A maiden voyage

Las Vegas’s newest music venue opened its doors for the first time on Friday night. The Sphere has piqued people’s interest since the LED screen-coated construct first lit up, regularly changing the visual display it broadcasts across the Nevada skyline. Now, it has finally been put into action.

U2 played on Friday night to a crowd of 21,500. It will prove the first of many in the new arena, with the rock legends scheduled for a residency at The Sphere that will last right through to December 16. If the first show was anything to go by, fans are in for a real treat for every performance.

timeless U2 hits combined with unbelievable visuals

Concertgoers took to social media to share footage from the event, and it is clear that timeless U2 hits combined with unbelievable visuals to create an unforgettable experience for everyone in attendance. VegasSlotsOnline News has trawled through the many videos to find the highlights of the gig.

The spaceship opens

When visitors first entered The Sphere, they were greeted by a wall of concrete on the LED screens. Many social media users said it looked like they were inside a spaceship, a theme in-keeping with the band’s latest release, Atomic City.

Once the band got going, the wall gradually opened up to the amazement of those in attendance:

A sphere or a cube?

From the moment those spaceship walls opened up, The Sphere took on a life of its own, with the visuals changing throughout the night. One of the most mind-bending moments came partway through when a series of rainbow-colored codes littered the walls.

seemed to magically transition from a curved surface to a flat one

Even more shockingly, the roof seemed to magically transition from a curved surface to a flat one. The new roof then descended on the crowd, giving the impression the space was shrinking:

Viva Las Vegas

U2 decided to pay tribute to Sin City early on in the show. As the band played Until the End of the World from their Achtung Baby album, images of Las Vegas adorned the walls. Roulette wheels, poker chips, slot machines, and even Elvis Presley himself slowly descended to the ground.

Social media users claimed it felt like they were moving within The Sphere:

Smoke and mirrors

Audience members were able to gather themselves a little when U2 broke into their rendition of Where the Streets Have No Name. The background settled into a beautiful desert landscape reminiscent of Nevada’s natural beauty. In the center, a lone pole spurted thick smoke into the air:

With or Without You

It wouldn’t be a U2 gig without their timeless classic With or Without You. Well, this version of the song was different from anything any of their fans had witnessed before.

these images represented all of the endangered species in Nevada

What started as a sphere gradually approaching the audience from a desert-like landscape ultimately became a collage of birds, fish, and insects. The images of the creatures seemed to shine one by one as U2 closed out the song. According to organizers, these images represented all of the endangered species in Nevada:

Fans left The Sphere with Beautiful Day still ringing in their ears, incredibly impressed with what they had just witnessed. Perhaps the $2.3bn arena – the most expensive entertainment venue in Las Vegas history – was worth all the hype in the end.