Las Vegas 10/19/23 - 10/22/23: A Togo, A Dam, and A Sphere (With Spoilers)

I’m not one to try and travel great distances to see a concert, but U2 is my favorite band, and the prospect of seeing them in a revolutionary new venue playing a show predominantly dedicated to one of the best albums of all time was too good of an opportunity to miss. Also, I’d never been to Las Vegas outside of a connection at the airport years ago, so my parents came and stayed with the kids and my wife and I jetted out west.

I’ll say up front that Las Vegas just isn’t for me. I’m definitely not their target market, so much of it was lost on me. I didn’t really have the money to do much in the casinos, and other than Blackjack, there’s not much I’d have wanted to do anyway. We also learned quickly just how expensive food is on the strip, so we didn’t really eat anywhere too nice save for one evening where we used a $50 food credit we got due to an issue with the fan in our room.

We spent our first two nights at the Mandalay Bay. It made walking down the strip a real exercise given its location at the southernmost end, but I found it to be a nice trade-off because things were much quieter there. Also, it was far removed from the construction for the upcoming Formula 1 race that really screwed up the roads out there and often ate into sidewalk space, shoehorning us tourists into tight quarters a bit further down the road. It was also just a nice property in general. I liked the look, and the room was nice with a great view of the strip. My limited time off meant spending Friday working from the room, but I sat on the side of the desk that afforded me a view of Las Vegas Blvd. and all the strip resorts, so the day passed quickly, and I could also geek out with the view of the airport across the street. Aviation nerdvana indeed.

Much of our free time was spent walking the Strip itself. We walked around a bit after landing Thursday night, going about as far as The Bellagio, whose fountains were quite well obstructed by a set of grandstands for the race in November. Boo hiss.

Friday evening involved a similar trek, albeit going as far as the Mirage. On Friday night, I also took the chance to hop on the notorious Big Apple Coaster. I have to say that it was…actually pretty enjoyable. It’s running with Premier trains akin to what you’d see on Sky Rocket IIs and the like, and it was also outfitted with comfort collars. I really don’t understand the point of those, because they don’t really do anything. I’ve no complaints about them because I don’t remember ever coming into contact with them, but I suppose that’s why I also don’t understand what purpose they serve other than cosmetics. The ride itself had a bit of shuffle at a few points, but it was hardly off-putting.

The layout itself, coupled with the scenery, was actually pretty solid right up until after the second inversion, at which point the ride just felt a bit slow and meandering. Still, though, it far exceeded my expectations, and I’d ride it again…but hopefully on sale.

On Saturday, the day of the show, we decided to rent a car and head off of the main drag to go see some other stuff. We started out with the Hoover Dam and the Mike O’Callaghan-Pat Tillman Memorial Bridge. The bridge was the first of the two we encountered arriving into that area. It was quite unnerving being up so high, but we walked nearly halfway across anyway and got a nice bird’s-eye view of Hoover Dam. Hoover Dam was far less nerve-wracking thanks to being a few hundred feet lower. I don’t have much to say beyond that, unfortunately, but hey! Famous landmark achievement unlocked.

Arriving back in town, we checked into a Marriott that I booked for the last night. I was trying to get something closer to the airport terminal entrances for the last night in hopes of having a shuttle (the strip hotels, despite being close to the airport, don’t have shuttles). The whole lodging thing surrounding this hotel was just a complete failure on my part to do my homework, but it actually ended up helping a bit when it came time to go to the show.

We left the Marriott in short order to get an early dinner at In-n-Out (our second of two visits on the trip, following lunch the day before), the appeal of which I finally understand. I used to think it was nothing special, but I was also getting burgers without the spread, and while the sauce shouldn’t be critical, it goes so well with everything else that it really took things up a notch.

Side note: animal style is inferior to the standard style. Fight me.

