U2’s otherworldly concert at futuristic £1,800,000,000 Sphere arena in Las Vegas is unlike anything you’ve ever seen

U2 have kicked off their residency at the futuristic Sphere arena in Las Vegas – and it looks truly mind-boggling.

The rock group announced that they would be the opening act for the MSG Sphere, which cost a whopping $2.3billion (£1.8bn) to build, in February with a huge Super Bowl ad featuring a UFO.

However, things have kicked up several gears from that with a first look at their opening shows on Friday and Saturday night revealing jaw-dropping visuals that left fans reeling.

The legendary Irish group, who scored nine number one albums between 1983 and 2009, are performing at the venue until December 16 as a three-piece as drummer Larry Mullen Jr. recuperates from surgery, leaving his bandmates Bono, The Edge and Adam Clayton to represent.

Reportedly the biggest spherical structure in the world, 17,000 attendees can fit inside the venue, with 10,000 enjoying specially vibrating seats for a fully immersive experience that also features a 16K resolution wraparound screen, 16,000 speakers with beamforming and wave field synthesis capabilities and 4D effects.

The screen measures over a whopping two acres and the incredible visual effects already glimpsed show the screen shimmering with code all the way to the top – 112m up – before the ceiling reverts to a square and seems to collapse on the audience.

At another point, the With or Without You chart-toppers perform in front of a stunningly photorealistic depiction of sunrise over the desert, and elsewhere near the end of the show, 250 of the most endangered species in the Nevada desert are rendered onscreen

As one commenter on that video wrote: ‘I painted a backdrop for Blur once.. painted.. Hand-painted.. a rectangular canvas gaffa’d behind the drums..

‘Wow we’ve come a long way..,’ they pointed out.

‘My God I want to be in U2,’ fantasised another.

‘Oh my god, we’re living in the future,’ commented actor and former Spandau Ballet star Gary Kemp.

The band’s residency – formally known as U2:UV Achtung Baby Live at Sphere – was taken in on its opening night by stars including Breaking Bad actors Bryan Cranston and Aaron Paul and director Darren Aronofsky.

Outside is almost as visually arresting as inside the Sphere arena, with the exterior wraparound screen morphing between waves of blue blocks, an AI-inspired eyeball design bearing the message ‘hello world’ and images of a figure floating in a dreamy purple landscape.

Of their approach to the show, Bono told Channel 4: ‘It’s trying to being a rock and roll band in the middle of this and yet take the medium to the next level.

‘There’s a rawness that we need to get to as a band where we have to overpower the digital world, we have to put blood into the machine, into the diodes, all 128million of them- and intimacy is key.

‘Intimacy is the new punk rock.’

The Vertigo hitmakers previously hadn’t performed in concert since before the pandemic, with their last shows taking place in Asia in December 2019.

In a statement, the band said: ‘The Sphere show has been in the works for a long time. We don’t want to let people down, least of all our audience.’

The statement continued: ‘The truth is we miss them as much as they appear to miss us… our audience was always the fifth member of the band.’

Released in the early 90s, Achtung Baby reached number two in the UK album chart and spawned number the band’s second number one single, The Fly.

The album also produced successful singles One and Even Better Than the Real Thing, which both reached the top 10 in the UK singles chart.

In February, Songs of Surrender, a 40-song compilation album featuring re-writes of U2 deep cuts was released, including new versions of hits such as With Or Without You and Beautiful Day.

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