U2:UV At The Sphere Opening Night Recap

Ultraviolet light is invisible to human eye, but is detectable by insects. It can lure them to plants to pollenate, but it can also lure them to their death through the use of a bug zapper. The novelty of ultraviolet light is it can cause things to glow with just the right pigmentation of color. Most of all, ultraviolet light has been shown to help people better understand things greater than themselves, such as the structure and evolution of galaxies. Just ask NASA.

U2’s tenth track off Achtung Baby serves as the muse for the new production, U2:UV, which launched a few hours ago at Sphere in Las Vegas. It’s a clever mix of nostalgia and reimagining infused with a redemption story straight out of the book of Revelation. It wouldn’t be a U2 gig without a healthy dose of scripture reference thrown in, now would it? The key here is that it all revolves around a turntable.

Much has been mentioned about the stage design being inspired by Brian Eno’s 2021 turntable. Indeed, the band takes the stage to have Bono spinning in the center of it like a record that has just been dropped to be played. It has a feeling like the music is called up juke-box style where it’s more of a soundtrack for the visual storytelling that is to come. The main theme suggests it’s about turning the tables on the challenges we all face.

The show sets itself up with a walk down memory lane to ease the audience into the narrative. The show starts off circa 1992 Zoo TV. U2 was bold thirty years ago to launch a new tour with a set that began with 75% of Achtung Baby right up front. Opening night took a page out of that book and revisited that exact setlist: “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,” and “Tryin’ To Throw Your Arms Around The World.” The visuals ranged from old favorites, like the rapid-fire words in “The Fly,” to new interpretations, such as during “Until The End Of The World.” In that case, it changed from a Jesus v. Judas showdown to a statement about the world’s natural disasters and climate change.

There were subtle nods to the 1992 tour as well with the way the back lighting poles simulated the treatment of the Trabants thirty years ago. It was most noticeable during “Until The End Of The World.”

As a surprise production element, a collection of silks came out of the stage and rose to the top of the dome toward the end of “Who’s Gonna Ride Your Wild Horses.” They were tied together to look like something you’d see in “Jack and the Beanstalk.” As “Trying To Throw Your Arms Around The World” started, a balloon appeared at the top of the dome. Just like in 1992, Bono brought a woman up on stage to interact during the song. Instead of champagne and dancing, this time he offers her a walk around the stage, the gift of the balloon and a swing in the silks. All of these could be interpreted differently, but it gave a feel of the notion of innocence in a relationship.

The Achtung Baby story took a break at this point in the set, but the journey of the relationship continued in a redesigned version of the B-stage from the main stage. The relationship is getting a little more serious: “All I Want Is You,” “Desire,” and “Angel of Harlem.” These had the Songs Of Surrender treatment to them which gave a different spin, if you will. “All I Want Is You” was dedicated to Larry Mullen, who Bono said had not missed a U2 gig since 1978. Bono would joke saying, “I don’t know who you are” when referencing the fill-in drummer, Krezip’s Bram van der Berg. Eventually he did introduce him to the audience and gave Bram the microphone, where he praised Larry.

The surprise of the night was the inclusion of “Love Rescue Me,” which has not been performed since 2011. Using a song from Rattle And Hum to transition back to Achtung Baby provided the continuity of timeframe within the storytelling. It’s a song of contrition and repentance.

Enter “So Cruel.” The song’s presentation was done in long shadows and darkness. The tables have now turned in the relationship and it’s all downhill from here. This tune had only been performed a handful of times, so this was the most anticipated song of the night. The song is about disharmony, yet Bono and Edge harmonized quite a bit during it. The duality was a masterclass artistic touch that added nuance to a song that’s about the bluntness of hurt. The one-two punch of this and a rage-filled “Acrobat” was the new heart-of-darkness portion of the show. It is just as dark visually as it is emotionally. Powerful and simplistic in presentation, the band lets the music speak for itself. There is no MacPhisto in Acrobat, nor are there introductions like the 2018 eXPERIENCE and iNNOCENCE tour. As “Acrobat” concludes, the screen turns into that visual representation of the unseen ultraviolet light to usher in “Ultra Violet (Light My Way). UV light can be used to both make things clean and to kill. For “Ultra Violet,” the images of prismatic light looked like waves of spirit filling the screen. As UV rays are invisible to the human eye but is present all around us, it could be said that God is too. The battle between light and dark is what closes out this portion of the show. In the search for light, all that is found is death. The presentation of “Love Is Blindness” is one of an bug zapper with UV light that kills the flies and other insects that come into contact with it. Throughout the song, images of insects landing above the audience began to multiply. One-by-one, each insect would meet their doom. By the end of the song, almost the entire two-acre screen was covered in images of dead insects. The darkened screen served as the backdrop leading into the encore.

