2024-01-31

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"
"Two Hearts Beat as One"
"Seconds"
"Don't Dream It's Over"
"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 Intermission Song(s): "Viva Las Vegas" - Elvis Presley

Snippets of Other Songs Performed by U2:

"Drive My Car" (The Beatles) / "Love Me Tender" (Elvis Presley) / "Paint it Black" (Rolling Stones) / "Landlady" (U2) / "Walk On the Wild Side" (Lou Reed) / "Rock the Casbah" (The Clash) / "Viva Las Vegas" (Elvis Presley) / "My Way" (Frank Sinatra) / "Moment of Surrender" (U2) / "Gloria" (U2) / "Blackbird" (The Beatles) / "Glorify" (U2 featuring Brittany Howard) /

Show Details:

This is U2’s 28th show at Sphere in Las Vegas, and the third show of 2024, after taking a break for the holidays. The full listing of shows can be found in our show archive. These shows will be played without Larry Mullen who is healing from surgery to repair years of damage from drumming. U2 will once again be joined onstage by Bram van den Berg for these shows.

There’s excitement tonight throughout the show. The crowd appears to be very into the show, and Bono seems to be loving the reaction tonight. The big news of course is the “turntable” portion of the show. The band start out with “All I Want is You” and include a snippet of “Walk on the Wild Side” in the performance. Up next is “Two Hearts Beat as One” played just three times now in these shows, and it sounds like a tighter performances than those heard last year. Bono ends the song with a long snippet of “Rock the Casbah” by The Clash. “Seconds” comes next, making it the second War track in a row with Bono saying “let’s try something cool” as the song starts. The song had been played once before, but seemed to end early that night, tonight we get the full version. It too sounds like they’ve done some work on it and sounds much improved over the version heard last year. The turntable set ends tonight with “Don’t Dream it’s Over” for the third show in a row, a cover of a Crowded House song. The song with a chorus, “Hey now, hey now, don’t dream it’s over; Hey now, hey now, when the world comes in; They come to build a wall between us; We know they won’t win” follows a short discussion of freedom.

There is a bit of an issue in the crowd tonight during “All I Want is You”. Bono spots a fan in the crowd that is having some sort of issue, and calls for security to assist. The band continue to play while Bono is giving direction from the stage, asking the fan “are you ok? Somebody here needs a little bit of help down there Mr. Murphy…” He then asks the crowd to move to one side to allow security to move in to assist as the fan asks for help. “Can we just open a little passage up here…open up, open up, move back…” One fan is so intent on Bono right in front of him, and taking photographs, Bono has to address him directly, “Dude, with the camera, dude! Move back!” With the issue taken care of, and security signaling things are handled Bono shares “we are here for you” returning to “All I Want is You” and then taking the song into “Walk on the Wild Side”. We send out our wishes that the fan is ok.

Band introductions are slipped in while “Two Hearts Beat as One” play in the background. “What a magnificent bass! What a magnificent moussss-tache! What a magnificent man, Adam Clayton, first manager of U2, first person to believe that we’d be something we could manage.” Bono turns to the drums, “Sitting in an impossible position, sitting in for Larry Mullen Jr… on the drums Bram van den Berg.” Bono shares of The Edge, “The man to go to! Anything you want in your life, any sound you want in your life, he might disappear for a few days but he will find you that sound.” Bono giggles and suggests he can’t say the next but goes ahead anyway, “For a white, dare I say it Irish-slash-Welshman, you are so funky mother fucker, The Edge!” Bono next shares about himself, “When I grew up, I was hoping that when I grew up I would become Joe Strummer” leading into an extended piece of “Rock the Casbah” which has the crowd cheering.

Another change later in the show sees the end of “Love is Blindness” changed tonight. Bono has been using the words from “Viva Las Vegas” over the end of the song since the start of the shows. He leaves the stage as he sings the song over “Love is Blindness”. Tonight as Bono finishes singing the song, Elvis’s version of “Viva Las Vegas” can be heard coming up on the PA and plays through to the start of the “Elevation” remix that the band play over the PA prior to returning to stage for the encore. About a minute and a half of the Elvis recording is played. The band is filming two shows later in February, and as they’ve done on previous tours, expect to see little tweaks as they near the filming date.

An early snippet is The Beatles’ “Drive My Car” played just after Bono mentions Pauli the PSM after “Zoo Station”. “Landlady” appears at the start of “Tryin’ to Throw Your Arms Around the World” tonight. “My Way” appears at the end of “Elevation”. U2’s own “Moment of Surrender” is heard over the start of “Where the Streets Have No Name”. “Gloria” and “Blackbird” are both heard at the end of “Beautiful Day” tonight. At the end of the night as Brittany Howard’s vocals on “Glorify” can be heard over the PA, Bono sings along to the song.

Actor Corey Feldman is in attendance at the show tonight. The “Lemon” remix which opens the show over the PA started at 8:30.

Many thanks to Nadia and Jesse for their help with this report.

On October 19, 11 additional shows for 2024 at Sphere were announced. The first 11 announced shows, had a presale opportunity via U2.com which started right away, with requests due October 21, 2023 by 10pm. Vibee packages went on-sale immediately when the shows were announced. General sales started on October 25 with staggered start times. (11am PT for Jan. 26, 27; 12pm PT for Jan. 31, Feb. 02, 03; 1pm PT for Feb. 07, 09, 10; and 2pm PT for Feb. 15, 17, 18.) Ticket pricing at face value included GA Floor at $267.88, seats ranging from $140.13 to $501.35, and (RED) Zone tickets at $600. During all general sales, most tickets were raised in price due to Platinum pricing with the exception of Floor and (RED) Zone. On December 1, 2023, a special sale was held for local Las Vegas College and University students, offering GA tickets for $25 in-person at Sphere box office. VIP / Hotel and Ticket / Hotel packages were once again available via Vibee.

Officially Released Tracks