The first audience has seen the immersive U2 Sphere concert film, and it brings fans back to the Las Vegas residency.
Clips from the fan screening of V-U2: An Immersive Concert Film at Sphere Las Vegas have hit social media. They preview what the film looks like. Fortunately, it is like the band is there.
@u2gigs on X (Formerly Twitter) posted several clips from the first screening. They lamented that the concert film is “like watching the show from the best seats.” Even though U2's turntable stage is no longer in the building, the film makes it appear that it is.
Bono in 8K
Most of the clips were filmed with the stage and screen in the frame. However, during “One,” it appears that they used 8K cameras akin to what the WWE and NFL have used.
The clip begins with a close-up of Bono as he sings the second verse of “One.” It slowly zooms out to reveal The Edge, Adam Clayton, and Bram van den Berg.
Another Bono highlight comes during “Until the End of the World.” During Sphere performances of the song, he would enter the crowd in front of the stage. The clip from @u2gigs shows him descending into the crowd as he begins to sing a snippet of the Rolling Stones' “Paint It Black.”
“Sleight of hand and twist of fate”
Since the U2 Sphere concert film is shorter than the actual concert, songs are cut from the tracklist. In turn, the editing team had to find creative ways of segueing between songs.
They do seem to keep the opening seven tracks (from “Zoo Station” to “Until the End of the World”) intact, including the remix of “Lemon” the band would walk out to. Their snippet of “Love Me Tender” remains after “One” as well.
One such segue is from “Desire” into “Atomic City.” The former was usually played in the middle of the set during the acoustic segment of the show. The latter was the second song of the encore, usually six songs after “Desire.”
A stage perspective switch occurs in the concert film to stitch the songs together. The screen goes black before Bono begins singing “My Way” (taken from the end of “Elevation”). This would segue right into U2's “Atomic City,” which was written about Las Vegas. This was a clever way to jump forward in the set.
V-U2 tracklist
According to @u2gigs, the V-U2 concert film consisted of 12 songs and the “Lemon” remix intro. View the full tracklist from the show.
- “Lemon” remix intro
- “Zoo Station”
- “The Fly”
- “Even Better Than the Real Thing”
- “Mysterious Ways”
- “One”/”Love Me Tender” (snippet)
- “Until the End of the World”
- “All I Want Is You”
- “Desire”
- “My Way” (snippet)/”Atomic City”
- “Vertigo”
- “Where the Streets Have No Name”
- “With or Without You”
What is U2's Sphere residency?
U2 has never done anything like its Sphere residency, though its concert film does a great job capturing it. There is no way to top what the band did from September 29, 2023, to March 2, 2024, with their 40 shows. But the concert film does a great job of immersing fans in the show.
The residency was centered around their 1991 album, Achtung Baby. For the first time, U2 played the entire album in full in a concert. Bram van den Berg played with Bono, The Edge, and Adam Clayton during the residency. He filled in for Larry Mullen Jr.
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