U2 Announces The First Dates Of Their Las Vegas Residency

After a few months of speculation and anticipation among fans, U2 has announced the dates for its upcoming series of shows at Las Vegas’ brand new Sphere. Marketed as a residency, the run will be called U2: UV Achtung Baby Live at Sphere and it will begin this coming fall.

There will be only five shows in the residency—at least to begin with—and the first of the bunch commences on September 29. The venture will then continue with concerts 30, as well as October 6, 7 and 8.

This new Vegas residency marks the band’s first proper run of concerts in several years, although they have performed together from time to time, or in different iterations since then.

The grand announcement of the residency was made during a Super Bowl ad, revealing that the band has been brought in to launch the MSG Sphere, a new futuristic and highly visual entertainment venue at The Venetian casino and resort in Sin City. The MSG Sphere, a joint venture between the Madison Square Garden
MSG
Company and Las Vegas Sands
LVS
Corporation, has been a long time coming, and it may change what entertainment in the city looks like. The venue was initially slated to open in 2021, but the Covid pandemic slowed everything down and pushed back its start date.

U2: UV Achtung Baby Live will reportedly only feature three of the members, as drummer Larry Mullen Jr. is apparently held up, recuperating from surgery. The name of the residency suggests that U2 will at least be focusing on, if not only playing, their album Achtung Baby. The CD is regarded as one of their best and most popular works.

The band recently returned to the top 10 on the Billboard 200 with Songs of Surrender, a compilation made up of 40 reworked versions of some of their biggest hits.

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