2023-12-13

Sphere, Las Vegas, NV

Set List of Show:

Main Set:

"Zoo Station"
"The Fly"
"Even Better Than the Real Thing"
"Mysterious Ways"
"One"
"Until the End of the World"
"Who's Gonna Ride Your Wild Horses"
"Tryin' to Throw Your Arms Around the World"
"All I Want is You"
"Desire"
"Angel of Harlem"
"I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For"
"Acrobat"
"So Cruel"
"Ultra Violet (Light My Way)"
"Love is Blindness"

Encore:

"Elevation"
"Atomic City"
"Vertigo"
"Where the Streets Have No Name"
"With or Without You"
"Beautiful Day"

Additional Music

Pre-Recorded Intro Song: "Lemon" (Remix) - U2
Pre-Recorded Exit Song: "Glorify" - U2 featuring Brittany Howard
Pre-Recorded Exit Song: "What A Wonderful World" - Louis Armstrong

Snippets of Other Songs Performed by U2:

"Drive My Car" (The Beatles) / "I Feel Love" (Donna Summer) / "Love Me Tender" (Elvis Presley) / "Paint it Black" (Rolling Stones) / "Into the Mystic" (Van Morrison) / "Movin' On Up" (Primal Scream) / "Viva Las Vegas" (Elvis Presley) / "My Way" (Frank Sinatra) / "Moment of Surrender" (U2) / "All You Need is Love" (The Beatles) / "Gloria" (U2) / "Blackbird" (The Beatles) / "Glorify" (U2 featuring Brittany Howard) /

Show Details:

U2 are playing their 23rd show of 40 in total at the Las Vegas Sphere. The full listing of shows can be found in our U2 show archive. U2 are performing these shows without founding member, Larry Mullen Junior, who is missing due to surgery to repair damage suffered from years of drumming. A Dutch drummer, Bram van den Berg replaces Mullen at these shows in Las Vegas. Tonight U2 kicks off their final week of shows for 2023, and the show will restart in late January. The GA is reported to be much more crowded than in the past tonight by many in attendance.

As these shows were originally planned to be the final shows of this run, a lot of long time fans are in attendance. A special Christmas party for Zootopians (U2.com subscribers) will be held December 14, late afternoon at Zoo Station’s Ultra Violet Lounge, and the same night there is another gathering of fans at the Hard Rock at 8pm.

During “Zoo Station” Bono announces “Alright alright, Wednesday night feels like anything we want it to be.” After the song Bono stops to mention the opening act, “Inside the baby’s head, Pauli the PSM” and then sings a line from The Beatles’ “Drive My Car” which the DJ has been using in his set. Bono shares “We are all the better for being together” and appears to be enjoying the crowd. Going into “Even Better than the Real Thing” Bono has been pretending not to know who Bram is in other shows, tonight he doesn’t, “I know who you are. You’re the Edge. I know who you are. You’re Adam. I feel like I saw this some place before, other than last night, you’re Bram, let’s go!”

Ahead of “One” instead of the usual, Bono asks, “A lot of darkness out there in the world. Maybe you can turn on your Christmas lights?”

The middle section of the show sees U2 returning to Rattle and Hum. Tonight the band include “I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For” which was also done at the previous show. The song has only been played at seven shows in total during these Sphere shows including tonight. The middle set of songs is opened with “All I Want is You”, “Desire” and “Angel of Harlem” tonight. During this set Bono also does the band introductions but first stops to note his voice, “Singers love to wander in the desert with their messianic complexes, but the desert can be rough on singers and their singing. So this is not anything interesting, it is water. I heard Lady Gaga drank some whisky on stage here. She’s just cooler than us. There’s just nothing we can do about that.” (Bono sounds pretty good tonight regardless.)

“Not since October 1978 have we played together without Larry Mullen Jr, who we want to send our love out to this evening. It’s only right I start by introducing you to the man who really saved the day, saved our arse while it was sticking quite far out the window. His name is already legend around here for people who can pronounce it. He is the flying-while-sitting Dutchman, Bram Van Den Berg”. Bram has nothing to say tonight, and Bono says, “Very Larry Mullen of you.” Adam is up next. “Ladies…and the gentle-ist of the gentlemen, I would like to introduce you to our very own Greek, no, Roman God, the man putting the Venus into the Venetian, Lord Adam Clayton.” The Edge? “Not just a magician, an alchemist, turning our shite into gold. Our card-playing-card-carrying genius, The Edge.” And he introduces him as well, “At the center of the action, always! If you’re not talking about him, he’s not listening, a giant in his own mind, on vocals, Bono!”

Finishing “Ultra Violet” Bono addresses the crowd again. “You indeed, indeed you light our way. What a way, you have given us.” He really seems to be enjoying the crowd this evening. “That’s a Wednesday night? Wow! Thank you!” closes “Where the Streets Have No Name”. And after “With or Without You” Bono shares ahead of “Beautiful Day”, “Thank you. Look at you! There you are! Look we know a lot of you came from a long distance to see us, to get us to our destination. We really, really just thank you. Nothing else to say, it’s been great to do this. To take our audience, we’re trying, to the next level. That’s the job isn’t it? You give us a great level, we try to take it to the next level.”

“I Feel Love” by Donna Summer appears in the “Lemon” remix that opens the show over the PA, and Bono sings a bit of it during “Mysterious Ways” tonight, during the song, and returning to it at the end of the song. “Love Me Tender” is at the end of “One”, and “Paint it Black” appears in “Until the End of the World”. “Into the Mystic” appears at the end of “All I Want is You” and “Movin’ On Up” appears at the end of “I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For”. “Viva Las Vegas” ends the opening set, appearing at the end of “Love is Blindness”. In the encore, “My Way” appears at the end of “Elevation” and “Moment of Surrender” opens “Where the Streets Have No Name” and Bono slips in a bit of “All You Need is Love” during the song. During “Beautiful Day” Bono includes U2’s own “Gloria” as well as The Beatles’ “Blackbird”. At the end of the show, as Brittany Howard’s vocals come on the PA for the song “Glorify” Bono sings the first verse before leaving the stage.

Initially five shows in Las Vegas were announced, quickly followed by seven more, and then five more taking us to the end of November. On May 12, the final shows for December were added, with all eight shows being available via a U2.com presale offer, where you could apply for the shows you were interested in. The offer ended on May 15. Face value on tickets range from $140.13 – $501.35 at four different price points for seats for face values. A General Admission floor will be priced at $267.88, and at each show there was be a (RED) Zone riser at the back of the GA area which held 50 people, priced at $600.00. Although these prices listed were face values, tickets in seated areas were subject to Platinum pricing in the general sale.

Officially Released Tracks