U2 announced an upcoming Las Vegas residency during the 2023 Super Bowl tonight in a new commercial. Achtung Baby Live at the Sphere will take place at the new MSG Sphere at the Venetian in Las Vegas, Nevada this fall. Exact dates have not yet been revealed, but the band has shared a trailer announcing the news. U2 will be the first act to perform at the 17,500-seat venue when it opens after years of construction. The band teased the ad earlier this afternoon on social media. Check out U2’s trailer for the residency below.
Earlier in the night, a new rendition of U2’s Achtung Baby song “One” soundtracked the NFL’s Walter Payton Man of the Year presentation. The song will appear on their upcoming album Songs of Surrender. Scroll down to listen to the new version.
The residency announcement comes with confirmation that drummer Larry Mullen Jr. will take time out to undergo and recuperate from surgery in 2023. Drummer Bram van den Berg will sit in for Mullen, joining Bono, the Edge, and Adam Clayton onstage at MSG Sphere.
“It‘s going to take all we’ve got to approach the Sphere without our bandmate in the drum seat, but Larry has joined us in welcoming Bram van den Berg who is a force in his own right,” Bono, the Edge, and Clayton said in a press release. They continued:
The Edge added:
“The beauty of the Sphere is not only the ground-breaking technology that will make it so unique, with the world’s most advanced audio system, integrated into a structure which is designed with sound quality as a priority; it’s also the possibilities around immersive experience in real and imaginary landscapes. In short, it’s a canvas of an unparalleled scale and image resolution and a once-in-a-generation opportunity. We all thought about it and decided we’d be mad not to accept the invitation.”
The last time U2 went on tour was back in 2019 when they played The Joshua Tree album in full. Afterwards, the band reissued The Unforgettable Fire and How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb on vinyl, re-released All That You Can’t Leave Behind for its 20th anniversary, and dropped two new songs titled “Ahimsa” and “Your Song Saved My Life.”
On March 17, U2 will release their new album Songs of Surrender. The 40-track LP includes reimagined and rerecorded songs from their career. It follows Bono’s memoir Surrender: 40 Songs, One Story, which came out last November. Revisit new versions on “Beautiful Day” and “Pride (In the Name of Love)” by the recent Kennedy Center honorees.
Read about U2’s album Achtung Baby at No. 118 on Pitchfork’s list “The 150 Best Albums of the 1990s.”