'Into the mystic…'
As Saturday night moved toward Sunday morning during the fourteenth show at Sphere, Bono invited everyone to 'step with us into the mystic'. As well as that Van Morrison classic, other snippets in the 22-song set included Prince's 'Purple Rain', the Stones' 'Paint It Black' (for the third time this week), and Lou Reed's 'Satellite of Love', which closed the show at the end of 'Beautiful Day'.
What Bono Said
'We like road trips around here', he said, recalling driving across the United States with Adam in 'a pilgrimage to sit at the foot of Johnny and June Carter Cash….Incredible people. Not a pious bone in their body, just truthful.' On another such journey, he said, 'We went looking for the church that Al Greene was supposed to be preaching in, but we couldn't find him.'
After 'When Love Comes To Town' and before 'Love Rescue Me', he said, 'The title of our next song is actually the first line or two of our last song. I was a sailor lost at sea, I was under the waves before love rescued me… We're under some gigantic waves in the world right now.'
Maybe it was the thought of those waves that brought Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., to mind and his book 'The Strength to Love.' '”The strength to love… that's my prayer this evening'.
Shout Outs:
'To the band's longtime sound man, Joe O'Herlihy, and his 'sweetheart', Marian, on their 50th wedding anniversary: 'Marian will tell you that Joe has had a few other relationships in that time — with one Bono, Edge, Adam, and Larry. We've spent 45 of those years sharing Joe....Marriage is a kind of grand madness. It's sort of like being in a band'.
To Richard Rohr, who is in the house. Bono mentioned another road trip he took a while back, this one to Albuquerque, New Mexico to 'meet a Franciscan friar … who has a place in the desert called The Center for Action and Contemplation…. We learned a lot from this Franciscan friar — mostly that we had to unlearn a lot'.
On the Socials
'Wow. Just wow. U2 at @SphereVegas tonight. Incredible band. Incredible show. Incredible venue. Never seen anything like it. #U2' —@TimNeverett on X
'My wife just asked, “Are you crying?” I am not. Yet. But to me, this Sphere is like a great concert mixed with dream therapy.' — @Wildaboutmusic on X
Zootopia/U2 Faniverse
'Bono's extra chant-y tonight. Love it!' — Hexis
'I love the MacPhisto-esque " blindnesssssssss" he's started doing...' — Canadanne
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