Bob Gendron | Chicago Tribune

LAS VEGAS — Even better than the real thing? In the case of U2 at the Sphere in Las Vegas, which completed the band’s 2023 residency dates Saturday in advance of a late January return, that all depends on perspective. Given the extraordinary immersion on offer during the thrilling 130-minute journey, getting a fix on what is actual versus what seems imagined can be complicated.

It’s wiser to surrender to the awe-inspiring surroundings.

Brilliant in conception and passionate in execution, “U2: UV Achtung Baby Live at the Sphere” explodes with possibility and suspends disbelief. Constructed for an approximate cost of $2.3 billion, the Sphere is the world’s largest spherical building and designed to overwhelm. Both its interior and exterior “exosphere” are covered with LEDs and inside, the dome is covered with a 16K LED screen, a wraparound engineering feat that stretches back, around and over most attendees’ heads. Some 168,000 speakers use spatial audio in an effort to ensure everyone hears the same fidelity, no matter their location. The 17,385 seats are situated on tiers behind the open floor, and more than half deliver haptic feedback (total capacity is 20,000).

The vast sensory assault blows up traditional parameters — even those associated with lavish stadium concerts headlined by mega-stars, IMAX screens and films laden with CGI effects.

U2 performs on a spartan rectangular stage topped with a circular base modeled after a glowing turntable designed by producer-musician Brian Eno. The band leverages the bleeding-edge venue’s canvases to manipulate time, space and awareness in transformative, inquisitive, innovative ways.

Having received the first crack at experimenting with the dome’s potential, U2 at the Sphere represents a full-circle moment for a band that already forever changed the live-music experience with its “Zoo TV” tour. Launched in 1992 in support of the band’s 1991 blockbuster LP “Achtung Baby,” it was arguably the most groundbreaking tour of the last 35 years and marked the debut of now-ubiquitous video walls.

Notably, the band paired the visual spectacle with pointed and prophetic cultural commentary, exploring mass-media saturation, pervasive materialism and, particularly, the increasingly thinning lines between entertainment, news and commerce. Questions and phrases flashed in rapid succession on screens, along with news telecasts and shopping-network pitches.

Some of those same elements live on in the Sphere concert.

The mind-numbing blitz of text from “Zoo TV” appears during U2′s danceable song The Fly.” No words loom larger than the recurring declaration “EVERYTHING YOU KNOW IS WRONG.” In our age of fake news and viral rot, the all-caps proclamation rings truer now than three decades ago. Other newly added statements stimulate related anxiety and reflection. Of course, why stick to words when pictures supposedly carry greater value and currency?

If “Zoo TV” anticipated futuristic developments such as virtual reality, artificial intelligence and social media, “U2: UV Achtung Baby Live at the Sphere” puts them into practice. The visionary show almost demands that fans feverishly post to their followers.

Before the event starts, you can plainly see the interior architecture of the Sphere and become familiar with the environment — looking straight up to the sky brings to mind staring through a giant telescope.

But that fractures once the concert starts. Consider when four monitor-style screens pop up to show the movements of the band. You understand the monitor displays are not actually there, they’re just a part of the overall screen, but your brain tells you differently. After all, they’re seemingly right in front of your eyes. Just like the image of a room with four digital walls and a ceiling that transpires from nothing, violating the geometry you know is there. Brimming with a crush of flashing letters and numbers, the surfaces disorient and delight, drawing your gaze away from the falling ceiling headed right at you.

The trickery repeats when helicopters fly into the field of vision, pinpoint Bono with searchlights and super-size him on the wall as their motors buzz overhead. Magic happens again with mobile scrolls of Vegas-themed iconography. And it plays out with an ultra-high-definition panoramic shot of the city, complete with details such as traffic and up-to-date advertisements for Vegas attractions. That imagery must be relaying what’s on the street in the here and now, right? Wrong.

General view of the opening night of Sphere ahead of Irish rock band U2’s show at The Venetian Resort in Las Vegas, Nevada, on September 29, 2023. (Photo by Ronda Churchill / AFP) (Photo by RONDA CHURCHILL/AFP via Getty Images)

At the Sphere, fantasy and reality blend, bend and break. As effortlessly as it depicted the beautiful cityscape scenery, U2 then erased every last Vegas casino, business, home and road with a time-lapse reel during “Atomic City” that witnessed the structures undergoing de-construction and the terrain reverting to its native desert form.

Initiated with images of a youthful Elvis Presley, optimistic John F. Kennedy and a peaceful earth spied from outer space, “Until the End of the World” took its title literally and shook with apocalyptic purpose. Crashing thunder, lightning bolts and rising water signaled imminent destruction. A segue into the Rolling Stones’ “Paint It Black” emphasized the menace. Ditto an unforgettable visual: A gas flare, set out in the open ocean, reconstituted as a burning flag to illustrate warming seas and pollution.