We’d also headed out to go see Fremont Street because of the history of the place and the Fremont Street Experience. Fremont Street is definitely an experience. It’s not a good one. Total waste of time and money.

We caught the 6 pm light show, which was really the same thing as what the overhead screen does literally all the time outside of the hourly shows. The music switched to hometown heroes Imagine Dragons, but again, I failed to see the difference between the hourly light show and what happens all the other time outside of those 5-10 minutes.

Getting back to the hotel, we enjoyed one of its advantages over the Mandalay Bay, and that was its location a block off of the strip on the same side as the Sphere. This was also when the F1 construction actually helped us out, having closed down some streets on the way that resulted in us being able to walk down the middle of an empty road to get to the Sphere more efficiently.

The Sphere itself is truly a spectacle from the outside, with the experience of arriving there being more akin to an attraction at Epcot than approaching a concert venue. There are several programs going on inside through the day and week, I think, but it’s obvious that U2 are the star attraction. Even throughout the town, there were nods to the artists behind the city’s newest and hottest residency. Inside, the whole Epcot vibe was still there, with a Test Track kind of look to the place in terms of the promenades and such outside the theater itself.

Side note: from here on out, there are spoilers about the concert. Click out if you don’t want to see them.

Walking into the theater was unnerving. Consider that this place can hold as much as a basketball arena in a major city, if not more, but the seating is all pressed along one side. I don’t know all the specs, but I’d liken it to being closer to the size of a chunk of a football stadium with seating on one side and the opposite occupied by the largest screen I’d ever seen. On top of that, the seating is steep, especially up in the 400s where we were. The screen was showing an image that reminded me of a subway station, but others said a grain silo, so what do I know? Regardless, I kept a laser focus on the stage below to avoid any sense of disorientation. I was concerned about the show ahead because of this, but thankfully, my fears were unfounded.

Around 45 minutes after scheduled start, the band came out and one of the most legendary concert experiences I’d ever had began. Bono started singing a few lines of lyrics he’d apparently sang at the start of some ZooTV shows back in the 90s, with the familiar distorted whine that plays in the back of live renditions of what I consider the greatest song of all time: Zoo Station. I can only think of one other time where I’d been so completely awestruck and excited at a live music experience (Paul McCartney banging out Paperback Writer at the first show I saw of his back in 2009), and this was compounded by the fact that the song’s limited presence outside of the ZooTV and Vertigo tours made me think I’d never get to hear it in person. The animation, which is what I’ll just call everything that shows up on the screen, saw the wall breaking away into static, distortion, TV images, etc. It was like what I’d imagine the ZooTV tour itself was like over 30 years ago, reincarnated for those of us who never got to experience that one. On top of that, the arena’s revolutionary sound system meant the audio definition was crystal-clear, with the vocals and each instrument easily distinguishable from each other. Zoo Station was a great enough song on its own, but with all this action? Where do you even go from that?

Well, where they went was into a run of Achtung Baby songs that saw a full eight tracks off the album played before anything else from their discography bothered to make an appearance. Unlike the 30th anniversary tour of The Joshua Tree, though, it wasn’t in the same order as the album. Instead, it was in an order closer to that of the ZooTV tour, with Who’s Gonna Ride Your Wild Horses in all its underrated glory thrown in after Until the End of the World and before the extremely rare Trying to Throw Your Arms Around the World.

Having banged out eight of the album’s twelve songs, the band cut down on the animation and switched to a semi-acoustic interlude. Right as they were going to start it up, though, a member of the crew came up and pulled Bono aside. Bono started talking about some front-of-house issue, which I assumed meant the screen (I’m not a theater guy, so forgive me) based on the lack of animation that followed for a full seven songs. It turned out later that it was actually in reference to some feedback, which I had noticed but assumed was just the tone of the instruments. Again, not an expert on such matters.

