U2 opened the 2 billion dollar Sphere in Las Vegas this weekend. The building is a marvel, but the Irish Rock And Roll Hall of Fame band proved they were still the stars.
It seemed for the vast majority of people who made the trek to Las Vegas this weekend to see U2 open the new two billion dollar state of the art venue, The Sphere, they were there more for the novelty of the one of a kind building than U2.
In a way it makes sense. The Sphere, with its immersive graphics and experience and luminous 360 degree LED lights on the outside that have been beckoning visitors since early this year, is the new unknown commodity, while U2 are more than 40 years into their Rock And Roll Hall of Fame career. They are a proven entity, the Coke-Cola, Apple or Starbucks of rock bands. Well established, successful, nothing to prove.
Only someone forgot to tell them that because on night two at The Sphere they played with the fire of a group of kids trying to win a high school battle of the bands. I was lucky enough, as a kid, to be at their legendary 1983 Us Festival performance in So Cal, when the upstart Bono climbed to the top of a scaffolding waving a white flag, upstaging David Bowie’s first U.S. performance in five years that day, and setting U2 up to go on to be the biggest band in the world in the latter half of the ’80s.
I swear, watching them at The Sphere, they played with the same intensity as they did that day 40 years ago. Celebrating the seminal 1991 album Achtung Baby, frontman Bono, guitarist The Edge and bassist Adam Clayton, as well as drummer Bram van den Berg, filling in admirably for the injured Larry Mullen Jr., came out with the lights still up for an a capella version of « Zoo Station » before going full throttle into « side one » of Achtung Baby.