The heaviness of Achtung Baby made the transition to the fan-favorite songs in the encore very difficult. While Bono used “Viva Las Vegas” during the brief break, nothing changed to the screen. The same screen for “Love Is Blindness” remained during the first encore song, “Elevation.” It felt like a full shift in perspective could have been useful here. Perhaps the focus was on changing up the stage design, which most in general admission couldn’t see. It would be beneficial to find a way to shift the screen’s backdrop to do a hard shift from the Achtung Baby set to the rest of the show.

The encore also saw Bono come out in a white blazer. That was an unexpected choice as in all the years U2 has been performing, I cannot remember a time he came out in a white blazer. Then again, as we came to see in the encore, the theme was one of death and resurrection, so perhaps it had something to do with the theme of the show. The shift from darkness to light. The new single, “Atomic City,” followed next, showing the Las Vegas skyline found behind Sphere slowly becoming deconstructed until all that was left was the desert. “Vertigo” featured two helicopters flying over that desert area with spotlights. The spotlights then illuminated band members as they performed. It was a way to add a spotlight to anchor the visuals. “Where The Streets Have No Name” followed next, introducing the trilogy of what happens with climate change. The graphics by John Gerrard were used both in “Until The End Of The World” and in “Streets.” It’s as if the use of the images earlier in the show was a foreshadowing, and now it too is making an encore. While “Streets” and “With Or Without You” focus on the cause and effect of the climate issue, the final song suggests a resurrection of sorts. “Beautiful Day” sees the restoration of the earth’s natural resources and its species. The show ends on a hopeful note that redemption is still possible. The extinct species shown in fossilized form through the magnificent work of Es Devlin one song earlier can once again be resurrected as the color returned to them in the end. In U2 fashion, they have infused the end of the show with a spiritual send-off that the audience may not have seen coming. Ultraviolet light has a way of helping people discover things bigger than themselves, after all.

As a special throwback treat, there was a return of the DJ in a Trabbie. In 1992, it was BP Fallon. In the U2:UV shows, it’s Pauli The PSM, spinning the tunes. This time around, the trabant moves from one side of the floor to the other to encourage dancing and participation throughout the venue. The dance party made the time pass quickly between the time doors opened and the band took the stage.

As with most opening nights, it’s still a little rough around the edges (pun not intended) and the nerves could be felt. Thematically speaking, it’s everything you’d come to expect from a U2 production presented in a fresh and technologically innovative way. It is not a Las Vegas-style show. It is a U2 show that happens to be situated in Las Vegas because that’s where the venue is. Rest assured, all of the Elvis content in the show has not rubbed off on Bono. He did not throw a sweat-soaked scarf into the audience or do his best karate moves.

Not only was this the opening night for U2, it was also the opening night for Sphere itself. For those who may be in general admission, wear comfortable shoes. The floor is all concrete and is unforgiving on your feet and legs. There were some seating issues as well with seats missing all together even though a ticket was printed showing there was a seat present. Security working around the venue did not have any amplification help to communicate with large groups, relying on those with louder voices to reiterate what was just said. There will be a learning curve, which will hopefully even out over the next few shows during the U2:UV run.

For those who were concerned about the images on the screen causing some motion sickness, I can say that the visuals for “Even Better Than The Real Thing” caused motion sickness for yours truly. I spent a good amount of time looking at the floor or with my eyes closed to get the room to stop moving. If you were wondering, I was sober. It felt like the room was spinning both on the X and Y axis.

Luckily, there’s plenty of content up on YouTube to revisit. For those in general admission, it would be worth spending some time to see what was missed as no one could really see the stage design and how it integrated with the visuals.

I am looking forward to seeing how this show evolves and matures. From the sounds of it, the B-stage part of the set is the only spot where some setlist changes could be made, just like in 1992. It was a great kick-off. One down, 24 to go.

© Lawrence/2023