Band will share the news during a Super Bowl ad
U2 is teasing their long-awaited Las Vegas residency at the MSG Sphere with an upcoming Super Bowl ad. Fans should tune into the Big Game on Sunday, February 12th to see what the band is prepping.
“Something is coming………… Tune In For A Special Ad This Super Bowl Sunday to See More,” a release from the band’s publicity team reads.
The band has also launched u2xsphere.com that has the still image featured in this article of the Las Vegas Strip with a baby face inside the Sphere.
The MSG Sphere will be at The Venetian and is expected to open with a U2 residency this September. The Las Vegas Review Journal reports that owners are planning to host between four to six residency headliners per year depending on the length of each one.
The high-tech MSG Sphere is a 17,500 seat or 20,000 standing venue being constructed behind the Venetian along the Las Vegas Strip. When it opens, it’ll be the largest spherical building and home to the world’s largest highest-resolution LED screen in the world with 160,000-square-foot wraparound display .
Rumors have run rampant about the band opening the state-of-the-art venue. Last month, frontman Bono confirmed advanced talks were underway in an episode of Will Arnett, Jason Bateman and Sean Hayes’ SmartLess podcast.
“It’s nothing like Las Vegas has ever seen before. If this happens this will be really extraordinary,” Bono says, confirming the show is “not like anything we’ve ever done before.”
In November, Bono all but confirmed to Brendan O’Connor that the band is set to do a series of shows when its complete.
“I hope it would be ready. I can’t announce Vegas. You’d have to shoot me. But if it happens, I can promise you it won’t be like anything you’ve ever seen in Las Vegas or anywhere ever. It is the most extraordinary — If it comes off, it’s grand madness by one hundred. It will center around Achtung Baby, which we feel we need to really honor. But it will also, but we have to have the new songs out don’t we?” he asks.
Later that month, drummer Larry Mullen, Jr. told The Washington Post that he needs surgery in order to keep playing, and says any shows the band may play in 2023 will likely be without him.
“I really miss the audiences. I miss that interaction even though I’m sitting behind a drum kit… My body is not what it used to be physically,” Mullen, Jr. states. “Like next year, I won’t be performing live next year. I don’t know what the band’s plan is. There’s talk of all kinds of things.”
It’s unclear if Mullen will be apart of band’s fall plans. We’ll have more details as they become available.
The band’s long-awaited Songs Of Surrender featuring a collection of 40 seminal U2 songs from across the band’s catalog, re-recorded and reimagined, will be available across multiple formats on March 17th via Island Records.
Also premiering the same day on Disney+ is Bono & The Edge: A Sort of Homecoming, with Dave Letterman, in which Academy Award-winning filmmaker Morgan Neville captures Dave Letterman on his first visit to Dublin to hang out with Bono and The Edge in their hometown, experience Dublin, and join the two U2 musicians for a concert performance unlike any they’ve done before.
In April, Bono begins an 11 date Stories of Surrender spring 2023 run at New York’s Beacon Theatre. The announcement of Bono at The Beacon in 2023 follows last year’s hugely successful run of Stories of Surrender, a show that left both audiences and critics cheering for more (read our review) – in support of Surrender: 40 Songs, One Story’ the New York Times and Sunday Times best-selling memoir by the rock star.
