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Las Vegas, Nevada
And you can dream, so dream out loud
I have been to Las Vegas before, although to be honest I’m not certain exactly how many times anymore. At least ten, but possibly more. I have been there enough that I almost need a specific reason to justify another trip to somewhere I have been so many times. And this time I have one.
I have seen U2 live in concert before, although to be honest I’m not certain exactly how many times anymore. At least seven, but possibly more. I have seen them perform live enough that I almost need a specific reason to justify another concert from a band I have seen so many times. And this time I have one.
This is a slideshow from a recent trip to Las Vegas to watch U2 perform at the brand new MSG Sphere, where seeing the venue just might have been a little more important to me than seeing the concert, although the confluence of both was certainly a big draw. Before we even get to the actual Sphere, we’re getting warmed up at Zoo Station, a U2 pop up store at the Venetian. The MSG Sphere is attached to the Venetian, so it makes some sense to start there.
Whoa (or possibly woah, depending on your spelling preference). The MSG Sphere is impressive, and its exterior runs a non stop loop of images that is honestly hard to see during the day, especially from a distance. When the plane first touched down at the airport, the Sphere looked like it was broken when in reality the sun glare had just overpowered it. But at night the Sphere is amazing. Just amazing.
Of course all that amazingness is only amazing if you can actually see the damn thing, and honestly that’s a problem. It’s located in an area that was especially uninteresting before it was built, it is blocked by employee parking decks and is adjacent to low rise condos and a golf course. Approaching it from the Strip (especially during F1 race construction) was along blocked roads and streets and sidewalks, with no view of the actual Sphere until you were almost right on top of it. Over time this will likely correct itself. Maybe restaurants in this area will build roof decks with unobstructed views, and maybe future hotels will be designed to look at it instead of away from it.
The resolution of the exterior screens of the MSG Sphere is designed to be viewed from a few blocks away. Right up close its just a bunch of dots and not much more. That whole plaza and entry experience actually felt like a lost opportunity, especially the bridge entry that connects to the Venetian and was designed as a bottleneck right from the start.
Once you get inside, the lobby starts to feel like you’re in a sphere, with circles and spheres a logical theme. My tickets were pretty high, and since the building is like 30 stories tall, that meant a lot of escalators and lobbies and increasingly vertiginous views of the central atrium space.
Each floor had overpriced drinks and not nearly enough t-shirt stands. For 18,600 people, there were only maybe three inside, all of them had lines. Maybe that’s done on purpose to make it look like buying a t-shirt is exclusive or hard to get, but in an age when you can just order things from Amazon, it feels like in person purposeful inconveniences like not enough t-shirt stands should be a thing of the past.
So we’re finally inside. The MSG Sphere was advertised as every seat being a good seat, and we’re certainly testing that theory. My seat was in the upper level, although the lower part of it, and, well, it was a good seat. The audio was fantastic and the screen looked amazing.
At the start of the concert, a DJ played short clips of songs and the Sphere’s screen resembled a giant concrete building with a pantheon type coffered open ceiling. Occasionally an animated bird would show up, confusing some nearby concert goers who thought an actual bird got in. It would perch on a ledge and then fly out the open oculus, both of which of course would be impossible if it was a real bird.
In 1992, the very first U2 concert I saw was the Zoo TV tour at Giants Stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey, a concert supporting the then new Achtung Baby album. I was in a lower level seat on the side, and it was the first stadium concert I ever went to. And it was a damn good show. The U2 residency at MSG Sphere is an anniversary concert celebrating the Achtung Baby album, which is the almost the same as celebrating the Zoo TV Tour. They both started the same with the same six songs, but then the Las Vegas concert went on to play every single song from Achtung Baby, easily my second favorite U2 album.
As for the visuals, they were almost indescribably awesome. See for yourself below.
The MSG Sphere has been promoted as the future of concerts. And if that’s the case, then the future has expensive tickets but looks amazing.
The visuals throughout were incredible (even if 2023 Bono sounds like he’s sometimes just talk singing his way through the hits), and the most impressive one was for Where the Streets Have No Name, the first picture below. There a blue sky and white flag in the desert transported the whole damn theatre outside, it was literally magical. Even from the (nearly) nosebleed seats.
The concert ended with Beautiful Day, as the screens became a giant mural full of animals as the audience gaped along. As we finish up our visit to the MSG Sphere, I thought I’d break formatting and instead come up with a left justified list of eight takeaways.
1.- The Sphere is amazing visually, both inside and out
2.- The audio is fantastic, possibly the best I have ever heard in a venue this large
3.- The Ticketmaster ticket sale was miserable, I bought tickets at Stubhub instead
4.- The seating, lobbies and interior circulation was well designed
5.- The circulation connection to the strip is awful, almost as if they didn’t think about how 18,600 people would get here and leave
6.- There is no better venue anywhere to see a concert (discounting smaller theaters)
7.- Those bastards at MSG are gauging fans, with super high ticket and concession pricing, even $100 just to park there
8.- Despite all that, the venue was so amazing that I would definitely consider going back, and hope that they build more venues like this in the future
