Music
29 Jan 24

U2 cover Crowded House's 'Don't Dream It's Over' at first Sphere show of 2024

Photo: Rich Fury

At the first of the 11 extra shows the band have billed to play for their acclaimed residency at the Las Vegas Sphere, U2 played a special acoustic performance

Kicking off their first performances at the Sphere this year, U2 have performed an acoustic version of the Crowded House hit, 'Don't Dream it's Over'.

The Sphere, a billion dollar start of the art high-tech venue, fell quiet last Saturday when Bono entranced the crowd with an intimate rendition of the 1986 hit.

Speaking to the Las Vegas crowd, Bono led into the track with a message on freedom, saying: "Freedom is a word we throw about. I certainly throw it about. But it's the word that probably all of us in this building are holding on the tightest to tonight because the way we look around the world, if there's one word we want to hold on to the most, I think it might be freedom."

Bono continued saying: "Rock n'roll is the sound of freedom, liberation politically, sexually, spiritually- freedom. That's all I wanted to say about what's going on in the world right now. Don't let anyone take that away from you."

Saturday marked the first performances of many the Dublin group are expected to play the megavenue this year - with dates lined up until March.

Due to overwhelming acclaim for the band’s Las Vegas Residency at the new Sphere venue, ‘U2: UV Achtung Baby Live at Sphere,’ has run well past its initial billing of 25 lives dates and had extra shows tacked on from January 26- March 2 2024.

U2 are also said to be working on a new album, which frontman Bono described as “an unreasonable guitar record” with “big choruses”.

Although Bono said that the record was “somewhat tied” to the medical status of drummer Larry Mullen Jr., who has been recovering from neck surgery, and pulled out of playing at the band’s Las Vegas Sphere residency.

U2 are soon to livestream their performance for the upcoming Grammys live from The Sphere, marking the first ever live broadcast from the state-of-the-art arena. The Grammys are taking place on February 4 at the Crypto.com Arena in Los Angeles, and will be hosted by Trevor Noah.

Watch U2 cover 'Don't Dream It's Over' at The Sphere below: