Streets Have No Name”
- “With or Without You”
- “Beautiful Day”
- “40”
Here are the final figures from the residency:
- First act to play the Sphere
- 40 shows
- 661,456 tickets sold
- $256,000,000 in total revenue
- U2’s take: $170,000,000 — $4-million per show from Live Nation plus $10-million from Madison Square Garden, which owns the Sphere
- 1,886 speakers – 1,586 belongs to the venue, with U2 adding 300 more
- 160,000 square-foot 16K LED screen – largest in the world
- Residency took 18 months to plan
- Number of songs played: 39
