2024-02-07

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"
"Party Girl"
"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 Exit Song: "Glorify" - U2 featuring Brittany Howard
Pre-Recorded Exit Song: "What A Wonderful World" - Louis Armstrong
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) / "Sympathy For The Devil" (Rolling Stones) / "Paint it Black" (Rolling Stones) / "Landlady" (U2) / "Into the Mystic" (Van Morrison) / "Happy Birthday" (Traditional Song) / "America" (Simon and Garfunkel) / "Viva Las Vegas" (Elvis Presley) / "My Way" (Frank Sinatra) / "Moment of Surrender" (U2) / "Gloria" (U2) / "Blackbird" (The Beatles) /

Show Details:

Tonight is U2’s 31st show at Sphere in Las Vegas, NV. The full listing of shows can be found in our show archive. Tonight marks a new record for most known performances in one venue. Prior to tonight, Madison Square Garden had seen the most U2 performances over the years, with a total of 30 performances including an appearance by Bono and Edge with Kendrick Lamar, and a short performance as part of the anniversary of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. As of tonight, Sphere holds that record, and with nine more shows after tonight, will likely hold on to it for a little while. These shows at Sphere have been played without Larry Mullen who is healing from surgery to repair years of damage from drumming. U2 is joined onstage by Bram van den Berg on drums for this show.

There is some chaos at the venue early in the day as someone decides to climb the outside of Sphere, reaching the top. The climber, known for climbing high rises to make a statement, was arrested by the Las Vegas Police.

Bono has been playing with light and darkness in his lyrics throughout the years, and ahead of “One” he shares, “Look we all know there’s a huge hungry darkness out there in the world, but, there is a light, that shines in the darkness, that the darkness can never put out. Show us your light.” Another interesting moment from Bono is at the start of “Who’s Gonna Ride Your Wild Horses” when he repeats, “The atom split. The stars have scattered. Energy at the heart of the matter. Atom split. The stars have scattered. Energy. The heart of the matter.” And at the start of “Tryin’ to Throw Your Arms Around the World” he introduces the balloon, “I am holding a balloon. Believing that this balloon is going to get me home. I’m holding a balloon, believing this balloon is going to make everything alright” before diving into a bit of “Landlady” taken from the band’s previous album.

The turntable segment starts with “All I Want is You”. Band introductions happen during the introduction to “Desire” with Bono returning to the circus theme, “If you’re going to run away with the circus, this is quite the big top is it not?” Bram’s introduction is a little lengthier than usual, “Bram van den Berg is too tall and too good looking to get a job in this freak show. But he has indeed has become this musical contortionist, who stands while sitting in for Larry Mullen Junior, which is impossible, but he’s made it possible. Give it up for Larry Mullen Junior and Bram Van den Berg.” Adam Clayton is quick tonight, “This is the ringmaster. Oh yes. The first one to believe that we could take our show town to town. First manager of U2. Right there, the ringmaster!” And the Edge? “On my right, spotlight on one of the great trapeze artists of the age, not because he attempts death-defying-grandstanding acts of show business, but precisely because he does not.” But Bono isn’t done there, he has one for himself as well, “One more. I nearly forgot about him because he’s so shy. The show pony of the circus, Bono Vox, thank you.”

Although the band were slow to make use of the “turntable set” to mix up the shows, in recent weeks this has changed, and tonight adds another new song to the mix. “Party Girl” is played for the first time since 2015, where it was last heard at a November show in London. Tonight the song ends with “Happy Birthday” for comedian Chris Rock who is at the show tonight. Rock has worked with Bono in the past with Bono appearing recently on the comedian’s special Selective Outrage, Rock appeared on Bono’s “Bono Calling” program on U2 X-Radio, and was part of Bono’s “Heart of America“ tour. In the turntable set, we’ve now heard 10 different songs since the shows restarted on January 26. Bono shares, “You know we have some very funny people in the audience, nothing to do with the ‘stache. I want to talk about comedians, just for a second. Right at the top of the food chain of what we might call the entertainment business, I would put comedians. Because, they have no where to hide, there’s no guitar they are carrying, there’s no tambourine. It’s just them, on their own, stand ups especially. The best of them are truth tellers. One of the greatest is in the room tonight. I want to give it up for a man who is spending his birthday with us, Chris Rock. Wherever there is a pint of Guinness on it’s way to you…” At the end of the song Bono gets the crowd to sing “Happy Birthday” wishing Chris, “Happy birthday sir, Slainte!” and toasting Chris with his own pint of Guinness from the stage.

Ahead of “Don’t Dream it’s Over” Bono shares a gift he’s been given by a member of U2’s team. “I have something else in my pocket. Somone gave me one of these, Martin Wroe gave me these. It’s a pack of cards called ‘Beautiful Troublemakers’ or something like that. I see on the back it says ‘protest can be fun, find pleasure in the process’, as Adrienne Maree Brown said, ‘feeling good is not frivilous, it’s freedom’. I like the sound of that. Because we are feeling pretty free here this evening, are you? Freedom is present, can I put it that way? We growing up in Ireland rock and roll was the sound of freedom. Rock and roll was the sound of liberation. Political, sexual, spirtual. We loved the sound of this word freedom. We came over to the land of the free. America. Don’t let anyone take your freedoms away, we love you.” During “Don’t Dream it’s Over” Bono includes a snippet of Simon and Garfunkle’s “America” tonight.

Like the last two shows, Elvis Presley’s version of “Viva Las Vegas” is heard between the main set and the encore over the PA system, prior to a remix of U2’s own “Elevation” being heard. During “Elevation” Bono works in some shout outs, “I believe in you. Guy O. How do you do? Jimmy Carr?” (Former U2 manager, Guy Oseary, is at the show this evening.) The encore sees Bono amazed by the crowd reception this evening. Coming out of “Where the Streets Have No Name” he comments, “That is not a Wednesday night! No.” hearing a loud crowd reaction. At the end of “With or Without You” he starts to talk but instead says “Let’s just listen to this!” and standing back and listening to the crowd. Ahead of starting “Beautiful Day” he shares, “I’d just like to apologize for committing the odd show business crime. like pretending there’s no encore…there’s an encore.”

The show ends with “Glorify” on the PA system. It is rumoured that the song is U2 with Brittany Howard. Bono sings along on some nights to the track, but does not tonight.

“Drive My Car” could be heard after “Zoo Station” as Bono thanked Pauli the PSM. “Love Me Tender” appears at the end of “One”. Both “Sympathy for the Devil” and “Paint it Black” show up in “Until the End of the World” although “Sympathy for the Devil” is very brief. “Landlady” appears at the start of “Tryin’ to Throw Your Arms Around the World”. “All I Want is You” ends with “Into the Mystic”. “Viva Las Vegas” ends the main set at the end of “Love is Blindness”. In the encore, “My Way” is at the end of “Elevation”, “Moment of Surrender” opens over the introduction of “Where the Streets Have No Name” and “Beautiful Day” includes both U2’s “Gloria” and “Blackbird”.

The “Lemon” remix which starts the show, began playing at 8:36pm tonight. Comedians David Spade, Ali Wong, and Adam Sandler are also spotted in the audience tonight. Football player Jason Kelce is also at the show, in town for the Super Bowl.

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