Thankfully, the show wasn’t stopped, and the issue got resolved. During that time, the band performed the interlude I’d previously mentioned. Because people can’t stop themselves from posting their lousy cell phone videos on YouTube that capture neither the audio or visual quality in any appreciable manner, chunks of the setlist were spoiled for me, but this interlude was a total surprise, being almost entirely devoted to Rattle and Hum songs in a stripped down manner. My wife actually walked down the aisle to Vitamin String Quartet’s rendition of All I Want Is You, which kicked off the interlude in its Songs of Surrender arrangement. U2 songs are never as good stripped down as they are in their fully electric glory, but this one came close, and its history with us made it a real highlight. Desire, When Love Comes to Town, and Love Rescue Me, the latter two of which were also both rarities, rounded out that album’s contributions to the set, but they threw in I Still Have’t Found What I’m Looking for as a bonus (I’ve found that most shows only have four songs in the interlude, with All I Want Is You always leading it off, followed by some combination of three of the others or a few other rarities).

After the interlude came the portion of the show that I felt…needs some adjustment. It was a run-through of the four remaining songs from Achtung Baby. Unfortunately, pretty much every really popular song from the record had been covered in the first run, so left to wrap up the set were three rarities plus Ultraviolet, which is itself not the most well-known but which has had a presence in good chunks of a few tours (ZooTV, U2360, and TJT30), and which was probably the only really upbeat-sounding of the bunch. I know Acrobat and Love Is Blindness have a lot of love among diehard fans, and I like So Cruel myself, but as a method of recapturing momentum after the soft interlude and carrying it through to the end of the main set, I don’t know how effective it was. I enjoyed it a lot, but I’m also someone who has spent unnecessary amounts of money on deluxe editions and import singles in the quest for some of the band’s obscenely good b-side and live material, so I’m not the best point of reference. I just felt like it might have been a bit too obscure for more casual fans, who are almost certainly needed to fill a venue of that size over the course of the residency. On top of that, other than a few songs that had camera views of the band themselves, there was no screen animation up until Ultraviolet, the 16th track played at a show that hadn’t seen any animation since the end of song 8.

However, whatever qualms I might have had with how they sequenced the main set, any concern one might have had that the show would end up front-heavy was erased with the six-song encore, a tour-de-force that proved that there’s U2 and then there’s everyone else. One thing the band knew well is what songs they can bust out that will wake the dead, and one of those was Elevation. It’s a song I’ve seen disdain for in fan circles, but what do those communists know? Elevation is and will always be legendary, and one look around the arena at the countless folks on their feet showed why this song has stuck around. It was followed with their new single, Atomic City, which was so-so but which featured animation of the view of the strip outside (coupled with arrivals into Harry Reid International for my personal enjoyment, haha), and then a stupid-awesome run of flawless renditions of Vertigo, Where the Streets Have No Name, With Or Without You, and Beautiful Day. It was relentless.

I left the show reminded of why U2 became my favorite band in the first place, but with an added appreciation for the band members themselves. Bono is renowned for his big mouth, and the band has spent the better part of the last ten years erasing their relevance with two albums that were marked drops in quality from all that came before, and the first of which was released in a PR disaster. However, at this show, it felt like the U2 that has driven everybody nuts for years was replaced with a U2 filled with humility and who seemed to be enjoying themselves more than I’ve ever seen. They gave off such a sense of appreciation for the fans, as if they were just so grateful we were there, and they seemed like they were really enjoying themselves just entertaining us for an evening. I maintain that their musical legacy up through and including No Line On the Horizon was so good that nothing could tarnish it, but the Songs Of… albums were all pretty rough in a lot of ways, and the band hadn’t seemed the same for quite a while. What they showed in Vegas was that even the U2 of legend had left years ago, they were finally back and just as good as ever.

If you’re on the fence about going, go. You absolutely won’t be disappointed, although it will be tough for any concert that follows to match what you’ll experience there.

I had tickets for this weekend, but sold them. Couldn't figure out what to do with my kid, unfortunately. The idea of going to Vegas was exhausting, but I still wish I would have done it. I've seen the video clips.

