Rock’n Me 29: Talking About Western Music - U2 Concert Report at Las Vegas Part I

Hello. I’m Joshua and I like to talk about Western music.
In this 29th issue, I would like to report on the U2 concert in Las Vegas, USA.

In Las Vegas, there is a new concert venue called the Sphere (official name: MSG Sphere), where U2 will perform a concert on September 29, 2023 on the opening night of the Sphere, and they will continue to perform there until February. I was fortunate enough to see the November 4 performance. I will report on the concert in two parts. In the first part, I will talk about how amazing the venue is. Why am I talking about the venue rather than the concert itself? The reason is that this venue can fundamentally change the way concerts are held in the future.

Sphere: Exterior Appearance

As the name suggests, the shape of the venue is a spherical shape. The venue can accommodate a total of 19,600 people with standing seats (2,000) and seats up to the fourth floor (17,600). The standing room seats surround the stage, and the seating is arranged in a fan shape around them; the first through fourth row of the floor seats are arranged along a spherical surface with a steep incline.

Sphere: Cross-section of the venue

I saw the show on the 4th floor, but according to my research, the height is equivalent to the 9th floor of a building. In fact, it took me quite a long time just to get from the entrance of the venue to the 4th floor seats. However, this structure allowed us to feel closer to the stage, as our view was not blocked by the audience in the front rows.

Because the Sphere is a specialized concert venue, the visuals and audio are outrageous. Embedded in the interior walls are a whopping 160,000 speakers! These speakers are embedded in the walls above, below, left, and right, so the best sound can be heard from every seat in the house, or so they claim. Because of this special structure, there are no huge strips of speakers (speakers stacked up) that you see at large concerts.

Sphere: a bunch of embedded speakers

Even more astonishing is the LED display with a resolution of 16K. The total area of the display is 15,000 square meters. In a normal concert, the display would be located only in the front. In the Sphere, however, they extend to the left, right, and even to the ceiling. According to Sphere, it is currently the highest resolution display in the world. This unprecedentedly realistic sound and visuals enable the audience to experience an immersive experience in another dimension.

Sphere: immersive 16K display

Even more extraordinary is the building's exterior. The sphere is 160 meters wide and 112 meters high, and is surrounded by LED lighting in all directions, with 48 LEDs per unit of LED lighting, or 12 million units. When a video is played, the giant sphere is illuminated at once. It is as if a monster of a sphere has reigned over Las Vegas, and its appearance alone has already made it a new tourist attraction there. The following drone aerial video will give you a better idea of the scale of the project.

Sphere: Drone Aerial Video

The Sphere's appearance changes with the hour. When I was there, a display announcing a series of U2 performances was playing repeatedly. In between these displays, a series of images appeared, one after another, in which the sphere became a giant globe, following the shape of the sphere, or the entire sphere became a wave. The hotel room I stayed in had a “Sphere View,” and it was worth it since I could watch it the whole day and never get bored.

Sphere: Exterior view

By the way, it was Madison Square Garden, Inc. that created such a tremendous venue. Yes, the company that operates Madison Square Garden, the famous venue in New York City that has produced many famous albums. The idea of the Sphere was astonishing, but its funding was also quite astonishing. The construction cost of the Sphere is a staggering $2.3 billion (about ¥340 billion). The scale of the project was so daunting that one might ask, “How will the electricity bill alone pay for itself?” I actually did some research and found that the electricity cost at the peak time was $3.4 billion, which is a staggering amount of money. I also found after doing a deep dive that the electricity is also used by 21,000 residences during peak hour. I was worried about how in the world this venue could be maintained, which is heading the polar opposite direction of being eco-friendly, but a solar power plant is being built next to it, from which the majority of the electricity will be supplied in the future. Oh, the scale of it is simply astonishing. Like this sphere....

Now, in the second part, I will finally bring you the concert! Please wait a little longer for the next update.

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