NEW YORK — U2 is returning to the live performance stage later this yr for the primary time since 2019 however with out one of many unique quartet, as drummer Larry Mullen Jr. is on the injured checklist.
The band supplied a touch about its reemergence on the largest stage attainable — in a industrial that aired in the course of the Tremendous Bowl on Sunday — and introduced it could play a collection of reveals this fall to open the brand new MSG Sphere venue in Las Vegas.
The concert events will likely be centered on the band’s 1991 album, “Achtung Child.”
“We have to get again on stage and see the faces of our followers once more,” band members Bono, the Edge and Adam Clayton stated in a press release Sunday.
No different dates have been introduced past Las Vegas, though it’s unlikely a present will likely be constructed for only one metropolis. In 2017 and 2019, the band did a worldwide live performance tour based mostly on its “Joshua Tree” album.
Mullen is arguably the band’s founder; the 4 members met in his Dublin kitchen to reply an advert he had positioned on a highschool bulletin board searching for musicians. U2 wouldn’t element his well being considerations, however a report in The Washington Submit in November stated the drummer had points along with his neck and elbows that wanted surgical procedure.
Solely twice earlier than has the band taken stage with out all 4 members — when Clayton missed a gig in Australia for well being causes in 1993, and after Mullen broke his foot in a motorbike accident in 1978, in response to Bono’s ebook, “Give up.”
Mullen will likely be changed in Las Vegas by Dutch drummer Bram van den Berg.
Subsequent month U2 is planning to launch the disc “Songs of Give up,” that includes re-recorded and re-imagined variations of 40 songs from its catalog.
The Edge stated he was impressed by the state-of-the-art sound and video system being constructed for the MSG Sphere. “All of us thought of it and determined we’d be mad to not settle for the invitation,” he stated.
