photo credit: Alive Coverage

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Our recent cover story presented images and captions from four bands who appeared at Sphere in 2024. We’ve already shared commentary from Dead & Company and Eagles. Here’s what members of U2 and Phish had to say about the venue.

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“One of the most unique elements of Sphere is the sheer size of the building and yet the relationship with the audience still feels intimate in many ways,” U2 bassist Adam Clayton says, while describing the immersive grandeur of the Las Vegas venue. This sentiment has been echoed by members of all four groups who have performed at the innovative entertainment space that feels of the future yet encourages one to remain in the moment.

The fan experience can be breathtaking. The music coming off the stage is often augmented by the gasps of concertgoers during certain astonishing sequences. Yet as Clayton suggests, despite the prodigious scale of the facility, it fosters personal engagement.

In 2024, U2, Phish, Dead & Company and the Eagles all performed at Sphere, with each group utilizing its advanced audio and visual capacities in different ways, as befitting their art and ethos.

Opportunities still remain to see these original bands in the venue. The Eagles’ run will continue into the spring, while Dead & Company’s second go-round will begin on March 20.

Folks who missed U2:VU can attend V-U2 directed by Morleigh Steinberg and The Edge, which is the first-ever concert film utilizing the high resolution camera system developed for Sphere. (A forthcoming book will offer additional perspective.) The members of Phish have expressed an interest in returning as well.

Josephine Vaccarello, Executive Vice President, Live, MSG Entertainment, who oversees live bookings for Sphere, indicates that there’s plenty more to come, as “We are booked through 2025 and working into 2026.”

She explains that the nature of appearing at Sphere requires ample lead time for debut performers, noting, “There’s a six-to-nine month process for the creative piece. It’s like setting up a tour to go around the world. You have to come up with your creative, your staging, your production, your content, and all that stuff has to be done in advance. This is the same thing, except you’re sitting down in Vegas in a venue.

“Our Sphere Studios team, who are the experts from content to sound within the venue, work with each of the artist teams in advance to make sure that they understand what the venue can do and what is the best way to do it. So there is a lot of involvement months in advance to make sure that everybody is comfortable. But while we definitely are the experts from the technology perspective, it’s the band’s decision as to what they want to put forward and the journey that they want to take their fans on.”

The following images and captions suggest that journey can be boundless.

As Vaccarello quite accurately observes, “It’s a completely different experience than anything anyone has done before. It’s not like seeing another concert anywhere else. It is different. It’s more.

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The Edge: It’s impossible to really convey the spectacle of U2:UV in two dimensions but these two images give some hint of the groundbreaking imagery that went with the U2:UV concert. Both will be part of the V-U2 Sphere photo book. We were lucky enough to work with some digital artists of the highest caliber.

The first image is of a work called “King Size” by Marco Brambilla. It’s a real psychedelic trip, dedicated to Elvis Presley, and every time I watch this piece I see something new. Or am I just hallucinating? (Photo: Stufish Entertainment Architects)

The Edge: The second image is by a digital artist from Ireland called John Gerrard. His Flare (For U2) is a powerful piece of digital art, which he allowed us to use during “Until the End of the World.” Beautiful and terrifying all at once. It’s a commentary on the existential threat heating oceans pose to low-lying lands as well as the economic and geopolitical factors contributing to the climate crisis; truly the most pressing threat to our world. (Photo: Ross Stewart)

Adam Clayton: This photo really captures the essence of the SONIC experience of performing at Sphere. When people think of Sphere, they most often think of the visuals but I think this photo really captures the musical element of a band on stage and the wonderful live concert experience that happens inside that building. (Photo: Ross Stewart)

Adam Clayton: This is such a great image that captures the building, the band and the audience all together in this revolutionary moment for live music. One of the most unique elements of Sphere is the sheer size of the building and yet the relationship with the audience still feels intimate in many ways. When we made the film V-U2, we purposefully had a shot of the audience from behind the stage which captured a new viewpoint for fans to see, and I think this picture does the same. (Photo: Ross Stewart)

The Edge: Working on the immersive film V-U2 was a real challenge, but also real thrill. By the end of it, I really felt the team had managed to create a credible immersive U2:UV concert film experience. At the end of the final run-through I really felt like I had seen U2 in concert for the very first time, and if I do say so myself, we’re not too shabby. Although we tried to stay as close to the U2:UV live show experience as possible, we felt it was important to break out of that constraint once or twice to showcase the full potential of the Sphere screen. At over two acres it’s quite the canvas. 

This image is taken from that moment in V-U2 where we indulge in a massive close-up of Bono as he sings the song “One.” To all those people out there who think Bono has a big head, just come and see V-U2. It’s never been this big, and it’s a thing of rare beauty. (Photo: Ross Stewart)

Page McConnell: We referred to this one as the Eye of Sauron. It was this image I would show my friends who weren’t able to make it to the Sphere. I always imagined that it was during this giant swirling vortex segment that Drew Carey decided exactly what he would do to see Phish at Sphere again. (Photo: Dean Budnick)

Page McConnell: This is one of my favorite looks of the whole run. I need to shout out Abigail Holmes, our co-creative director for the Sphere. Here, she broke down the fourth wall, touching the audience members with the light of the eyes of the robots. My first experience with her work was seeing the Talking Heads’ Stop Making Sense tour in 1983. She also collaborated with Chris Kuroda to design the giant lighting rig that has been hanging over our heads for the last few years. (Photo: René Huemer)

Page McConnell: We all loved the dog licking the screen. I know it was a fan favorite, although I’ve heard from some family members that they found the image disturbing. I thought it was beautiful. (Photo: Dean Budnick)

Page McConnell: This one featured my dear friend Jim Pollock’s artwork. We resurrected these images, having used them for some LivePhish releases around the turn of the century. I’ve always loved his pen and ink work, and though it’s difficult to see in this image, there was a rotating 3-D column of his artwork that moved around the wall. (Photo: Alive Coverage)

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