Classic or Dud: U2

I saw that place on CBS Saturday Morning. Venue looks Blade Runner crazy as he11, but it's just another rich man's pleasure palace.

The one drawback is you have to listen to U2. The Channel 4 News feature on this was one of the most nauseating pieces of television I've had the misfortune to watch this year.

My wife’s boss is a huge fan and was at last night’s show (he has tickets for two of them). He sent some pre-show pics of the dome.

Said that fans had been camped out since Wednesday in the GA ticket line, heard the band rehearsals, and were posting spoilers on the U2 messageboard (I guess they play Achtung Baby followed by random songs?). Just to give you a taste of that U2 fan lyfe…

https://www.setlist.fm/setlist/u2/2023/sphere-at-the-venetian-resort-las-vegas-nv-63a3fadb.html

Photos look crazy. https://www.theguardian.com/music/2023/sep/30/u2-review-an-utterly-astonishing-admirably-raw-vegas-extravaganza

I was offered a couple tix to see this on Oct 7, and while i do love this band and the visual experience looks amazing, I don't like dealing with Vegas. Driving there, being there, driving back...plus it's only 3/4ths of the dudes.

^ I read that url as “raw vegan extravaganza” and thought it was about a U2 themed restaurant

Where The Sides Have No Name

Unforgettable Fire-Roasted Tomatoes

not gonna lie i would love to see this

Xp All I Want Is Tofu

as would i.
i once went to a 360 degree video thing at a planetarium where folks showed these films that they had made especially for the format.
dj food had prepared a full film that accompanied his 'search engine' album.
to say it was a massive headf^ck/dizzying experience would be an understatement.
and the pics that i have seen of this basically looks like that experience but expanded to the power of XXXX.

xpost

yeah I'd just love to see U2 full-stop really.

Sundae Non-Dairy Sundae

The tours they've done in my adult life I haven't been able to see for one reason or another.

Shake it shake it shake it vegan salami

tfw the venue is more interesting than the band

That looks sick as hell and I say that as someone who's gone to laser Floyd

lol I posted "real US" instead of "real U2," still works

Two Artichoke Hearts Eat As One

lime dill pine nut ground onion shaoxing slaw

i have never seen them live
had tix to see the 360 tour in Oakland then the tour was cancelled bc bono had to get back surgery & havent had a chance or financial wherewithal to see them since ;_;

“raw vegan extravaganza”

Even Better Than the Real Thing

Seen them a bunch, not for a while, might consider this if it were cheap and down the street.

i've seen them seven times, probably the best overall experience was the 360 Rose Bowl show, but Zoo TV was a truly iconic show. actually all the shows were really great, though Popmart wasn't a great experience as far as seeing the band, being so close to the back row at Soldier Field in Chicago. but the spectacle was fun. they always brought it live ime.

I've seen ... Joshua Tree tour in '87 (my first concert), Zoo TV in whenever that was ('92?), Popmart, two or three shows on the Elevation tour (which were the best), Vertigo tour and ... I think that was it. Started to get too hard to get tix, too expensive, didn't like the new albums, etc.

at the last minute i got tix for their massive roundhay park/leeds gig as part of the zoo tv tour.
at the time my wife and i were not fans at all.
but we decided to go along for the experience.
yeah, that was a good day.

That looks sick as hell and I say that as someone who's gone to laser Floyd

otm

All I can say is, imagine how annoying the average boomer+ fan is at an arena show, now make that arena a Vegas extravaganza that is actually in Las Vegas. This is going to be like being trapped in a Vegas casino elevator at 1am with drunk convention goers.

imo the experience of seeing them in that setting outweighs all that shit for me

otherwise you’d never go anywhere!

and almost every show i go to is a boomer show now #old

Are “boomer+” fans really more annoying than other fans?

^ this

Depends what you mean by annoying, but if you mean "more likely to just go to a show because they can afford it, and spend the time talking and going for beer," then in my experience, yeah, probably a little more likely to be annoying. Or at least annoying in a distracting way.

my U2 experiences have been almost all positive with the crowds except the Joshua Tree nostalgia trip. very much a "just play the songs we know" crowd, which usually doesn't happen at their gigs. i'd hope the visual experience would drown out the tourists in this case, though.

the Rose Bowl experience was A+ bc we got there early and bonded in line w/a bunch of superfans, and one of them (an Australian rugby dude) advised us all on where to go to get in the inner circle, and we did and all met up again with that same group of people (whom we never saw again after that.)

Superfans at any show can sometimes be annoying, but in general fan communities are tons of fun and really friendly.

yeah true it can oscillate wildly from Drive by Truckers welcoming-party-crew-vibes one the cool end to Dave Matthews Band pyschofans shushing you for singing along at the other end (still have not fully gotten over that one)

*on the cool end

I didn't find the U2 crowd any different than any other big concert crowd, the vibe was fine

Experiences with superfans could be an amazing thread.

I had a full panic attack at the Rose Bowl U2 show and had to leave, but it had been decades since I had seen them last. I'd love to see Laser Floyd inside the sphere.

That would be the ultimate music experience

lol "U2 Presents: The Vegas Laser Floyd Experience."

I'm not saying that the band should go full-hologram, but honestly if they ditched the band and went full Laser Floyd with a good mix of Unforgettable Fire->Zooropa I'd definitely go check it out.

Ah, the old "just four holograms in a dome" routine...

Anyone ever see a Joshua Light Show gig?

So who's playing drums? That Guardian review just says Larry Mullen isn't...

From the setlists link above:

Note: First U2 show without Larry Mullen, Jr., Bram van den Berg on drums

Someone just sent me what is probably the best fan video from the U2 x Las Vegas Sphere event: Snoop. pic.twitter.com/jQMOG9vKLF

— Trung Phan (@TrungTPhan) October 1, 2023

Those sirens are a dead ringer the 1993 live intro to Lemon

I'm guessing it isn't Lemon