No mention of the band sans Larry? I guess it's unsurprisingly not very noticeable, but I'd feel a little odd seeing U2 with a sub.

You're a drummer, so you'd know better than me... is he considered a top tier guy? I think I hear certain things about certain drummers that are "better," but I don't know technically what I'm observing. Larry strikes me as "above competent," but again, I have zero expertise.

"Above competent" I'd say is accurate. His parts are creative enough to suit the music, he plays what's needed, and most importantly is solid and on tempo; which is obviously not necessarily top tier, but the mark of a good drummer. Any solid pro should be able to fill in for him just fine, which is why I mention it's likely unnoticeable he's not there, except maybe to superfans. Still would feel weird to me to see them without the founding drummer (and really, THE guy that started the band). They're one of those few groups that's thrived for decades and has had the same lineup since day one.

I agree it would seem weird, but he is still in the band, just on medical leave. How long is he out for? I wonder if some of the shows in Jan-Feb that were added could see his return.

I didn’t really notice any difference in sound between Larry and the guy filling in for him. Bram did a solid job of covering.

And Shades, to answer your question, he’s out for medical reasons. Hopefully he’ll be back soon.

I haven’t been to Vegas since IAAPA was there many moons ago. It was on my list to go back for a while, but over the past several years all I’ve heard were negative experiences. Plus I don’t drink and I have casinos 20 minutes away from where I live, so gambling isn’t really my thing either.

The strip is dirty, lots of homeless and undesirables mulling about, and it’s just become a seedy place. On top of that, everything from the hotel room rates to the cost of meals are ridiculously overpriced that all you feel is that you are being gouged and taken advantage of. At least that’s the trend I am hearing from visitors.

If I ever did Vegas again, I’d do my first and last nights there and spend the rest of the time road tripping through Arizona and Utah exploring the incredible landscape, parks and scenery.

But beyond that, there are 20 other destinations ahead of Vegas on my list of places to visit. Vegas was a great destination 15-20 years ago; but not so much today.

Jeff:

I had tickets for this weekend, but sold them. Couldn't figure out what to do with my kid, unfortunately.

Why didn't you just ask us, the members of CoasterBuzz?

*ducks*

It's been over 2 weeks now since I've seen the show, and I haven't responded to this yet, so here's my (hopefully) brief take.

Unfortunately, as I'd mentioned elsewhere, we did not have great seats. Ours were under the overhang, allowing us a limited view of the screen. I'll say that we were definitely able to see enough to get the idea of what was happening, and even that was breathtaking, but overall I felt cheated. For example, we could see the full animation of the Vegas skyline during Atomic City, could see the wall break apart for Zoo Station, etc, but only at the end, when I walked out from under the overhang to see all of the animals in the finale, did I really get the full scope.

That being said, we were as close to the stage as the very first rows of the 200 section and had an amazing view of the band. And since I was with my best friends of over 30 years, the experience itself was unforgettable.

And *that being said, I'm planning on going back, probably solo, to see the show again from a seat with a view.

You may be asking, "hey dummy, how did you allow yourself to purchase limited view seats in the first place?" Well, good question. We bought the tickets soon after that round went on sale, and few were left. We needed 5 seats in a row, and there's a purchase limit of 4, so we had to break it into 2 simultaneous purchases. Add to that the stress of watching available seats disappear as we hovered the mouse over them, and we made a panicked purchase, never noticing the ever so small label of "overhang" until after the purchases.

I just found out there’s an overhang yesterday which is ridiculous given the concept. I guess if you want that many seats you have to compromise somewhere?

Tommytheduck:

Add to that the stress of watching available seats disappear as we hovered the mouse over them, and we made a panicked purchase, never noticing the ever so small label of "overhang" until after the purchases.

