Larry Mullen Jr in The House
While he might not have been seated behind his drum kit, on Friday night Larry Mullen, Jr., was in the house and delighted to be watching his band mates perform at the Sphere.
'We love you, Larry Mullen, Jr.,' Bono said before the band played their 'Beautiful Day' encore, saluting Mullen, who is recuperating from medical procedures. 'Larry Mullen, Sr., would be very proud, and we thank you'.
After he pointed out Larry in the audience, delighted fans leapt to their feet and chanted 'Larry! Larry! Larry!'
Later in the evening, Larry took to the band's social media channels: 'What an incredible night at Sphere-So Grateful to Bono Edge and Adam and of course Bram for an amazing job-very emotional night for me personally'.
Like last weekend's shows, Friday night's performance was filmed and there was one shake up in the set list as 'Angel of Harlem' replaced 'Love Rescue Me' on Brian Eno's turntable. There were a few musical nods to fellow artists, including George Harrison's 'My Sweet Lord', 'Sympathy for the Devil' and 'Paint It Black' by the Rolling Stones, and The Beatles' 'Blackbird', which closed the night.
If you were at the show in Vegas, add your own review and upload your photos here.
What Bono Said
After Desire: 'Jukebox song! I'm starting to like that song again.'
Introducing All I Want Is You: 'Whispering feels really cool because you normally can't whisper in a place like this. Can you hear us up top whispering? The sound is just amazing in here….Whisper, whisper, whisper'.
After With Or Without You: 'We're at journey's end, inside Es Devlin's Nevada Ark. It's a miracle of a place, this Sphere, not just of art and science, but something other... 'Thank you to MSG people for getting it together and Jim Dolan. Thank you for your grand madness, we have some of that ourselves'.
'So many rumors that we wouldn't get here, but we did! Also rumors that Larry — our Larry — would be playing with us are not true, sadly, but he is here with us', he said, gesturing toward the crowd before the encore. 'I think I can see … is it over here? Where are we? Can we get a spotlight? There you are! Larry Mullen, Jr! Woo! That is the man who pinned the note on the notice board at Mount Temple Comprehensive all those years ago and we are very grateful that he did and that he's with us here tonight. And we wish him a speedy, speedy, speedy recovery.'
Shout Out
To Larry and his partner Ann Acheson, during the encore: 'It's a beautiful night, Larry… you're beautiful! Ann!'
To Joe O'Herlihy and Jacknife Lee before 'Love Rescue Me': 'Thank you to Joe O and Jacknife Lee and everybody who's worked on [the sound system in Sphere]'
From the Socials
'I've never seen Bono like this before. Vulnerable? Yes. Emotional? Absolutely. This is different. We are so unbelievably lucky to have this band. Those songs. These raw moments. #U2UVSPHERE' —@InstantKarma510 on X
'What's now clear to see, obvious to the fans I know but what a band and what an amazing group of friends they are in that the whole Sphere situation etc has shown the respect they have for each other, not many bands around have what they have. #U2UVSphere' —@number9UK on X
'We love and appreciate Larry Mullen Jr so much. #u2uvsphere @u2#grateful #nowords' —@tilldecember on X
'I nearly lost it when that “Larry Larry” chant went up from the crowd… So much love in that stadium.' —@jason_king72 on X
Zootopia/U2 Faniverse
'THAT was an amazing moment (I need to add to the the Favorite Moments thread). But just thinking how someone in here (can't remember who, sorry) said last night that Bram looked so comfortable at this show. Bram got to play for his mentor. And his mentor got to see him play.' —mich40
'You guys called it. Just walked back late to our hotel room and walking along the Las Vegas strip with a large pizza for my kids definitely was more absurd than a balloon. Also, it took my quite a while to find the room key.' —hexis
'Well that was a whirlwind! I hope they're not filming the final show so they can just cut loose and surprise us!Thank you for the Mixlrs and Facebook streams!THANK YOU ALL! Dinosaurs! MATHS! LARRY!!!!!' —Canadanne
'So happy to have found my way here with all of you.' —AmandaJo