U2 closed their residency at Las Vegas’ Sphere by performing a virtual duet with Crowded House star Neil Finn.
The veteran rockers played 40 gigs at the futuristic venue with the run coming to an end on Saturday night (02.03.24) and they made the show special by performing a version of ‘Don’t Dream It’s Over’ with a recording of Finn after he emailed over vocals for them to use onstage.
Frontman Bono revealed they love the new version of the classic track and they are going to attempt to record it. He told the audience: “The other day we got a beautiful e-mail from Neil Finn, who wrote this bewilderingly beautiful song.
“Attached to the e-mail was a version of the song he said we could play whenever we wanted. It’s a new version that he did, and we’re going to try and record it.”
He added: “Neither party has spoken to our record label [about releasing this], so this might be the only recording that might ever exist. Please take your phones and send it to whoever loves freedom you know. Maybe send it to people that don’t [too]. There’s a few of them around.”
The band also thrilled fans by playing their 1983 track ’40’ for the first time since 2016 – revealing it had a special meaning for the final show of the residency.
Bono explained: “It’s been 40 days and 40 nights in the desert. What’s a fellow with a messianic complex going to do? Here’s a song we wrote in 40 minutes. I opened up the sacred text of the Psalm of David. I just kind of read it out. That was the lyric.”
The final show also included an appearance by their collaborator Daniel Lanois, who joined them onstage for a rendition of ‘One’.
Phish will be the next band to perform at Sphere with four booked for shows April 18, 19, 20 and 21 and they will be followed by Grateful Dead spin-off group Dead and Company who will take over for six weeks from May 16 through June 22.