“With or Without You” made the dire consequences of irresponsible actions clearer. Flooding the Sphere’s 160,000-square-foot interior screen with countless still-life casts of birds, butterflies, plants and other creatures, U2 recast the love song’s meanings with damning urgency. The monochromatic artwork — reminiscent of a fresco ceiling in an old cathedral — slowly bled into color during the ensuing “Beautiful Day.” For U2, hope prevails over desperation.

Manifested in its ballads and anthems, the band still operates with the resolute faith that music can alter the world. Despite the difficulty of solely focusing on the quartet, U2 — rounded out with Bram van den Berg holding down the drum stool while original member Larry Mullen Jr. recovers from surgery — remains a sonic force that commands attention.

As they interpreted the whole of “Achtung Baby,” Bono and company traded the youthful bravado and breathless pace of earlier days for a maturity, poise and dynamic that gave the audience extra time to absorb the material. Many songs arrived at a slightly slower clip that exposed inner tension and skeletal details. In fine voice, Bono reached falsetto highs, howled jubilant choruses and communicated a tenderness often undetectable at large shows. Though he tweaked some approaches (“Mysterious Ways,” “So Cruel”) to adjust for a loss of range that commonly accompanies age, the differences were minimal.

Compared to his madcap irony and megalomaniac persona in the ‘90s, the singer opted for gratitude as he juggled the roles of animated rock star and classic crooner. Wearing a rosary around his neck and shifting between an assortment of eyewear, Bono exhibited expert showmanship and innate alertness. He knows when, and how, to delve into messianic mode to escalate excitement or elicit humor. Similarly, he anticipates circumstances that call for the solemnity needed to calm things down or convey bruised emotions. Dramatic tendencies aside, Bono stands tall among an elite group when it comes to navigating a horizon that spans, in his whimsical words, “the sublime to the ridiculous.”

He had plenty of help. Bassist Adam Clayton steered the rhythm section with typically nonchalant aplomb. Impossibly ageless, guitarist the Edge served as a one-man army responsible for producing walls of ringing chords, propulsive leads and a rich palette of harmonic tones. Edge also supplied background vocals and keyboard parts. Primarily adorned in leather and black, U2 radiated the same cool that fueled its arrangements — and whose core basics tugged against the excess of the surroundings.

To its credit, U2 pulled back on the visual onslaught midway through the set. Though subsequent artists may push the Sphere’s capabilities to their limit — if one exists — going “dark” provided a breather and restored fundamental connections between melody and message. Stripped-down renditions of “Desire” and “Angel of Harlem” projected church vibes and soulful intimacy. “Love Rescue Me” reverberated as a quiet prayer. Snippets of favorites by Donna Summer (“I Feel Love”), Prince (“Purple Rain”) and the Beatles (“Drive My Car”) accompanied a mix of abbreviated cover songs that transitioned into and out of original fare. At the Sphere, limitations vanish. Reinvention reigns.

“We can do whatever we want,” Bono said during one of his short addresses to the crowd. Who’s to argue? Literal and figurative vertigo, desire, elevation, falling stars, walks on the wild side: “U2: UV Achtung Baby Live at the Sphere” brings ‘em all. And far more.

Bob Gendron is a freelance critic.

U2 resumes its residency Jan. 26, 2024, and performs through March 2 at the Sphere, 255 Sands Ave., Las Vegas; tickets and more information at www.thespherevegas.com/shows/u2

Setlist from “U2: UV Achtung Baby Live at the Sphere” in Las Vegas Dec. 16:

“Zoo Station”
“The Fly”
“Even Better Than the Real Thing”
“Mysterious Ways”
“One”
“Love Me Tender” (Elvis Presley cover) / ”Until the End of the World” / “Paint It Black” (Rolling Stones cover)
“Who’s Gonna Ride Your Wild Horses”
“Tryin’ to Throw Your Arms Around the World”
“All I Want Is You” / ”Walk on the Wild Side” (Lou Reed cover)
“Desire”
“Angel of Harlem”
“Love Rescue Me”
“Acrobat”
“So Cruel”
“Ultraviolet (Light My Way)”
“Love Is Blindness” / ”Viva Las Vegas” (Elvis Presley cover)

Encore

“Elevation” / ”My Way” (Frank Sinatra cover)
“Atomic City”
“Vertigo”
“Where the Streets Have No Name”
“With or Without You”
“Beautiful Day” / “Gloria” / “Blackbird” (Beatles cover)