Tonight, U2 played their 40th and last show of their residency at the Sphere, Las Vegas. It was a very special show indeed.

Before the gig began, the band did a soundcheck that featured the three big surprises mentioned below as well as When Love Comes to Town and Zoo Sration. If they had played When Love Comes to Town, it would have been its 13th appearance at the Sphere. As it stands, 24 February will remain its last performance of the tour. Will this be its last performance ever? It is also easy to wonder if some songs that were played tonight might have appeared for the last time.

U2 opened their set with the usual volley of songs from Achtung Baby. Before One, Bono dedicated the song to Daniel Lanois, who was one of Achtung Baby's producers—and he then welcomed Lanois on stage for a guest performance. The last time Lanois performed live with U2 was on 25 October 2017 at the last show of that year's Joshua Tree Tour. Every show this tour, Bono has snippeted a couple of verses from Love Me Tender to connect One to Until the End of the World. We have normally classified these as a snippet of One, keeping with the tradition of Bono singing a verse or two of another song as a coda to One. Tonight, however, there was a clear break after One, with Love Me Tender functioning as an intro to UTEOTW, so we have classified it as an intro snippet for that song. Indeed, as a commenter pointed out on Twitter, traditionally the snippets between One and UTEOTW have been performed in the same key as One, but on this tour they have been in the same key as UTEOTW.

In the rotational segment mid-show, U2 began with All I Want Is You (dedicated to US first lady Jill Biden, who was in attendance) and Desire; All I Want Is You has been performed at 37 shows out of 40 this tour, and Desire at 35 or 40. Before Desire, Bono joked that it was time to "run away with the circus. This is quite the big top, isn't it?" He then invited fill-in drummer Bram to the mic and asked him "if you were in the circus, what sort of job would you have?" Bram quipped back, quite fittingly, that his role would be as "safety net!" Fans will long remember how adroitly Bram has stood in for Larry Mullen. After Desire, the band turned to Angel of Harlem for its 17th performance at the Sphere, presumably being played in lieu of earlier intentions to do When Love Comes to Town.

A special performance of the Crowded House song Don't Dream It's Over concluded the rotational segment, the ninth time U2 have covered this song. Bono introduced it as an experiment: a live recording for Alexey Navalny and his widow. He made sure beforehand that the crowd knew the chorus in order to sing along. Neil Finn, the frontman of Crowded House, made a sort of guest appearance: he had recently emailed Bono with a new take of his vocal in the style of U2's cover, recorded at his studio in Auckland, New Zealand. This accompanied U2's performance. Bono joked that neither he nor Neil had cleared any recording with their respective record labels.

At the end of the show came a performance that was simultaneously the biggest surprise and the most anticipated song of the night. Before Beautiful Day, the usual closer, Bono hinted that U2 would do an "actual encore" afterwards. When Beautiful Day ended, the crowd began chanting "how long to sing this song", Edge and Adam swapped instruments, and Bono quipped that "it's been 40 days and 40 nights in the desert. What's a guy with a messianic complex going to do?" The answer: launch into the tour debut of 40. Remarkably, this is not the first time 40 has made its tour debut as the very last song of the very last show. It filled the same role at Moncton to conclude the 360 Tour on 30 July 2011. This is the first time 40 has been performed since 5 October 2016, and its most recent performance at a regular tour gig since 28 November 2015.

Farewell from the Sphere! It's been quite the extravaganza.

The full setlist was:

1. I Could Have Lost You (snippet) / Zoo Station
2. Drive My Car (snippet) / The Fly
3. Even Better Than The Real Thing
4. Mysterious Ways / My Sweet Lord (snippet) / I Feel Love (snippet)
5. One / Invisible (snippet) (with Daniel Lanois)
6. Love Me Tender (snippet) / Until the End of the World / Sympathy For The Devil (snippet) / Paint it Black (snippet)
7. Who's Gonna Ride Your Wild Horses
8. Landlady (snippet) / Tryin' to Throw Your Arms Around the World
9. All I Want Is You Songs of Surrender Mix / Yellow (snippet)
10. Desire / Not Fade Away (snippet)
11. Angel of Harlem
12. Don't Dream It's Over (with Neil Finn)
13. Acrobat
14. So Cruel
15. Ultraviolet (Light My Way)
16. Love Is Blindness / Viva Las Vegas (snippet)

encore(s):

17. Elevation / My Way (snippet)
18. Atomic City
19. Vertigo / She Loves You (snippet)
20. Moment of Surrender (snippet) / Where the Streets Have No Name
21. With or Without You
22. Beautiful Day / Gloria (snippet) / Blackbird (snippet)
23. 40

U2's 12th night at the Sphere had a massive surprise in the form of a guest joining the band for three songs.

