U Talkin’ U2 To Me? - U Talkin’ U2 To Me? - U2:UV Achtung Baby Live at Sphere

Episode Date: October 3, 2023

Adam Scott Aukerman reminisce about the opening night of U2's "UV Achtung Baby" residency at the $2.3 billion dollar Las Vegas Sphere. The Scotts also discuss the difference between effects and special effects, call up their pal Kyle Bornheimer, and listen to U2's new song Atomic City. Plus, a transformative episode of "I Love Films" provides some important clarification about the title of the podcast.

from boy to breaking wave every single one of them songs of surrender version that is this is you talking you too to me the comprehensive and encyclopedic compendium of all things U2. This is good rock and roll. Music. Welcome back. Thank you. Are you saying that to me? Yeah, I haven't acknowledged you since you walked in the room.

I know. Hey, welcome back to my house. Really getting the somewhat silent treatment. What's up? Welcome back to you talking you too to me. Haven't done an episode in a few months, but here we are back. You got, yeah. Sorry.

Before we had done the episode a few months ago, which was a few months ago. Certainly. Do you have an exact date on that? Let's see. February 35th, it looks like. February 35th. We, it had been quite a while before that one. I think so, yeah.

I'm not keeping track but uh someone out there is god i mean but then before that before that one the one that was the one that was a while ago it had been a quite a bit of time and then even before that one it had been a while but then i think we were getting back into like the regular sort of week-to-week thing we were doing nine years ago. Right? But then before those ones, the show didn't exist. No, the show prior to nine months, nine months, nine months, nine months, nine months, 18 months, nine months, nine months nine months nine months nine months nine months nine months 18 months nine months nine months no nine years nine months or so ago it did it did it was merely the twinkle

in your young eye where you had an idea you had a dream there was no show called you talking you you two to me isn't that crazy how we can create something out of whole cloth? Whole cloth. And then it exists forever in the world. Yeah. Now it always has existed, but prior to nine months, nine months, it didn't exist. It didn't exist. As you said, it doesn't exist. You know, do people say that to you on the street? Constantly more so than are we having fun yet? It doesn't exist. It doesn't exist. We were talking about teachers, I believe.

I don't remember. This is during our U2 interview. I was defending my mom's honor because she was a public school teacher, and I got a little passionate, and you made fun of me in front of you too. Rightly so. your version of passion have what what is and by the way i'll introduce you in a second what is the most because i i view you as a chill guy as well as a chill oh yeah more than that you're a chill actor like you're a pretty laid-back actor oh you tend to get roles which are pretty laid-back what's the most like yelly you've ever been in a role?

And were you nervous before it where you were like, fuck, I have to yell. I'm not a yell guy. Or do you relish it where you're like, because every actor, here's my theory. If you're on the phone and you're an actor and you don't end the phone call by bashing the phone and just bashing it to pieces because you're so angry. Goodfellas style. Yeah. Then what are you even doing as an actor? Well, the thing is with every role,

every actor is different. But for me and in the Perth SAG contract, SAG, I hope they're making progress on this as we speak. Making progress. There's a certain amount of yells per episode that you have to do or the or the most you can well they're they're always trying to push and get you to do a certain amount of yells and then it's a matter of pulling those back doing a yell is like doing

two takes because you're you're talking twice as loud so it's like guys we don't have time for this it's the exact same uh amount of energy as two takes yeah so it's like guys guys, we don't have time for this. It's the exact same amount of energy as two takes. Yeah. So it's like, guys, you're paying me to do one movie. That's right. I'm not going to yell, which is two takes. If you were with me on a set of a movie or a television show, it's like the movie Oppenheimer,

except instead of the atomic blast, it's the yell. Yeah, exactly. By the way, you tell us you weren't in that Oppenheimer. You didn't see me in there? You were in Oppenheimer? Yeah. Wait, were you in the middle of the bomb? I was, yeah.

You're some dumb asshole who wandered through the desert. I was standing on top of the bomb. I was like, hey, what's this? What does this do? And then I pressed a button. Just kidding. Just kidding. What does this do?

And then I pressed a button. Just kidding. Just kidding. Welcome to him, all ye who listen to this podcast. All ye, all ye. All ye, all ye. He is an actor that has been well covered by us in this segment. Please welcome my co-host for you talking YouTube to me.

