U2 WRAPPING SPHERE RESIDENCY IN MARCH

U2 will conclude its U2:UV Achtung Baby Live at Sphere in Las Vegas with four shows 2/23-24 and 3-1/2. The news brings the total number of dates during the run to 40, the same as the title of the final song on the Irish band's 1983 album, War. Coincidence? Only Bono and Jim Dolan know for sure.

Bono, The Edge and Adam Clayton will once again be joined by Bram van den Berg on drums while Larry Mullen Jr. continues to recover from back surgery. General-on-sale tickets will be available 12/8 through Ticketmaster. U2:UV Live wraps its 2023 schedule with shows on 12/6, 8-9, 13 and 15-16.

In his review of the 9/29 opening-night festivities, HITS' Simon Glickman reported that Sphere has the “ability to cover every surface with stunningly hi-def images and far surpasses any kind of visual production ever experienced," adding, "What it offers artists is nothing less than a canvas for world-building. Team U2’s artful deployment of its extraordinary new tools included several dazzling set pieces, one of which was a CGI-like Vegas cityscape that deconstructed itself, girder by girder, until it was a bare desert floor, precisely the terrain from which the band’s most effective work has sprung.” We trust that whatever drugs Simon ingested that evening have finally worn off.

“I can now safely say that, for me, everything I'd hoped and imagined for it has over-delivered,” U2 manager Irving Azoff told us in a recent interview.

As reported last week, Phish will follow U2 at Sphere, launching a multiyear partnership with the venue with four shows 4/21-24.