U2 announced their intention to become the first live band to perform at a new venue, MSG Sphere at The Venetian, Las Vegas. The venue is slated to open this fall, and drummer Larry Mullen Jr. – who said The Washington Post (opens in a new tab) in November that if U2 played live in 2023 it would be without him – won’t be on stage.
Mullen Jr., who told the Job that he will recover from an operation, will be replaced by Bram van den Berg, drummer of the Dutch band Krezip.
“It’s going to take everything we have to get close to the Sphere without our bandmate in place of the drum,” say the other members of U2. “But Larry joined us to welcome Bram van den Berg who is a force in his own right.”
“The Sphere show has been in the works for a long time,” they continue. “We don’t want to let people down, let alone our audience. The truth is that we miss them as much as we seem to miss them. Our audience was always the fifth member of the band.
“At the end of the day, U2 haven’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 are building for us out there in the desert.
“We are the right group, Watch out baby the right album, and the Sphere the right venue to take the live music experience to the next level. That’s what U2 tried to do throughout our satellite stages and video installations, most notably during the Zoo TV tour, which wrapped up in Tokyo 30 years ago this fall.”
News of U2’s return to the stage was announced in a commercial that aired during today’s Super Bowl. The full clip (below) follows the progress of a mysterious spherical object “the size of three football fields”.
Against the backdrop of the climate crisis, it shows U2 fans in Belfast, Rio de Janeiro, Paris and Tokyo going about their daily lives before being somehow transported to the Nevada desert, where the Sphere is slowly descending, before the group invites fans to join. to experience all that the Sphere has to offer.
“The beauty of the Sphere is not just the revolutionary technology that will make it so unique, with the most advanced audio system in the world, integrated into a structure designed with sound quality as a priority”, explains The Edge. “It’s also the possibilities around the immersive experience in real and imaginary landscapes.
“In short, it’s a canvas of unparalleled scale and image resolution and a once-in-a-generation opportunity. We’ve all thought about it and decided we’d be mad not to accept the invitation. “
It all sounds super impressive, as you’d expect with an estimated $2.1 billion construction cost. The organizers promise “perfect sound for every seat in the house” using “Sphere Immersive Sound” and “4D technologies”, which will allow the public to “feel the wind on their face, the heat on their skin and the roar of the thunder”. .”
The MGM Sphere, which was due to be completed in 2021 but delayed due to pandemic-related supply chain issues, will feature 15,000m2 of LED screens and 164,000 speakers.
Great! But where to register for more information? Here (opens in a new tab).
Last month, U2 announced that their forthcoming album surrender songs will feature 40 reworked versions of songs from their back catalog.