2023-10-20

Sphere, Las Vegas, NV

Set List of Show:

Main Set:

"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"
"When Love Comes to Town"
"Love Rescue Me"
"Acrobat"
"So Cruel"
"Ultra Violet (Light My Way)"
"Love is Blindness"

Encore:

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

Additional Music

Pre-Recorded Intro Song: "Lemon" (Remix) - U2
Pre-Recorded Exit Song: "Glorify" - U2 featuring Brittany Howard
Pre-Recorded Exit Song: "What A Wonderful World" - Louis Armstrong

Snippets of Other Songs Performed by U2:

"I Feel Love" (Donna Summer) / "Purple Rain" (Prince) / "Love Me Tender" (Elvis Presley) / "Non, Je Ne Regrette Rien" (Edith Piaf) / "Break On Through" (The Doors) / "Can't Get You Out of My Head" (Kylie Minogue) / "Supermassive Black Hole" (Muse) / "Viva Las Vegas" (Elvis Presley) / "My Way" (Frank Sinatra) / "Moment of Surrender" (U2) / "Blackbird" (The Beatles) / "Glorify" (U2 featuring Brittany Howard) /

Show Details:

Tonight U2 plays their tenth night of 25 shows in 2023 at the Las Vegas Sphere. Earlier in the week they have announced they’ll be back in 2024 for an additional 11 shows, bringing the total to 36. The full listing of shows can be found in our U2 show archive. U2 are performing these shows without founding member, Larry Mullen Junior, who is missing due to surgery to repair damage suffered from years of drumming. A Dutch drummer, Bram van den Berg replaces Mullen at these shows in Las Vegas.

As they have with most nights so far, U2 keep the set list pretty stable. The middle of the first act, they return to the songs of Rattle and Hum but tonight “Angel of Harlem” sits out in favour of “When Love Comes to Town”. It is the first time “When Love Comes to Town” has been played at Sphere, and the first time the song has been played since the June 2018 appearance at the Apollo Theatre in New York.

The show tonight is opened by DJ Pauli the PSM, Atomic MC, who has been opening every show at Sphere. Tonight it’s also been announced he is taking over the weekly Discotheque remix show on U2 X-Radio, which features a mix of U2 songs and songs that he is featuring in these Sphere performances.

Introducing “Mysterious Ways” Bono shares that there is a password for tonight, spelling out “F-L-I-R-T-ation” skipping through the end when he realizes it’s going a bit long. In the introduction to “Who’s Gonna Ride Your Wild Horses” Bono recites, “The atom split, the stars are scattered, the beating heart, in the heart of all matter, the atom split, the stars are scattered” before asking the crowd to “hold us up.” No one is pulled up from the crowd tonight, but the balloon is out this evening. Tonight it is tied to one of the cameras, providing a shot up the string on the screen.

Tonight Kylie Minogue is at the show, and Bono takes the opportunity to slip in a reference during “All I Want is You” – at the end of the song he sings four lines from her song “Can’t Get You Out of My Head” and leads the crowd in a little sing along of the “la la la” bit of the song after he is finished. She is seen dancing and singing along to songs throughout the show.

Bono speaks again about the album segment in the middle of the show. He admits that the band has some other albums that the band are planning on playing later in the shows in Vegas, “when we get our shit together”. Introducing the band during this segment Bono speaks about Lord Adam Charles Clayton, saying “how mesmerizing you and your bass are” and saying his bass parts never get old, nor does Adam. The Edge is called the band’s “musical director” and Bono shares, “you are kind of extraordinary, a genius, and in a town full of magicians, you are more of an alchemist, turning our shite into gold. Turning your guitar into an orchestra, even when you’re just scratching away, you’re like Leonard Bernstein and Yo-Yo Ma”. Introducing Bram, “He’s too tall. He’s too good looking. He has both the confidence and the humility to sit on Larry Mullen Junior’s drum stool.” Bram speaks to the audience sharing, “Well being here night after night with these three lovely gentlemen meant that I had to take a break from my own band, Krezip, who actually they flew in today, probably to check that this is all true. But I really want to thank them very much for their support.” Bono promises to get Bram back to Krezip, but doesn’t make a promise what shape he’ll be in when he’s returned.

Bono talks about traveling through the US, and the days they would spend on a bus traveling through the country. He remembers road trips, including one he took with Adam from Los Angeles, to Nashville to visit Johnny and June Carter Cash. He talks about the whole band visiting Sun Studios. And he talks about the music coming out of the Mississippi River, and he talks about B.B. King, who he associates with Memphis, and how B.B. King lived in Las Vegas, and it was in Las Vegas that he was living when he died. He then introduces “When Love Comes to Town”. At the end of the song, Bono shares that he is realizing for the first time that the lyric from “When Love Comes to Town” inspired the title for “Love Rescue Me”. He shares that “Love Rescue Me” could be thought of as a prayer if you were the praying type, “if you’re not, let it be some kind of meditation, because we need peace in this world.”

Other snippets throughout the evening include “I Feel Love” briefly in “Mysterious Ways”. A bit of “Purple Rain” is added to “One” and “Love Me Tender” fills the space between “One” and “Until the End of the World”. “Until the End of the World” includes a piece of Edith Piaf’s “Non, Je Ne Regrette Rien” and ends with a powerful piece from the Doors’ “Break on Through” as the flag burns in the sky. “Desire” includes a couple of lines of Muse’s “Supermassive Black Hole”. “Love is Blindness” ends with a bit of “Viva Las Vegas”. “My Way” is at its usual spot at the end of “Elevation”. “Moment of Surrender” leads into “Where the Streets Have No Name”. Bono includes a bit of “Blackbird” at the end of “Beautiful Day”. After the show ends, a yet unreleased song by a female vocalist, titled “Glorify” plays over the PA system. As he has on other nights, Bono sings along to the song as he leaves the stage.

Along with Kylie Minogue and Bram’s band members in Krezip, The Edge’s daughter Sian is also at the show tonight.

Many thanks to Jenna and Rory for their assistance with tonight’s write up, and providing coverage of these last few shows.

Initially only the first five shows in Las Vegas were announced. An additional seven shows were quickly added on April 25. (October 11, 13, 14, 18, 20, 21, and 25 were the newly announced shows.) The opportunity to apply for pre-sale tickets opened immediately on April 24, with the initial show announcement. These new shows were part of the same pre-sale, and those who had already applied were given a chance to change to these new dates if desired. Ticket face value ranged from $140.13 – $501.35 at four different price points for seats. A General Admission floor was priced at $267.88, and at each show there was be a (RED) Zone riser at the back of the GA area which will hold 50 people, priced at $600.00. When the ticket sale for verified fans opened on Thursday April 27, Platinum pricing was in effect for the seats in the venue, with most tickets being priced well beyond these original prices. The general on sale, on Friday April 28 was announced to be cancelled by Ticketmaster due to demand, but later the verified fan restrictions were lifted at that time anyway.

Officially Released Tracks