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The stars flocked to Sin City this weekend to attend the opening night of the Sphere and that included KTLA 5’s Sam Rubin.
This new completely round venue cost over $2 billion to build and is the latest and greatest in the Las Vegas showplace.
“Welcome to the potential and the reality of every single technical bell and whistle imaginable under one roof,” Sam explained Monday morning on the KTLA 5 Morning News.
U2 marked the official opening of the cutting-edge venue on Friday night. The band currently has a residency there called UV Achtung Baby, which consists of about two dozen shows between now and December.
“(It) is so new and so gee-whiz, that whatever budget level you meet, maybe this is something to take in,” he continued.
Sitting right behind The Venetian Resort, the Sphere has been used for marketing purposes. Sam says it’s expected to general millions as a promotional tool.
The location is about mid-strip, which is a prime spot for tourists.
When you walk inside, visitors will see a 160,000-square-foot LED screen with “unseen speakers everywhere,” Sam explained.
When it came to the show itself, Sam said U2 was the perfect choice.
“Apparently that invitation extended to the band almost three years ago. So they had time to think about it. Time to hire a full graphic arts team to take full advantage of the crazy capabilities of the sphere,” he explained about the interactive technology used.
One mouth-dropping part was when it was 10:30 p.m. outside, but inside the orb it was daytime in the middle of the desert all due to the magic of video and lighting.
While the video, lighting and technology make the show, Sam advised that the venue still needs an act that can entertain the crowd, which he commended U2 for doing just that.
“You want to have the ability to perform with all that video and you want to have the ability to just perform. The possibilities are endless for this thing.”
It wasn’t just Sam who was wowed by the Sphere’s possibilities.
The Los Angeles Times said, “What U2 is offering is the sheer obliterating pleasure of sensory overload: a barrage of eye-popping sights and sharply rendered sounds that finds a kind of ecstasy in submission.”
Lyndsey Parker with YAHOO Music’s review was headlined, “U2 debuts eye-popping, jaw-dropping, brain-breaking Vegas Sphere residency in the atomic city of blinding lights.”
The Guardian’s Alexis Petridis dubbed the show “an utterly astonishing, admirably raw Vegas extravaganza.”
“I really thought it was amazing. It’s really, really something and they’re the right people opening,” Sam concluded of the experience and the show.
If you want to check out the Sphere but a concert isn’t your thing, the venue is also a movie theater. Right now you can check out The Sphere Experience, which features Darren Aronofsky’s film “Postcard from Earth.” The Sphere will hold showings multiple times a day.
