Andrea Spinelli
free, I came here for the fight, I’m front row in Vegas and there’s a big fight tonight,” Bono sings on U2’s new single “Atomic City”, which hits radio today, savoring the thrill of challenge. The one who appeared thirty-two years ago and set himself the task of glorifying for 25 nights the epic of the philosopher’s stone from his discography as Achtung baby. A brutal, merciless fight like Tyson and Holyfield fought in 1997 under the floodlights of the MGM Grand, which glows in the night not far from here, from that huge luminescent spaceship that is the Sphere, the Golem of Las Vegas 2023. a $2.3 billion behemoth that the Irish quartet will transform into their worship’s new church tonight, December 16th.
Compensation for selling your soul to the demon of slot machines and casinos? Some say ten million dollars plus 90% of the proceeds from each concert. But Bono, far from feeling like Rolando in the service of the current emir, prefers to look at the operation from a different point of view. “Be it stadiums or arenas, most of the venues we typically play in were built for sports, and The Sphere, with 164,000 audio speakers, was built for an immersive movie and performance experience,” he says. “There are no loudspeakers here because the entire building was designed as a loudspeaker, so no matter where you are you will have perfect hearing. There is nothing like this in the world and there won’t be for many years. If our audience will appreciate it, I think it will be difficult to get us out of here.”
In short, Group One without Larry Mullen Jr.’s circumstances. due to the effects of the operation (but in the video for the new single, shot in the bustle of Fremont Street, the drummer still wanted to be there, and on stage he will be replaced by Bram van den Berg, the rhythmic engine of the group Dutch group Krezip) in a dusty Nevada night tries to pull off more one dream with U2 UV Achtung Baby Live at Sphere. What does the technological belly of a sphere as tall as the Statue of Liberty offer him in front of 17,500 fans, 54 thousand square meters of panels covered with 1.2 million LEDs, transformed under the moon of the “nuclear city” (as it was nicknamed over Fifty years because of nuclear tests in the Nevada desert ) in a basketball, in a marble, in a “snowball”, in a Halloween pumpkin, in an eye.
Indeed, in the case of Bono, the Edge and Adam Clayton – also highlighted by an interactive exhibition at the Venice hotel called “Zoo Station: The U2:UV Experience” – in a disproportionate eyeball that needs to be cut with a razor, like Buñuel, in front of the camera of an Andalusian girl to see the epic of their forty years without breathing like never before.
In the city that never sleeps, little remains of the spirit with which, in 1955, Liberace began the adventure of “residencies” at the Riviera Hotel, extended stays in the city by great artists with the aim of expanding the range of gaming house offerings. Concerts by Frank Sinatra at the Sands, Dean Martin at the Riviera, Elvis Presley at the (former) Hilton are part of the iconography that the bulldozers building the new Las Vegas couldn’t take away along with the rubble. The events often suffered losses, but planned to support Sin City’s “core business”, which remained a girls’ and gambling business until the 1990s; when in the art world, the casino city was considered the golden end of the careers of disarmed celebrities, “an elephant graveyard where talent goes to die,” as Cher once defined it, speaking of herself.
The real revolution came in the 2000s thanks to Celine Dion, and this “A New Day…” staged at the Caesars Palace Coliseum, the sanctuary of the new idea of ”Made in Vegas” shows, which she attended with two shows. and twelve years of reruns have grossed over $660 million in ticket sales alone. A triumph that prompted Elton John to follow her on the same stage, budgeting $300 million for The Red Piano and Million Dollar Piano. Third in the ranking is Britney Spears, the “golden girl” of the Axis Auditorium at Planet Hollywood with 137 million.
Successes that defined an explosion of “residencies” featuring a host of superstars, from Jennifer Lopez to the Backstreet Boys, from Aerosmith to Janet Jackson, Usher, Sting, John Legend, Bruno Mars, Rod Stewart, Drake, Christina Aguilera, Carlos Santana, Diana Ross and a lot others. Just consider that this week, in addition to Bono and Co., Atomic City is hosting Lady Gaga at the Dolby Live Theater, Adele at the Coliseum and Katy Perry at The Theater of Resorts World.
Successor to U2’s The Sphere? It could be Harry Styles, who seems to be giving it some serious thought as he plans for his 2024 year.