U2 made a big splash during Super Bowl LVII with the announcement of their new Las Vegas residency U2:UV Achtung Baby Live At The Sphere.
Taking place in Fall 2023, the residency will take place at the new MSG Sphere at the Venetian. The residency was teased in a brief ad spot, but an extended cut clocking in at 3:57 is available to view below.
According to the video’s YouTube description, the MSG Sphere contains approximately 17,500 seats and will have a scalable capacity up to 20,000 guests. The venue will feature state-of-the-art technology. Among its features are “the world’s highest resolution LED screen … a multi-layered audio system – Sphere Immersive Sound – equipped with thousands of speakers.” Additionally, “The venue will also feature 4D multi-sensory technologies such as immersive seating, evocative scents and changing temperatures, to take experiential storytelling to an entirely new level.”
While these shows will be the band’s first live shows in four years, they will be without drummer Larry Mullen Jr. He told The Washington Post in November that he won’t be able to perform in 2023 due to needing surgery. U2’s website confirmed this in an announcement of the residency. The band also announced Bram van den Berg will be filling in.
Bono, The Edge and Adam Clayton said in a joint statement, “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 joint statement continued, “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. 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.”
The statement added, “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.”
Fans can register for the chance to buy tickets to U2:UV Achtung Baby Live At The Sphere at VerifiedFan.LiveNation.com/U2.
