U2

Sphere Experience and Postcard from Earth

Chapters:   Achtung Baby Live  •  General Admission  •  Zoo Station at the Venetian  •  V-U2  •  Sphere Experience and Postcard from Earth  •  Vegas Legends  •  Venetian and Tao Beach  •  Vegas, Baby!

“A man makes a picture, a moving picture. Through the light projected he can see himself up close.”
Lemon from Zooropa, lyrics by Bono

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“Darren Aronofsky’s movie is breathtaking, with some remarkably clever set pieces.”
Mattopia Jones
(comment made to the Times via the Satellite of Love from parts unknown)

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The Sphere

Seeing the photos and watching the videos simply doesn’t do it justice. My first in-person glimpse was on 28 September as my Uber driver drove past the Sphere while en route from the airport to Treasure Island. I was humbled by its enormity.

It’s the first. It’s one of a kind. A second location — in suburban London — is reportedly in permitting limbo.

It’s a spectacular experience on the inside. But unlike virtually every other place, the Sphere is also quite an experience on the outside. At intervals on show nights, U2 run a very atmospheric video of their “baby” which is accompanied by a terrific soundtrack. (Myth buster: the visuals on display during the concert are not presented externally. During the U2 shows, at least, the outside sticks to its own playlist of unrelated visuals.)

A techy thought struck me while waiting on the general admission line and being up-close to the screen. It’s the latest and greatest in software and hardware right now. But how quickly will the specs be overshadowed as the next big idea shrinks the space between the video nodes and further enhances the sharpness of the imagery? It’s only a matter of time, no doubt.

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The Sphere Concert Experience

The Sphere as a concert venue has two problems.

The biggest problem is the seats drain the energy. Maybe it’s the steepness of the rows. In a typical arena, it’s easy enough to reach out and touch the shoulders of the person in front of you. At the Sphere, the height difference is too much for that kind of “fall back” resource and the rows are also really narrow. Taking a tumble seems to be more likely. So, as a new venue that people need to get used to, it’s a problem. Not sure how quickly — or if — the comfort level will improve so people will feel free to stand.

This facet was compounded by the ushers advising people to be sure to sit during the third song — Even Better Than the Real Thing — because the visual effects are so wild they could cause (no U2 pun intended) vertigo.

Related to this, there might be some misconceptions about the seats. Plenty has been made of the haptic vibrations and other sensations in the Sphere, but that’s content driven. At Postcard from Earth, yes, the seats vibrate. At the U2 concert, during which the band would much prefer people stand and generate energy instead of sit, there are no seat vibrations.

A second problem became apparent only after the Sphere Experience (featuring Postcard from Earth) opened. Changing out the U2 stage for the Postcard from Earth setup seems to have introduced front-of-house and other technical issues. Certainly training and awareness can address this, but it’s a concern right now.

Actually, there’s a third problem with the Sphere and that’s the crowds it draws. How many people are there to experience the Sphere instead of to see U2?

While sitting up in the 200 level – and hearing about VIP ticket holders simply standing on the floor with no feeling for the music – I couldn’t help but think of a vintage clip I saw of the Beatles. Can’t remember where they were; it might’ve been on Ed Sullivan’s show. But, during their performance, John Lennon made a request of the audience: Those up in the nose bleeds, please clap your hands; those down in front, please rattle your jewelry.

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The Sphere Experience

Before people enter the Sphere auditorium to experience Postcard from Earth, they can explore the lobby space and interact with stationary AI robots at five different stations. The AI bot’s name is Aura and in theory each one has been trained on an area of expertise.

It’s impressive. They exhibit a sense of humor. They are a glimpse into the future.

And there was one interaction which hit home kinda hard.

My name is Matt. Seems pretty straightforward, right? And yet there have been times when I’ve introduced myself and people thought I said my name was “Ben.” I don’t get it. I usually enunciate quite well. But, nonetheless, I shift to my fallback, “Matthew.”

Depending on the location in the world, that’ll lead to some geniality around my name being “Mathias” or “Mah-chew.” Sometimes people settle on “Mr. Matt.”

But there I am, standing face to face with Aura, and she says, “Nice to meet you, Ben.”

I think I have that moment on video. Maybe I’ll rummage through the archives and add it to this space.

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Postcard from Earth

In the simplest terms, the Sphere as a cinematic experience — with Darren Aronofsky’s Postcard from Earth as the first producion — is the next generation of the experience at Disneyland’s Soarin’ over California. At the Sphere, there’s no strapping in. No mechanical elevation. No dangling feet.

And yet it’s even more immersive.

There is a rather tedious back story that’s presented in a relatively standard frame format. It works well to set the stage and slowly reveal the enormity of the Sphere experience (Willie Williams’ approach to this concept for U2:UV is downright masterful). But it is an unnecessarily involved storyline about two space explorers/colonizers who are able to visit Earth and experience its wonders anew.

Get past that setup and the movie is a terrific experience. Vibrating seats. Blowing wind. No smell-o-vision. Not yet, anyway.

Postcard from Earth takes viewers around the planet to experience life in the wilds of Africa and deep in the ocean. It also goes airborne for some fantastic aerial experiences (some of this reminds me of the snowspeeders in The Empire Strikes Back, but that’s a nerdy observation).

One of the best scenes involves a classic European opera house. At one point, the viewers in the Sphere sit directly across from the audience in the opera house. Face to face. It’s clever. It’s funny. And, yeah, there’s a brief moment of self-awareness and awkwardness that takes the immersive experience to the next level.

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