This is Adam Scott. Hello, Adam. Hey, how's it going? To me? Are you talking to me? Wait, you talking U2 to me? Who else would I be talking to? Your fans? Your family? Oh, that reminds me. I would like to say hello to my friend, to my family, to, I would also like to say a special hello to my fans. But most of all, Scott, I would like to say hello

to you. to you. Thank you. Hello. Well, Adam, thank you very much. I think this is off to a great start. This is off to a great start. I'm so glad we're returning to the well. They should start calling this show

The Law of Diminishing Returns. Is that? I believe so i believe that's accurate um it's so good to be here with you we look i'm not gonna lie good in fact uh you have me strapped to a lie detector which is very weird you're doing this well right now you're telling the truth have i lied at all has the needle jumped at all? You lied earlier. What did I lie about when you said that you remembered seeing me in Oppenheimer? You were lying. I was. I was playing along for a bit. But I'm not going to lie. You and I spent the weekend together. Out of state. Out of state.

That's right. We crossed state lines to do what we did. Do you feel a difference when you cross state lines? Does your body go through any sort of extra? It doesn't feel California anymore. It doesn't feel laid back anymore. You know? I agree. Something happens.

Something about it. Physiological. Yeah. We convened here because we wanted to do a very special episode because over the weekend, we decided we figured, we ascertained that we were going to go out of state yeah and we were we negotiated we well first of all we negotiated plane tickets oh yeah boy and you had a bit you have a funny story about the plane tickets oh you were telling in fact you told this to me after the fact, and I was like, save this for the talk shows. Yeah, which I am, so I can't tell it. Tell it a little bit here, because I don't think there's a lot of crossover between people who listen to podcasts and people who watch talk shows.

Oh, you're right. It's two totally separate audiences. Both huge audiences. Huge market shares, but they never even meet or talk to each other. No, no, no, no no no no they're not in the same it's almost like different species yeah species another good movie yeah by the way we should have the cast of species we should this podcast natasha henstridge michael madsen uh marg helgenberger marg helgenberger michael Madsen. The most Gs of any actor.

Are you going to say Michael Madsen? Michael Madsen. Thank you. But Marg Helgenberger, the most Gs of any actor. There's a lot of Gs. So many Gs. So many hard Gs. Under special skills on her resume, it said lots of Gs.

Lots of Gs. Everyone was like, hey, what does that mean? And she's like, well, just say my name. Take a look. Who else was in that movie? That's a good question. Was Scott Glenn in Species? Is this an episode of Was Scott Glenn in Species?

Yes. Hey, everyone. Welcome to Was Scott Glenn in Species? This is Scott. And this is Scott. And this is the podcast where we have one subject matter. Yeah. And we do deep dives on it. Well, we put on our detective hat. Yeah, we get out our magnifying glasses.

According to my calculations, we need to find out if Scott Glenn was in fucking Species. Here are the rules. Yeah. We need to both have seen the movie Species. Yep. Which, for my taste, check. I saw it.

I saw it in the theater, at the Galaxy Theater down here. I saw it at the theater and the at the galaxy theater i saw it at the uh beverly center the beverly's and what were you doing at the beverly center my good fellow i was walking around going to see species were you shopping at the chess king was this 1996 i think it is wait well what year did species come out this is okay let me look up speed but the what this this dovetails into the other rule. We're not allowed to look at Wikipedia about whether Scott Glenn was in Species or not. I didn't want to look at Wikipedia.

But I am allowed to look, 1995. God damn it. Okay. 1995. So why, is it a difference? This is 28 years ago that Species came out. Can you imagine something that old? No.

Something older than 27? I remember the big deal about Species was the special effects. Sure. Now, every movie has effects. Sure. And that's baked into the budget. Yeah. And whether you're talking about Citizen Kane or Star Wars Episode I, The Phantom Menace.

Like, guess what? There are effects. There are effects. Like, a robot walks into a room. Yeah. That's an effect. Charles Foster Kane walks into a room. That's an effect.

That's an effect. Anything is an effect, right right a rocket launches into space a cgi dinosaur comes and eats a man that's an effect that's an effect a baby a baby talks talks and walks around has encyclopedic knowledge about art history. Sure. That is an effect. Water creatures come to life and rise up and cover the entire earth

with their farts. Their farts. That's an effect. That is an effect. That's an effect. But every once in a while in a movie that's right someone comes around oh man and you're like this is a special effect this is special this is truly truly special it's an effect it's both it's both of these things it's special and it's an effect

and then and for a while people were just like oh. It's special and it's an effect. And then, and for a while, people were just like, oh, wow, that's special. And it's an effect. And then some genius, I think it was Howard Hawks. Howard Hawks. Yeah. Was like, we should just say these are special. This is a special effect. See?

See? Wait, did you, in the aviator, did you play Howard Hawks? Yeah. That's right. Because you sounded like your aviator character right there. That is how I talked. So what are the special effects that have been in movies? Okay, so in Raiders of the Lost Ark, the first one, when he picks up his hat.

