U2 announced their upcoming Las Vegas concert series via a Super Bowl advert on Sunday.
During a commercial break in the sporting extravaganza, a mysterious 15-second clip aired showing a spherical UFO being spotted in the skies. At the end of the promo, it was revealed the Irish band will be opening the MSG Sphere, a new venue at The Venetian resort, in the autumn with their U2:UV Achtung Baby Live At The Sphere concert series.
The shows, which will celebrate their 1991 album Achtung Baby, mark the band's first live performance since December 2019 and their first without drummer Larry Mullen Jr., who is recuperating from unspecified surgery.
Bono, Adam Clayton and the Edge will be joined by Bram van den Berg, the drummer for the Dutch band Krezip.
"It's going to take all we've got to approach the Sphere without our bandmate in the drum seat, but Larry has joined us in welcoming Bram van den Berg who is a force in his own right," the band said in a statement. "The Sphere show has been in the works for a long time. We don't want to let people down, least of all our audience... the truth is we miss them as much as they appear to miss us... our audience was always the fifth member of the band. Bottom line, U2 hasn't played live since December 2019 and we need to get back on stage and see the faces of our fans again. And what a unique stage they're building for us out there in the desert.
"We're the right band, ACHTUNG BABY the right album, and the Sphere the right venue to take the live experience of music to the next level."
The dates of the shows have yet to be announced.
