Vegas: February 2024: Day 1: U2

February 2024: Day 1: U2

United 737-900ER in Continential heritage livery.

Watching a Skywest CRJ200 first officer do pre-flight inspection.

Terminal 8's Panda Express. They were very generous with the chicken.

Bathroom at Octavius Tower, Caesar's Palace.

Regular bedroom. Huge.

Upkeep clearly not the best, but still.

Bathroom at Octavius Tower, Caesar's Palace.

Looked fancy. Again upkeep not the best, but looked fancy.

Harrah's promoting the Super Bowl.

Dragon for Lunar New Year inside The Venetian.

Walking over to The Sphere.

Advertising tonight's U2 show.

Even the bottle water inside Sphere is branded.

Back in general admission.

Bono opens with Zoo Station.

Just two rows back from the front.

Adam performing The Fly.

U2 takes full advantage of The Sphere's 16K display layout for Even Better Than the Real Thing.

Asking the audience for their lights.

Bono, The Edge, and Adam.

Never has an LED screen made flames look so real.

Jammin'.

Bono comes back to stage left.

Balloon on screen with an actual rope dangling down.

Said rope, moving walkway, and door.

The stage itself is a full on screen, both on top and on the sides.

Great effect with shadows.

Celebrating living things.

Celebrating (and deconstructing) Las Vegas.

U2 is very dramatic when they want to be.

With Or Without You.

Comedian Chris Rock was here for his birthday.

Braum giving his drum sticks to a lucky fan.

The Edge.

Crazies who see far too much U2.

Sphere is of course promoting the Super Bowl.

Dragon and phoenix inside The Venetian for Lunar New Year.

Deep fried cauliflower at Grand Lux was okay.

Asian style chicken lettuce wraps.

Dennis looks unimpressed.

Ceilings inisde The Venetian.

U2 for the second time in as many weeks might be excessive, but given their residency in Vegas is ending soon, why not? Besides Pearl is even crazier than I am and her better half is nice enough to indulge her. Pearl also scored Caesars Palace rooms at a great price, which didn't hurt either! The rooms are definitely adequate for a quick trip, so checked-in, got settled, then picked up to-go from Pronto at Giada to eat while waiting in the general admission line at Sphere.

The wait flew by, the ~45 minutes or so (doors opened at 6:30pm) seemed like barely enough time to eat our turkey and bacon wraps before the line was let in. Headed over to Adam's side (stage left) just like our previous show in GA at Sphere, managed to get just one row behind the fence-- and could have been directly on the rail but would have been a bit further away from the front of the stage.

Pearl's preference on where to go turned out well-- Bono spent a decent amount of the at the left side of the stage, the crowd was really into it, and even comedian Chris Rock was in attendance for his birthday. Definitely felt like slightly more variety than the usual, the visuals were slightly refined (Mysterious Ways visuals got changed a bit? I couldn't remember...) even before you consider that Bono sent a Guinness up to Chris Rock's private booth along with a happy birthday!

In particular, The Fly remains an amazing introduction to The Sphere's audio/visual capabilities, with the dome of digital-style, rainbow-colored letters encompassing you, then seeming to collapse down from the ceiling. Immediately after is Even Better Than the Real Thing which is also fully utilizing what The Sphere can do, but with an entirely different graphical style. Mysterious Ways is next and goes to a more normal what you might see in a concert visual, but being Sphere, it's more imposing than a normal venue and is still way cool even the third tiem around.

Until the End of the World was Bono and Adam gracing the left side of the stage with their presence, while Who's Gonna Ride Your Wild Horses was back to U2 showcasing Sphere's capabilities again, this time with a full-dome fireworks/sparklers-enveloping-you experience. Tryin' to Throw Your Arms Around the World retained the fake ballon with real string dangling from the ceiling, and the cover of Dont Dream It's Over, complete with the stage fully lit as a visual piece, was an unexpected touch.

Ultraviolet again goes for a more conventional concert experience, yet still enhanced by a full 360 dome (makes me really wish I had a 360 camera to capture!), and it remains such an iconic song- you can see the whole band totally getting into it. For Vertigo the graphics look Bono and the rest of the band look like massive idols as each is individually projected on stage, while to open Where the Streets Have No Name Bono heads to stage left, lies on the floor, and begins singing as a simulated sunrise over the desert fills the venue.

Finally, for With Or Without You, the imagery of the water and a massive sphere that then explode into a sky filled with life is just as amazing the third time around, and of course, the life filling the interior of the Sphere gets colorized for the final song, Beautiful Day. If it sounds breathtaking, that is because it is.

After the show, wandered back to The Venetian and caught up with Dennis for a midnight snack at Grand Lux Cafe. It may be a fancy Cheesecake Factory, with appetizers pretty much identical, but it was great to catch up!

Setlist courtesy of Setlist.fm:
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
Trash, Trampoline and the Party Girl
Happy Birthday to You (sung to Chris Rock)
Don't Dream It's Over (Crowded House cover)

Acrobat
So Cruel
Ultraviolet (Light My Way)
Love Is Blindness

Encore:
Elevation
Atomic City
Vertigo
Where the Streets Have No Name
With or Without You
Beautiful Day