Yeah, the purchasing process is pretty stressful. You are not the only one I know that had this exact issue. I'm taking the kids in January (my second go) because it is really cool and because who knows how long U2 will be playing live shows.

Incidentally, I have a pair of seats in section 201 row 4 on 2/24 that I'm looking to move. PM me if interested.

Well I did it. Full of disappointment in our original restricted view experience, I went ahead and purchased a solo ticket for myself to see the show again.

The good news: This time I'm in the 300's in the center section. Should be no obstructions this time!

The sketchy part: I'm going to the Feb 10th show. Yup, the day before the superbowl. Since hotels and rental cars are prohibitively expensive, I'm going to fly into LAX instead, go to SFMM, and drive to and from the show from a basecamp somewhere outside of LA.

Just got back from seeing U2 again last night. My wife and I remarked on our visit that my dad would really enjoy it, so he and I went as a joint Christmas gift. He’s where I got the lion’s share of my musical taste, at least foundationally.

Disclaimers: if you aren’t a U2 fan, you’ll find little of interest below. Also, spoilers, but let’s be honest: if you’re this deep into the thread, you’ve either seen the show or know all the spoilers already because people can’t resist posting their cell phone videos on YouTube.

I won’t do a thorough review as there’s little to add that I didn’t say the first time around, so I’ll go with bullet points.

• Zoo Station is undefeated as a concert opener, and again was truly a defining moment in the show. I say this with heavy bias, of course, as it’s my favorite song, but it sure as heck seemed to work on a lot of other people as well.
• We were eleven rows higher than the last time, putting us almost completely in the back. This had some negative effects in terms of feeling a bit removed from the action.
• I’m a little less tired of One than I used to be.
• Trying to Throw Your Arms Around the World seemed to have been, if I can dabble into Disney terminology for a moment, plussed. There was stage animation I don’t remember from the October show, plus some story elements, and the end result was one of the best moments in the show. Yeah, it was a bit goofy and cheesy, but it worked. It worked.
• We got one of the rare nights where the standard interlude set got some substitutions, which, in our case, involved some numbers from the famous War night earlier in the run. This meant that we got Two Hearts Beat As One in place of Desire, which, considering that both are in their Songs Of Surrender configurations, meant that we hit the jackpot. They even threw in a decent chunk of Rock the Casbah, which made it better still. Conversely, this also meant that we got Seconds instead of Sweetest Thing, which is just a crime.
• Don’t Dream It’s Over shouldn’t be in the set, but based on the songs behind it (see below)…I get it.
• Bono and The Edge are the spokesmen of the band, but we all know that Adam Clayton is really the coolest. Also, the interlude was effectively a showcase for his bass runs, and man, did he light the place up.
• The setlist construction for the main set wasn’t really done well for this residency, I think. It looks like they really tried to recreate the running order from the ZooTV tour for the initial run of Achtung Baby songs, which wipes out pretty much everything great on the album right away. This means that to get everybody’s blood pumping after the stripped-down interlude, you’ve got four (well, maybe three, given Ultraviolet’s presence on a few recent tours and its natural energy) songs that nobody really knows, two of which also don’t have any energy.
• Elevation kicked off the encore and brought the audience back into the fold a bit, but man, did they miss the mark in not doing some screen animation for this one. It was just a few stage and floor lights, and that was it. This meant that for those of us up high, we may as well have been listening to a CD. I defend this song’s persistent inclusion in live setlists because it really gets the audience into the spirit of things, but skipping on animation deprived us all of what could have been one of the most bombastic parts of the show.
• Atomic City was, and is, a meh song, but the Vegas visuals were great.
• There must be a rule somewhere that says that Vertigo must be played more intensely at every show I attend. They played it last night like they’d been tasked with ushering in the apocalypse. Lives were changed. Much like Elevation, there’s a reason this song deserves to be a setlist staple. Also, the animation, while simple in concept, really kicks the song off right. Having those loud helicopter sounds while the song gets going? This should be in rock and roll textbooks.
• I don’t remember Where the Streets Have No Name drawing the reaction in October that it did last night. U2 took us all to church. I dare say that there is no musical equivalent in all of modern history that matches what this song does in a live setting. I wish I could describe it to you, but I don’t even know how. It MOVES you.
• Beautiful Day seemed a little anemic at first, but when that part hits where it’s just some atmospheric noise with “Daaaaaayyyy” being sung chorally, it’s almost Streets all over again.

