3 Irishmen and a Dutchman Walk Into A Sphere - General Discussion Thread Part III

[trevgreg]

Bono Goes to Las Vegas: Let There Be Light

In an exclusive interview, U2’s singer Bono reflects upon the band’s opening of the Sphere entertainment arena.

www.fairobserver.com

 

[Headache in a Suitcase]

Sphere won't only be ours anymore after this week.

They're gonna need some high quality cleaning services come Sunday

 

[djerdap]

Bono Goes to Las Vegas: Let There Be Light

In an exclusive interview, U2’s singer Bono reflects upon the band’s opening of the Sphere entertainment arena.

www.fairobserver.com

Interesting quotes about Love is Blindness here. Bono was quite into the song during those nights, as he mentions in this interview.

My biggest highlight from the Sphere gigs.

 

[Hewson]

Sphere won't only be ours anymore after this week.

They're gonna need some high quality cleaning services come Sunday

Dirty hippies.

 

[MrsSpringsteen]

I was watching CBS Saturday Morning this past weekend, next Saturday they're going to have a segment on The Sphere. Including Phish, which should be awesome

 

[DeVaul]

Sphere won't only be ours anymore after this week.

They're gonna need some high quality cleaning services come Sunday

Will Phish or Dead & Co see the first major injury?

 

[Headache in a Suitcase]

Will Phish or Dead & Co see the first major injury?

Bruh - it's Phish on 4/20 weekend in a giant bowl that sometimes looks like an eyeball.

Things could go down.

 

[Headache in a Suitcase]

Well slap my ass

 

[Headache in a Suitcase]

Meh

 

[Headache in a Suitcase]

They're literally just doing visualizers.

It's a giant WinAmp.

 

[DeVaul]

I think it’s great how they were influenced by U2’s final Sphere treatment of Ultra Violet…

 

[DaveC]

They're literally just doing visualizers.

It's a giant WinAmp.

it's almost as if they're a jam band playing for gen-x'ers on acid

 

[Headache in a Suitcase]

That I was happy that their visuals were lame after months of seeing Phish fans talk shit about how glorious it'll be and how they're going to shit all over U2 is further proof that I need to get off of social media.

 

[TinKnight]

it seems like the phish subreddit is having a good attitude about it.

but yeah, lmao, wow

 

[DeVaul]

Not going to trash it. It had to work for their extended playing style and I thought some of the abstract stuff was good, 1-2 things quite smart and impressive on a phone screen so surely exponentially better in the room. The sound was likely phenomenal too.

At the end of the day, an entirely different experience and presentation. It was doubtful they’d spend a lot of time and money on blowout custom imagery for 4 shows, so I think this approach was the right move. We’ll see what the other 3 nights bring.

I’m very curious to see what Dead & Co do, in terms of leveraging some historical footage/legacy imagery and classic psychedelic visualizer stuff.

 

[djerdap]

There are some better visual stuff out there than that clip posted above (not a Phish fan). I doubt it is going to match the spectacle of U2, but it is a different experience anyway.

 

[Irvine511]

it does look like a 2004-era screen saver. maybe there's a big, clear rolling ball?

 

[MrsSpringsteen]

I saw some of the visuals on the Sphere Instagram page, they looked pretty cool. As for the music who knows, doesn't appeal to me.

 

[MrsSpringsteen]

Watch More TV

 

[Headache in a Suitcase]

Not going to trash it. It had to work for their extended playing style and I thought some of the abstract stuff was good, 1-2 things quite smart and impressive on a phone screen so surely exponentially better in the room. The sound was likely phenomenal too.

At the end of the day, an entirely different experience and presentation. It was doubtful they’d spend a lot of time and money on blowout custom imagery for 4 shows, so I think this approach was the right move. We’ll see what the other 3 nights bring.

I’m very curious to see what Dead & Co do, in terms of leveraging some historical footage/legacy imagery and classic psychedelic visualizer stuff.

Oh no doubt. Which is why the shit posting from Phish fans in the lead up was so silly. It was incredibly predictable that they would use very generic imagery based on how they play.

If anything I think this is a good thing for the venue - because it will show other artists that you don't have to go as far as U2 went with the production to still put on a good show.

 

[MrsSpringsteen]

Watching the CBS Morning Show segment, Phish has four distinct shows with a completely different setlist and videos for each show. They only did four because the other option was to repeat shows more than once, and I respect that. It's creative integrity over more dates and more money.

Of course the segment mentioned that U2 had mostly the same setlist every night, but didn't mention that the entire residency was dedicated to the Achtung Baby album.

Trey Anastasio sometimes sits next to Dolan for NY Rangers games, and for a couple of years Dolan would show him iPad videos during games of Sphere and what it was going to become. And that's what convinced him that Phish had to play that venue. The sound, the visuals, all of it.

He said it was funny to read all the speculation regarding who would play Sphere after U2, when Phish knew it would be them.

 

[DeVaul]

Last night looked incredible, they leveled up.

 

[MrsSpringsteen]

 

[DaveC]

you can all save hundreds of dollars and have that exact same experience at my dad's house.

 

[tommycharles]

One thing about Phish’s series - it’s clearly possible to quickly produce a whole show’s video from the Sphere. So damnit U2, release one already!

 

[DeVaul]

One thing about Phish’s series - it’s clearly possible to quickly produce a whole show’s video from the Sphere. So damnit U2, release one already!

Having the livestream apparatus in place certainly helps.

 

[Headache in a Suitcase]

it was visually impressive, no doubt. they said there was a mix of about 70/30... 70% generic visualizers, 30% designed specifically for the show.

seems like there were a lot of issues with people getting sick - which, well, it's phish - i have to imagine there's always a lot of issues with people getting bad highs at phish shows - so who the hell knows if it was because they didn't take a break like U2 did, or because, well, this shit always happens at Phish shows.

i learned two things from the phish mini-residency

1 - using generic visualizers works for bands that may not want to spend what U2 spend to craft an entire show, and/or would want the ability to mix things up without being pigeonholed into doing only songs that match your visuals. this will hopefully entice other acts into signing up to do future residencies.

2. my inclination to hate Phish's music without ever actually giving it a legitimate chance was verified.

 

[TinKnight]

2. my inclination to hate Phish's music without ever actually giving it a legitimate chance was verified.

My buddies and I saw Trey Anastasio last year at a festival. Our joke was that despite all of us pretending to hate Phish, we were going to fall in love with Phish. The first song we looked each other in the eyes and were like "wait is this good?"

about 30 minutes in (and substances having been consumed), we all kinda looked at each other, and finally, the buddy most committed to the bit said "guys this sucks."

that was the day I learned that you can't force yourself to love Phish

 

[Headache in a Suitcase]

there are just so many crunchy grooves i can take.

i respect their musical talent. i respect that they shuffle up the setlist so much. i respect that they care about the production of their shows, which a lot of bands who shuffle their set as much as they do simply don't bother with.

but wooo man it's not for me.

 

[TinKnight]

Yeah. I appreciate the musical prowess, and the commitment to giving fans varied setlists, but uh, yeah I can only take so much noodling.