2023-10-28

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:

    "Drive My Car" (The Beatles) / "I Feel Love" (Donna Summer) / "Purple Rain" (Prince) / "Love Me Tender" (Elvis Presley) / "Paint it Black" (Rolling Stones) / "Two Tribes" (Frankie Goes to Hollywood) / "Into the Mystic" (Van Morrison) / "Viva Las Vegas" (Elvis Presley) / "My Way" (Frank Sinatra) / "Moment of Surrender" (U2) / "Satellite of Love" (Lou Reed) / "Glorify" (U2 featuring Brittany Howard) /

Show Details:

Tonight U2 plays their fourteenth night of 25 shows in 2023 at the Las Vegas Sphere. An additional 11 shows will bring the total to 36 with newly added shows going on sale earlier this week. 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.

The show tonight has the Rattle and Hum middle section as it has had for most previous nights. Tonight “When Love Comes to Town” is played and “Angel of Harlem” is not. Out of 14 shows, there has only been two nights where they haven’t focused on Rattle and Hum in the middle of the show. This weekend marks the 35th anniversary of the Irish debut of that film in 1988.

Introducing “Mysterious Ways” Bono stops to talk about Sphere, “It’s a cave when you want it to be. It’s a club in Berlin in the 90s. It’s an Elvis cathedral, in a city where luck goes up against faith everyday. That right. There’s a big fight on tonight is there not The Edge? Because personally, I, we are ready to fall in love. Love vs Luck. We are in a flirtatious mood are we not?” Bono also works in a snippet of “I Feel Love” during the song. After “Mysterious Ways” bono reads some of the lines from “Mysterious Ways” and finishing turns to the audience and says “Poetry right?”

“Who’s Gonna Ride Your Wild Horses” has snippets of both “Paint it Black” and “Two Tribes” tonight. “Tryin’ to Throw Your Arms Around the World” is introduced as a song about “drunk ambition”. Although the ladder and balloon are seen on the stage, no one is brought up on stage this evening.

Bono is talkative during the Rattle and Hum segment. Ahead of “Desire” he introduces Bram who is filling in for Larry Mullen, “Let me introduce you to a man who became who became a fan of U2 on the Pop album in 1998. Not only a fan, a student of Larry Mullen Jr. Now, more a PhD on Larry Mullen. We love this man. This is Bram van den Berg. When we started out in Dublin rehearsing, the musicians in the band were there a few days before I got there, because they wanted it that way. And I was talking to Adam and Edge in the room and in came this Dutch gentleman. He just looked at me and went ‘oh, there is a fourth member of u2’. That Cuban feel, he’s got it.”

Introducing “Love Rescue Me” Bono asks that it be a prayer, but explains, “We’re under some gigantic waves right now in the world. It’s quite a storm. Of course religion plays its part. I think it’s ok for me to confess, that as a person of faith, I feel so enraged by religion. Sometimes just not the help it’s supposed to be. If you’re not the praying type people, just close your eyes and let this be a meditation of some kind.”

Going into “When Love Comes to Town” Bono speaks about travel, “Anyone on a road trip? Could be a train trip, a plane trip, could be a bicycle trip. We like road trips round here. Adam and myself used to love road trips, we’d share a car across the United States.” He speaks about a visit to Johnny and June Carter Cash, a visit to the church that Al Green would feature at, Sun Studios, and a trip to the desert to meet with Richard Rohr. “Now in Memphis, we think of three kings, The King, Dr. Martin Luther King who was slain there April 4, 1968, and B.B. King, who though he grew up around Beale Street in Memphis, well he lived and he died in this city of Las Vegas, we’d like to honor him tonight. He died the 14th of May, 2015, and I remember we wrote this song just by being in a room with him…”

Along with the songs mentioned above Bono also worked a piece of The Beatles’ “Drive My Car” at the start of “The Fly”. “Purple Rain” by Prince is heard at the end of “One” and “Love Me Tender” features between “One” and “Until the End of the World”. Van Morrison’s “Into the Mystic” finishes “All I Want is You” and “Viva Las Vegas” has its usual spot at the end of “Love is Blindness”. In the encore “My Way” is heard at the end of “Elevation” and “Where the Streets Have No Name” opens with U2’s own “Moment of Surrender”. “Beautiful Day” includes a snippet of Lou Reed’s “Satellite of Love”.

As he has been doing most nights, after the show is ended, “Glorify” can be heard over the PA. The song, sung by Brittany Howard, has been heard every night since the Sphere shows have started, but tonight is the first night that Bono has identified that it is Howard that sings on the track. Howard recently signed with Island Records, and has a new album coming soon. Like other nights, Bono sings along to “Glorify” tonight before leaving the stage.

Guests at the show tonight include Harrison Ford and Calista Flockhart. Elon Musk is also at the show.

Many thanks to Sallie-Ann and to Jason for letting us into the sound tonight.

Initially five shows in Las Vegas were announced, quickly followed by seven more. These all went to pre-sale and verified fan sale at the same time. During these verified fan sales an additional five shows were added on April 27 and went immediately on sale without a pre-sale. This show was one of these five. U2.com did offer a special sale for these shows after the Verified fan sales had happened. All sales outside of the U2.com sales were subject to Platinum pricing. 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.

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