The opening eight songs were the standard Achtung Baby set, and as usual All I Want Is You was next. As Edge played the opening piano notes of the Songs of Surrender version of the song, Bono discussed how the song was his attempt at writing from the perspective of a woman. He then invited the guest artist on stage and Lady Gaga joined them for the song, trading verses with Bono through the whole performance.

All I Want Is You segued straight into the next song, a cover of Lady Gaga's 2018 single Shallow. The full song was performed rather than the expected snippet, and as the Rattle & Hum section remained at four songs in length tonight was the second straight concert with 23 songs. Lady Gaga remained on stage with the band for the second of those songs, I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For, and she joined Bono in wishing Arthur Fogle a happy birthday. Angel of Harlem remained out of the set for the third successive night.

Videos of Lady Gaga's complete performance on stage, All I Want Is You & Shallow, and I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For, both uploaded by YouTuber "MR DEAN".

The remainder of the set followed the established pattern, with Acrobat continuing to wake the Baby after Love Rescue Me.

1. I Could Have Lost You (snippet) / Zoo Station
2. The Fly
3. Even Better Than The Real Thing
4. Mysterious Ways
5. One
6. Love Me Tender (snippet) / Until the End of the World / Paint it Black (snippet)
7. Who's Gonna Ride Your Wild Horses
8. Tryin' to Throw Your Arms Around the World
9. All I Want Is You Songs of Surrender Mix (with Lady Gaga)
10. Shallow (with Lady Gaga)
11. I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For (with Lady Gaga) / Movin' On Up (snippet)
12. Desire
13. Love Rescue Me
14. Acrobat
15. So Cruel
16. Ultraviolet (Light My Way)
17. Love Is Blindness / Viva Las Vegas (snippet)

encore(s):

18. Elevation / My Way (snippet)
19. Atomic City
20. Vertigo
21. Moment of Surrender (snippet) / Where the Streets Have No Name
22. With or Without You
23. Beautiful Day / Blackbird (snippet) / Glorify (snippet)

Never say that U2 can't surprise you.

The band performed their 10th and 11th concerts at the Sphere on consecutive days, and both had some sort of surprise in store for attendees.

The biggest surprise on night 10 was the residency debut of When Love Comes to Town, which slotted in between Desire and Love Rescue Me in the place of Angel of Harlem. This was the first performance of the song in 5 years, 4 months, and 9 days, having last been played on 11 June 2018 at the Apollo Theater. It was last played on tour on 31 May 2015 in Inglewood, California. This was only the ninth performance of the song since August 1993, and only the seventh full band in that same time. It is actually a bit fitting that it appears at this Achtung Baby themed residency, as it was performed a meaty 79 times on the ZooTV Tour. Kylie Minogue was in attendance this night, and Bono sang a portion of her Can't Take You Out of My Head at the end of All I Want Is You.

Night 11 saw problems with the vocals in the mix in the first half of the show. Before All I Want Is You, Bono was asked to leave the stage so they could fix the issue. He refused, saying "I don't care if there is a problem with the console. Can we do one more song at least? We're about to get married here!" The band continued on, and were informed that the problems were fixed a few songs later. Ed Sheeran was in the crowd, and Bono sang a bit of his song Shape of You at the end of Desire.

The first surprise of the night was the return of (a very passionate) Hear Us Coming at the end of One. It was last sung on 28 October 2018, it's only rendition on the e+i Tour. It has become rare to hear it in recent years; it was at 32 of 51 concerts on The Joshua Tree Tour 2017, but missed the 2019 edition of the tour and the i+e tour entirely, and was played at only 35 of 110 360° concerts. When Love Comes to Town remained in the set, being played at consecutive concerts for the first time since 15 May and 18 May 2015 on the i+e Tour. The last time it was played on consecutive days (with no off-days in between concerts) was 17 July and 18 July 1993.

The other surprise was the return of I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For before Love Rescue Me. This meant that the 'rotational' section was 5 songs in length for the first time, and as a result it was the longest night of the residency to date with 23 songs (if you don't count Happy Birthday on night 9).

Tonight was the ninth of U2's residency at the Sphere in Las Vegas.

Most nights so far have been fairly similar in terms of the set, and tonight featured one minor change with the return of Angel of Harlem in place of I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For. However, before this there was a song that made it's tour debut, one that debuted way back on the Boy Tour and until tonight had been played only 53 times across the band's career. I am, of course, talking about Happy Birthday. It was sung for Morleigh's birthday, and she came onstage during Tryin' to Throw Your Arms Around the World. Bono handed her his balloon string, asking her to hold it so he could sing to her, and thanked her for teaching him how to dance. She shared a kiss with Edge before leaving the stage.