Special effect. Special effect. Oh, there's that scene in Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom. Sure. Where he sits down at the table at the beginning, and he kind of like tugs on his bow tie a little bit. Oh, yeah, yeah, I remember that. He loosens it almost, but doesn't, but just kind of moves it.

Special effect. Special effect. There's a part in the new Indiana Jones in in the what did he look after this time the uh the dial of destiny oh the dial of destiny the time traveling dial of destiny that's right okay so the plane that they're in at the end when they're traveling back in time back in time um and they're going through that big vortex just normal effects yep yeah that those were just effects those are effects but then in indiana jones and the temple of doom when he gets into the airplane and he goes nice try lao she and he closes the door and it says Lausche Airlines.

Yeah. You know they're in trouble. You know they're in trouble because that is truly a special effect. Special effect. Because they had to buy paint for that. You tried buying a plane that already has Lausche Airlines on it. They looked. They looked everywhere.

They looked on eBay. Yep. In stores. That's why that movie was so expensive so expensive and eventually they were like we got to make a special effect out of this let's buy fucking paint i guess but then what do you do you just throw paint on the side of a plane like jackson pollock or something it's like no no no way they had to get a stencil yeah made expressly for that and they tried to find a stencil that already said lauchay

airlines no they went to all the stencil stores everywhere like excuse me excuse me no can you open back up this is regarding uh steven spielberg movie sequel to a very popular movie uh never mind just what do you have this oh no i'm having a heart attack. That guy died. They had to find someone else. Someone else to go to the same store. They were like, did he make it inside the store and already ask? They're like, we don't know. He died.

He passed on. So now I'm here to ask you. Please. I'm here. Please. The ambulance is taking the body away. There's already another guy there. Now, normally they put dead bodies into the the corners

no not into the wagon not that this was they're taking it in 1984 oh they didn't create those yet there weren't corners they didn't have anywhere to put that they didn't have corners either no there's no everything around yep that ties into our episode no one was able to hang out on street corners that's right just uh singing doo- to hang out on street corners. That's right. Just singing doo-wop over burning trash cans. That's right. No one was able to do that until probably 1987, somewhere around there. Yeah, that's when it happened.

Yeah. In any case, special effects, they ended up having to commission a stenciler. Yeah, for Lausche airlines for lausche airlines and then and then the paint that they bought which ties into it then they painted over that and got some they painted onto the stencil itself which is fine yeah which is it's they're built for that well first they tried when they couldn't find a plane that said Lausche Airlines. They tried just drawing with a Sharpie Lausche Airlines onto Indiana Jones's white tuxedo. Right. Yeah.

So he could say, nice try Lausche. And it says Lausche Airlines on his chest. Right. But it didn't work. Everyone was sort of like, yeah, I get it. And it makes sense. Like they're in trouble. But his tux has it. But then they were like, okay, well, now we I get it. And it makes sense. Like they're in trouble. But his tux has it.

But then they were like, okay, well, now we have to add a scene where he goes to the dry cleaners and says, like, can you get all this off? And they're like, we can't afford. Right now. We can't afford to hire some dry cleaner for a day. Right. You know? The dry cleaners are so expensive. So if, but there,

I defy you to ever find a scene of, in any movie or TV show, set in a dry cleaners. No. There's way too expensive. Way too, like all the, cause all the headshots that are on the wall,

you have to pay for each of those headshots. Exactly. You have to get in touch with all those stars. Yeah. By the way, every dry cleaner, no matter what city you're in, has headshots. Have you ever noticed that?

Yes, I have. And they're not Hollywood headshots. They're headshots of whoever lives in that town. That's right. They love headshots. Can I tell you something? Yeah. I never once have been asked for a headshot from a dry cleaner. Do you carry around headshots in your trunk in case?

I certainly used to. The Pamela Springsteen ones? Yep. I sure did. I had a stack of them in my trunk in case? I certainly used to. The Pamela Springsteen ones? Yep, I sure did. I had a stack of them in my trunk. So look, if you're out there on the street and you spy Adam Scott, and God bless you, I hope you do,

ask him for a shot. Yeah, ask me for an old HS. But for real, once I did tell my dry cleaner if they wanted a headshot i would happily give them one what did they say they were like uh did they have headshots up oh yeah all over the place i bet at a certain point you got to cut it off because like yeah i think that that's what happened they just had too many but at a certain point if you find out someone passes away, you know, like who's an actor who's passed away?

Hmm. Can't think of any. Jeez. Actors are generally immortal. Yeah. I can't. Oh, no, he's still alive. Hmm.

