Irish rock band U2 ended their residency at the Sphere in Las Vegas by playing alongside Daniel Lanois and Neil Finn. Lanois, who co-produced the band’s classic albums The Joshua Tree and Achtung Baby, joined them on stage to play the latter record’s “One”. U2 played a version of Crowded House’s “Don’t Dream It’s Over,” a song they have been covering recently, but this time they were joined by the song’s writer Neil Finn, albeit virtually.
According to Bono, the band received a “beautiful email” from Neil Finn, saying that they could perform Don’t Dream It’s Over whenever they wanted. A new version of the song accompanied the email, which Finn had done, and the band is looking to record it soon.
The Sphere saw performances from the band since the end of September, and the final show was the 40th. To mark this number, they performed “40”, from their 1983 album War, for its first live outing since 2016.
The band’s drummer Larry Mullen Jr., who has been absent from the Sphere shows as he recovers from neck surgery, was in attendance for the final performance, watching from a box seat. Bram van den Berg, from the band Krezip, has been filling in for Mullen for the duration of the run of shows.
The Sphere, which is situated in the Venetian resort in Las Vegas, can seat around 18,000 fans. It features a state-of-the-art, 160,000 speakers, dome-shaped wraparound LED screen. Although the occupied shows at the Sphere generated a revenue of around $4.1m, the venue has reported a loss of $98.4m since opening
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