[imagesource:u2community]

U2 unveiled a new kind of show this Friday evening at a venue with the sole purpose of blowing every mind that enters.

By now most people have heard of the Las Vegas Sphere, a bowl-shaped theatre containing the world’s highest-resolution wraparound LED screen, boasting 1.2 million hockey puck-sized LEDs that can be programmed to flash moving imagery on a massive scale.

This marvel of cinematic engineering was properly christened by the Irish rock band U2 with a show that is set to make even Taylor Swift jealous (although we’re sure she’s going to be appearing there soon).

Not one to shy away from excess, frontman Bono could only marvel at the experience himself, describing it as a ‘fancy pad’. “Look at all this stuff,” he exclaimed in a rare moment of understatement not long into Friday’s two-hour concert.

U2’s residency, which is scheduled to run for 25 dates through mid-December, is built around the band’s 1991 album,’Achtung Baby’, which it played in full, albeit in two halves and not in the songs’ original order.

There’s no denying U2’s influence in music and politics, and while Bono had his moments where he decided world chaos and Africa’s plight, it must be difficult to hold an audience’s attention when the world around you is a digital collage jumbling together images of showgirls and neon signs like no Las Vegas venue has ever even come close to showcasing.

 

View this post on Instagram

 

A post shared by CLIPS (@clips)

U2 opened the $2.3 billion Las Vegas Sphere last night and the visuals are incredible 🤯pic.twitter.com/szKa5DobRd

— Joe Pompliano (@JoePompliano) September 30, 2023

It’s a new level of entertainment that will surely feature on the next list of man-made marvels.

Have a look at some of the highlights of the show below, and if you look really carefully, you might even notice the band.

[source:latimes]