It’s a bird, it’s a plane — no, it’s just a big announcement that U2 will perform at the all-new MSG Sphere in Las Vegas later this fall. The Irish rockers announced their “U2:UV Achtung Baby Live at the Sphere” residency with a commercial during the Super Bowl, depicting a baby’s head floating in a giant sphere over the Vegas strip before saying the word “achtung.” Get it? Like their 1991 album Achtung Baby?
U2’s run at the MSG Sphere marks the band’s first confirmed live performances in four years. As expected, drummer Larry Mullen Jr. won’t be joining the band as he takes time off to undergo and recuperate from surgery. Register here to be notified with details on the show dates and tickets.
“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,” the band said in a statement. “The Sphere show has been in the works for a long time. We don’t want to let people down, least of all our audience… the truth is we miss them as much as they appear to miss us… our audience was always the fifth member of the band.”
They continued, “Bottom line, U2 hasn’t played live since December 2019 and we need to get back on stage and see the faces of our fans again. And what a unique stage they’re building for us out there in the desert… We’re the right band, ACHTUNG BABY the right album, and the Sphere the right venue to take the live experience of music to the next level… That’s what U2’s been trying to do all along with our satellite stages and video installations, most memorably on the ‘ZOO TV Tour,’ which ended in Tokyo 30 years ago this Fall. The Sphere is more than just a venue, it’s a gallery and U2’s music is going to be all over the walls.”
The MSG Sphere is a $1.8 billion, 20,000-seat performance venue housed near The Venetian on the Vegas strip. It boasts 580,000 square feet of LED paneling, 170,000 ultra-directional speakers that utilize beamforming technology to deliver targeted audio to every seat in the venue, and a haptic flooring system, among many other high-tech features.
On St. Patrick’s Day, U2 will release their new album, Songs of Surrender, a reimagining of 40 songs from their back catalog. Thus far, they’ve shared the first single, “Pride (In The Name Of Love),” and a new version of their 1987 hit “With or Without You.” The ambitious project follows the release of Bono’s memoir Surrender: 40 Songs, One Story, in which he shared insights into the making of 40 songs from U2’s four-plus-decade career.