Even with its flaws, which I’d say are most prominent in setlist sequencing, the show is definitely a love letter to fans who really appreciate their whole body of work. They were definitely the right band to open this venue, and I think it’s a mark of their confidence in their work that they went for playing a whole album as opposed to a greatest hits-only show. It’s definitely a risky gesture considering the size of the place and how many shows they’ve got, but they’ve been making it happen.

I did see "Don't Dream It's Over" on the YouTube. That ranks as one of the best songs ever (Crowded House in general is greatly under-appreciated), in my opinion, and they absolutely do it justice.

I also took my kiddo (first concert ever) for a second show on 1/26. I have a similar reaction about the setlist, about Elevation, Vertigo, and Trying to Throw Your Arms Around the World. I also appreciated the disco ball visuals on Ultraviolet which were not there in October. The Fly is easily my favorite song on the album and having it play second felt...premature. 6 of my top 7 songs on the album were right at the top of the setlist.

The crowd up in the 400's felt a lot more subdued as well until Streets which was when everyone finally stood up and got into it.

We heard Sweetest Thing for it's residency debut, but I would have loved to hear Seconds. Woefully underrated song, IMO.

Seconds is a great song. I hunted down a clip of Don't Dream It's Over. The Head and the Heart recorded a great cover of it that's pretty true to the original, but U2 kills it with the acoustic version. I've largely avoided spoiling these shows on the off chance that they drop some dates in the summer (it's a long shot either way, too many other priorities at the moment). I'm glad to hear I'm not the only one that chose U2 for a kid's first real concert (Jojo Siwa doesn't count), although I think she was more into The Lumineers as the opener.

The one thing (or I guess "a thing") that annoyed me was the Adventure dome didn't have a Pay-per-ride option and the ride all day bracelet was $60. I just wanted one lap on each other two coaters. #FirstWorldProblems

Less than a week until I make it back for my 2nd show! Section 305, just slightly off center, for hopefully the full visual experience we missed under the overhang.

A few thoughts:

- My biggest fear is that being the night before the SuperBo... Sorry, "Big Game," I'm going to be surrounded by non-fans who talk and selfie their way through just another big ticket look at me experience the day before they do the same thing at the Taylor Swift game. Since I'll be solo, I just want a nice, chill experience, haha.

- Now that there have been a few changes to the middle set, I'm really hoping for the War version. War is their best album, fight me!

- Behind the "Numbers" part of The Fly, what I was most looking forward to experiencing was the color bursts of Ultraviolet. One of the best AB songs, IMO. They are now gone, replaced with what most are saying is boring and lazy disco effects.

But that all pales in my excitement to see the show again, properly. I've been obsessed, poring through U2 Sphere FB groups, youtube, etc. All the stuff I steered clear of before the first show, wanting to remain spoiler free.

sirloindude:

This means that to get everybody’s blood pumping after the stripped-down interlude, you’ve got four (well, maybe three, given Ultraviolet’s presence on a few recent tours and its natural energy) songs that nobody really knows, two of which also don’t have any energy.

I'm going to have to go ahead and disagree with you there Bob. Acrobat absolutely ripped on 12/6. It was loud and very "metal." UV, as mentioned earlier, is somewhat popular and liked, and the now-gone visuals were a highlight. So Cruel is the best song on the album. It may not be the most upbeat, rocking, whatever, but it's the best song. RRR >>> Love Is Blindness.