Las Vegas Mixtape v10: U2 Sphere Takeover, Swap Meet Thrills, and Neon Feast Smarts

Track #1: U2 @ Sphere

“From the sublime to the ridiculous…that’s our job this evening,” U2 frontman Bono said on January 30 from the stage at the Sphere. The Irish band’s groundbreaking residency began last September and ends on March 2. “If you’re gonna run away with the circus, this is the big top,” he added—no doubt a reference to the interior’s 160,000 square-foot wraparound LED display.

The concert felt like The Greatest Show on Earth. It was an exhilarating mix of sound (cut like a diamond), astonishing visuals (some of which looked like a Salvador Dali painting), and the band’s uplifting idealism (expressed in songs like “Where The Streets Have No Name”).

To my mind, the show is the modern version of Andy Warhol’s influential “Exploding Plastic Inevitable,” a 1966 multi-media music extravaganza with the Velvet Underground and Nico. The quartet played their best album, “Achtung Baby,” in its entirety along with other catalog gems, plus the excellent new Vegas-centric song “Atomic City.”

Experiencing the concert, in its most epic moments, was like sitting in the middle of a giant snow globe that had just been shaken, particularly during “Even Better Than The Real Thing.”

Fortunately, there were also intimate moments,  including an acoustic cover of Crowded House’s “Don’t Dream It’s Over.” Bono punctuated the song’s sentiment by saying, “Don’t let anyone take your freedom away from you.” Ultimately, U2 absolutely owned the awe-inspiring Sphere, not the other way around.