Weeks before U2 kicks off their four-month UV: Achtung Baby residency at the MSG Sphere at the Venetian Resort in Las Vegas, the band returned to an old haunt to premiere a new song, “Atomic City.”
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U2 premiered the Las Vegas-themed song at a surprise pop-up concert and music video on Saturday (September 16) on Fremont Street, the same location where they filmed their video for “I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking” in April 1987 during their The Joshua Tree Tour.
Come all you stars falling out of the sky / Come all you angels forgetting to fly sings Bono in the opening lyrics of the song, which U2 performed several times for the music video for the song, expected to be released later in September.
Inspired by the nuclear bomb testing on the outskirts of Vegas and the tourism spike within the city in the 1950s, “Atomic City” is a “rock n’ roll 45 [rpm single] in the tradition of late-’70s post-punk, Blondie, the Clash—some ’70s punk,” according to Bono. “We’ll take it from everywhere.”
The video also features drummer Larry Mullen Jr., who has been recovering from back surgery and will not join the band during their Sphere shows. Dutch drummer Bram van den Berg will fill in for Mullen Jr. during the residency.
“The four of us recorded the song,” said Bono to the crowd during the surprise show. “Sadly, Larry Mullen Jr. won’t be with us at the Sphere. He doesn’t listen to doctor’s orders. Neither do many of us. But he is here tonight. Give it up for Larry Mullen Jr.”
In a recent interview bassist Adam Clayton addressed playing the residency without Mullen Jr., who has played with the band since they formed in 1976.
“The whole band and I’m sure the audience are going to be very sad and miss Larry,” said Clayton. “He wants to come back, he wants to be able to have a long career and continue his drumming so he’s taking care of those injuries.”
Clayton added, “He’s very much behind the idea of us going on stage with Bram. I’m sure for Larry it’s a difficult moment to know that your band is going on stage and you’re not with them.”
During the pop-up “concert,” Bono also remembered when the band last filmed “I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking” on Fremont Street more than 35 years earlier.
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Along with “Atomic City,” the band also shared a more stripped-down version of the song “I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For” from their 2023 album, Songs of Surrender, a collection of 40 songs from U2’s catalog reimagined with some new lyrics and no more than acoustic guitar, piano, and some electric guitar.
“Some of those lyrics started to feel a little strange coming out of our mouths now that we’re in our 60s,” The Edge recently told American Songwriter of how they approached Songs of Surrender. “The best way to honor the songs would be to make them relevant, so that when we’re performing them, it still resonates with that same integrity and essence that it had originally, but now in this new era of the band’s life.”
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Released on U2’s fifth album, Joshua Tree, “I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For” went to No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100. U2 recently cleared the use of the song for America’s Got Talent contestant Putri Ariani to perform on the show.
The residency marks the opening of the state-of-the-art Sphere venue at The Venetian Resort, along with the 30th anniversary of U2’s 1991 album, Achtung Baby, and possibly its follow-up, Zooropa, from 1993.
U2 will kick off the four-month residency at the Sphere on September 29, which will run through December 16.
Photo: Han Myung-Gu/WireImage
