BlinkVib

It’s hard to know which was the bigger act in Las Vegas on Friday night: U2 or the Sphere, the gargantuan light-shifting orb inside which the group performed.

The rock band’s first performance of its Las Vegas residency was also the christening of the $2.3 billion globe-shaped entertainment venue, which has dazzled — and sometimes annoyed — onlookers after construction was completed at the Venetian Resort this summer. Coated inside and out with more than a million programmable LED lights, the Sphere has already wowed the Vegas skyline by morphing into a 33-story Christmas snow globe and a giant eyeball.

The U2 concert gave audiences inside and online their first chance to peek inside the jaw-dropping venue.

By Saturday afternoon, millions of people had watched a TikTok video showing the band performing “Where the Streets Have No Name,” in front of a sweeping desert landscape.

Another widely watched clip captured a Matrix-like wall of flickering rainbow digits rising up to the Sphere’s apex before the ceiling appeared to drop down toward the crowd.

The Sphere is considered the world’s largest building with such a shape. To get a sense of its scale: The entire surface of its inside screen measures 3.7 acres — about three football fields of digital real estate. The outside surface is substantially larger.

The band’s performance of “With Or Without You” also garnered a lot of attention online. Fan videos focused on a tunnel of soaring discs filled with reptiles, birds and butterflies.

The Sphere was also full of stars: U2 frontman Bono shouted out Paul McCartney, Dr. Dre and Snoop Dogg during the two-hour set, according to a Billboard concert review. Luke Wilson, Jon Hamm, Elizabeth Banks and Bryan Cranston were also seen at the pre-show red carpet.

The band’s Las Vegas residency is expected to run until Dec. 16.

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