The set was otherwise as expected. At the end of Angel of Harlem, Bono directed the band into a portion of Suspicious Minds. After missing the last few nights What a Wonderful World was added into the end of Beautiful Day.

1. I Could Have Lost You (snippet) / Zoo Station
2. The Fly
3. Even Better Than The Real Thing
4. Mysterious Ways
5. One
6. Love Me Tender (snippet) / Until the End of the World / Two Tribes (snippet)
7. Who's Gonna Ride Your Wild Horses
8. Tryin' to Throw Your Arms Around the World
Happy Birthday
9. All I Want Is You Songs of Surrender Mix / Walk On The Wild Side (snippet)
10. Desire
11. Angel of Harlem / Suspicious Minds (snippet)
12. Love Rescue Me
13. Acrobat
14. So Cruel
15. Ultraviolet (Light My Way)
16. Love Is Blindness / Viva Las Vegas (snippet)

encore(s):

17. Elevation / My Way (snippet)
18. Atomic City
19. Vertigo
20. Moment of Surrender (snippet) / Where the Streets Have No Name
21. With or Without You
22. Beautiful Day / What a Wonderful World (snippet) / Glorify (snippet)

U2 have performed the 6th, 7th, and 8th shows of their residency in Las Vegas.

After two nights of 21 songs, the 6th show saw the set expand back to 22 songs. After a couple of nights where the band slipped in "Pride" and "MLK", night 6 saw a full return to the Rattle and Hum segment of All I Want Is You, Desire, Angel of Harlem, and Love Rescue Me. Angel of Harlem was played for the 300th time this night. Sting was in attendance and Bono snippeted two Police songs, Can't Stand Losing You in Beautiful Day and Invisible Sun in Love is Blindness. Invisible Sun is notable as the first appearance of the song since 15 June 1986 on the Conspiracy of Hope tour when U2 performed it with the Police. Possibly of interest to some readers, Beautiful Day is now at a total of 116 different songs snippeted within it.

The 7th show featured no change of songs but there was still one alteration to the set. After Love Rescue Me the band charged right into Acrobat instead of So Cruel, firing the second Achtung Baby set off in a surprise way. So Cruel was next and followed by Ultraviolet and Love is Blindness as usual. There were some issues with the mixing during the final three songs of the main set, with the synths being off from usual. This is possibly why there was a slightly longer break than normal before the encore began with Elevation, at which point the problem seemed to be resolved.

The 8th set also featured one change, with Angel of Harlem being dropped in favour of I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For. Bono was noticeably emotional as the audience sang the first verse. He was in excellent humour during the band introductions during "Desire". Talking of Adam, he described him as the man "with the dirtiest mind and the cleanest hands", a comment which actually caused Adam to nearly stop playing as he doubled-over in laughter. Edge was also laughing after Bono's self-introduction where he described himself as "the humblest man I know".

At the first few shows Bono described the four songs after the first Achtung Baby set as a rotation to show off material from their other albums. To date the only album "featured" in this slot has been Rattle & Hum (with perhaps the exception of night 4, when he joked that it was "Greatest Hits"), and it is noticeable that in the last few nights he has stopped describing it as a rotational slot. There have been some complaints voiced online about the lack of variety, but I just want to emphasize how incredible this particular part of the set is given the historical context.

Keep in mind that Rattle & Hum was a critical disappointment on release. Meant to be an exploration of America's musical influence on the band it was instead taken the wrong way as the band explaining America's music to America. The lack of success of the project was one of the reasons Bono and Edge were adamant about pursuing a different direction when it came to recording Achtung Baby, a change that only stopped after a decade of pushing the boundaries through Zooropa, Pop, and the oft-forgotten Original Soundtracks 1. It is perhaps no coincidence that the project's missed expectations factor into why the Lovetown Tour - a tour supporting an album about America's influence on U2 - is also the only U2 tour that never went to America.

The rarity of Rattle & Hum in the live setting is very noticeable when going back through the band's tour history. Before this residency began, the last time a set featured three songs from the album was 31 May 2015. The last time the three most-played Rattle & Hum songs (Desire 386x, Angel of Harlem 302x, All I Want is You 204x + 110 snippets) were all performed in the same set was 30 November 2006. That may not seem too long ago to many reading, but it is a period of almost 17 years - someone born on that date can now legally drive and vote. And the last time one concert had four Rattle & Hum songs was way back on the last night of Lovetown in January 1990. So while there may be some unhappy about the lack of variety I just want to highlight how incredible it is that four songs from this album about America, an album seemingly rejected by America, are now being played in America in a quantity they never have before (and sequentially at that).