U2 have announced a series of special concerts focusing on their album Achtung Baby which will be held in Las Vegas next fall, according to an advertisement aired on Sunday during the Super Bowl. Exceptional thing: Larry Mullen Jr. will not be behind the drums for these shows.
The absence of the band’s founding member is all the more surprising given that U2 is one of the very few bands of this stature – if not the only one – to have had no personnel changes in their nearly 50 years of existence. His defection, however, has nothing to do with internal dissension: he is currently recovering from an operation.
The concerts scheduled for the fall will take place in a hall called Sphere. “It’s going to take everything we have to tackle the Sphere without our friend and colleague in the drummer’s seat,” Bono, The Edge and Adam Clayton said in a statement quoted by the magazine. variety. Larry Mullen Jr. will be replaced by Dutch drummer Bram van den Berg.
PHOTO KEVIN MAZUR, LA PRESSE ARCHIVES
Larry Mullen Jr. in 2015 in Vancouver.
“The show at the Sphere has been in the works for a long time,” the band said, adding that this stage was built especially for them “in the desert.” “We are the right group, Achtung Baby is the right album and the Sphere is the right place to carry the experience live at the next level,” Judge U2.
U2 aren’t used to leaving one of their own behind. He performed once without Adam Clayton, who had substance abuse issues, at the time of the tour Zoo TV. It was quite a headache, as the two shows scheduled for Sidney, Australia were being filmed. In 2006, the band canceled an entire portion of the tour altogether when illness struck the family of one of the band’s musicians – presumably one of The Edge’s children.