2023-12-16

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"
  • "Angel of Harlem"
  • "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

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) / "Walk On the Wild Side" (Lou Reed) / "Viva Las Vegas" (Elvis Presley) / "My Way" (Frank Sinatra) / "Moment of Surrender" (U2) / "Gloria" (U2) / "Blackbird" (The Beatles) /

Show Details:

Tonight is U2’s final show in 2023 at Las Vegas Sphere. Originally it was expected that this would be the final show that U2 would play, before they announced additional shows in 2024. 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. After this show, U2 will next play the venue at the end of January, continuing for a total of 40 shows across the two legs.

As this was originally planned as the final show of these Sphere shows, a large number of fans have traveled into Las Vegas for the weekend, and the crowd is a loud one, showing much excitement throughout the evening. Tonight the band goes back to the regular Rattle and Hum set list after the debut of a couple of new songs the previous night. This set list, first played opening weekend, has been the most common set of these twenty-five shows to date, appearing tonight for the tenth time.

The show kicks off with a remix of “Lemon” as usual, but something happens with the screen, and the display seems to stick, later replaced with a large black rectangle displayed on the screen over the stage, and large black areas displayed to the sides. David Bowie is played over the PA while the technical issues are sorted. Eventually the “Lemon” remix, featuring vocals by Gavin Friday restarts, but in a shortened form, and then the show starts as planned about six minutes later than originally expected. Bringing up the visuals for “The Fly” it also seems that the screen hesitates slightly. Bono mentions the issues after “The Fly” asking “How are you? Just had to reboot. Just a little reboot required, but you are ok?” From the start tonight, the band seems to be having fun on stage. Bono makes it clear he’s enjoying the crowd as well.

Opening “One” Bono shares, “A lot of darkness out there. What we are looking for is what we’ve got in here. What an over-used under-understood word — love. All that darkness. Anyone got a Christmas light?” Later during “Until The End of the World” Bono takes a walk into the audience, climbing down into the space between the stage and the front rail. He climbs up on the rail, holding hands of the audience as he starts to sing “Paint it Black” by The Rolling Stones. He takes a playful bite out of the arm of a fan in the front row before returning to the lyrics of “Until the End of the World” and returning to stage. The song also includes a snippet of Frankie Goes to Hollywood’s “Two Tribes” at the end of the song as a flag burns on screen.

Following “All I Want is You” Bono stops to introduce the band, “Not since October 1978 has this band played without Larry Mullen Junior. Who we want to send our love to on this, the last night before Christmas / New Year.” Bono continues to introduce the band. “The man who saved the day. He’s a legend around here. We love him. If only we could pronounce his name”. Bram does take the microphone tonight after his introduction sharing, “This thing doesn’t come with subtites does it? I want to wish all the U2 fans worldwide, a very merry Christmas.” Adam is introduced as “not merely a man, our very own Greek Adonis…a Greek God in a black jumpsuit with some very fancy streetwear, or about as street as you get”. The Edge is “an actual alchemist turning our shite into gold”. And about himself Bono shares, “At the center of attention, always. If you’re not talking about him he’s not listening. A giant in his own mind.”

A small lyric switch happens in the encore, when Bono changes “Blah, blah, blah” to the more festive “La, La, La” tonight. Bono later turns to the screen where Las Vegas is disappearing from the screens, returning to the desert that came before. “Hasta luego Las Vegas…so long!” The count into “Vertigo” is also different as helicopters fill the screen. “Uno, dos, helicoptor oh!”

During “With or Without You” Bono thanks the audience for their support. “Take care of yourselves. Take care of each other. Because you’ve taken care of us. What a life you have given us. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you!” and then asks the crowd to sing the band out one more time. After the song, Bono thanks the crowd again. “We know a lot of you have come a great distance to get us to our destination. We just want to say thank you, thank you, thank you once again. Praying for a peaceful, a more peaceful New Year. Bring some peace home with you tonight, there’s a lot of special feeling in this room. It is indeed a beautiful night.” At the end of the night after “Beautiful Day” Bono wishes the crowd “Merry Christmas” before leaving the stage and offers up another thank you to the crowd.

Bono slips in a line from The Beatles’ “Drive My Car” ahead of “The Fly” as he thanks Pauli the PSM, who has been using the song in his own set. “I Feel Love” makes an appearance in “Mysterious Ways”. At the end of “One” we get both Prince’s “Purple Rain” and Elvis’ “Love Me Tender”. “All I Want is You” ends with a long piece of “Walk on the Wild Side” and “Viva Las Vegas” is spoken over the end of “Love is Blindness”. In the encore, “My Way” finishes Elevation, “Moment of Surrender” opens “Where the Streets Have No Name”. “Beautiful Day” tonight is finished with U2’s own “Gloria” and “Blackbird”.

Initially five shows in Las Vegas were announced, quickly followed by seven more, and then five more taking us to the end of November. On May 12, the final shows for December were added, with all eight shows being available via a U2.com presale offer, where you could apply for the shows you were interested in. The offer ended on May 15. Face value on tickets range from $140.13 – $501.35 at four different price points for seats for face values. A General Admission floor will be priced at $267.88, and at each show there was be a (RED) Zone riser at the back of the GA area which held 50 people, priced at $600.00. Although these prices listed were face values, tickets in seated areas were subject to Platinum pricing in the general sale.

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Officially Released Tracks

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