Who are you thinking of? Charlie Chaplin. Oh yeah, he's still alive. Uh, anyway, we'll think of one. Wait, Groucho Mar, no, he's still alive. Yeah, he's still kicking. Still kicking around out there in Fredonia. Oh yeah, I don't know what that means.

I believe it's a reference to one of the marx brothers movies uh okay so we'll we'll uh we'll think of one we'll we'll get to it we'll okay so anyway uh was scott glenn in species i haven't i have that's the other rule and i think i mentioned it or at least alluded to it we're're not allowed to ever find out if Scott Glenn is in Species. Why? Through, we have our detective hats on, certainly. Yeah. But we're not allowed to look it up. Right.

We're not allowed to ask anyone. Okay. We're not allowed to contact Scott Glenn again after the first time. Yeah. What about, I have an idea. Yeah. Do you think Kyle Bornheimer would know? after the first time. Yeah. What about, I have an idea. Yeah. Do you think Kyle Bornheimer would know?

Kyle Bornheimer, the actor? Yeah, he's still alive. Um, yeah, I guess he, he might know.

Should we, should we call him? I mean, all right. You can phone a friend, right? Yeah, I guess we could try to call him. Let's see here. Hello?

Oh, here he is. Oh, yeah. Just what the doctor ordered. Just exactly what the doctor ordered. Well, you have a bad doctor. You have a very very very uh i'm not sure this is a licensed physician that has ordered me up but i'll do my best uh kyle first first things first are you able to hear adam scott when he talks into this mic go ahead adam testing testing one two three just mellif mellifluous yeah crystal clear yeah as clear as crystal pe? Crystal. Do you know Crystal Pepsi is coming back?

Is it coming back? Is it? Really? Yeah. It's just in time. I think that's going to solve everything. That's what we need. Just in time for the election.

For the election. Hey, Kyle. It's the choice of new generations. Shut the fuck up. Shut the fuck up. We have a question. Yeah. Was Scott Glenn in Species?

Oh, shit. Okay, here are the rules you have to have seen species have you seen species yeah but it was like right when it came out so well us too 28 years 28 years ago yeah um okay so check you can't you aren't allowed to look it up of course you're not allowed to ask anyone sure you're not allowed to call scott glenn like we did ah shit okay any other rules adam do you remember um did you mention the thing about not calling Scott Glenn? Yeah, you can't call Scott Glenn. Don't call Scott Glenn. Okay, never mind. You know, and I also, there's a chance I'm getting my screening mixed up with Mimic that came out around the same time.

Oh, starring Mira Sorvino? Mira Sorvino. Yeah. Because this one was Michael Madsen. Mark Helgenberger. Mark Helgenberger. Natasha Henstridge. Natasha Henstridge was the main...

The titular species. She put the tit in titular. Yes. She put the special in species. I don't think special is in species. It's the spec. Wait, she did it on spec? She did it on spec, yeah.

That was not supposed to be made. She just, she pitched that. Um, so I'm going to say I, I would put them in. I'm going to go, I'm going to go, I'm going to go. Yes.

I'm going to go. Yes. You're going to go. Yes. Yeah. Cause they had, he was in a lot of movies in that stretch of time. He was always lit.

Like he was either, you know, he was either like a bureaucrat maybe, or he was like lit. He was either, you know, he was either like a bureaucrat maybe, or he was like in a really well-lit sci-fi thing like that. Yeah, I see him there. I would have put him in that movie. Or Lance Henriksen. Lance might have been in it.

Maybe he was in it. Wait, is this an episode of was Lance Henriksen in Species? I believe it is. Hey, everyone. Welcome to Was Lance Henriksen in Species? This is Scott. And this is Scott.

The last episode we spoke about Was Lance Henriksen in Species? This week, we're going to break that down. Yeah, this week, here are the rules, by the way, for this show. We have to have seen Species. Scott, have you seen Species? Oh, yeah. By the way, welcome to our special guest,

Kyle Bornheimer, over the phone. Have you seen Species? Sure. Okay, we can't look it up. Or Mimic. I've seen the other Species or Mimic, which counts for both. You throwing Mimic. I've seen the other species are Mimic, which counts for both. God, you throwing Mimic into the mix is really confusing me.

I know. Because I've seen Mimic. Have you seen Mimic? I've seen Mimic. Chow Yung Fat, was he in Mimic? No, they were in Replacement Killers. Oh, that's right. Oh, yeah.

Who else was in Mimic? In the Replacements, that was Keanu Reeves and Gene Hacements that was yeah there's a football all right okay not to be mistaken for the commitments which was had a great music video which i never but i'm not sure i already saw the movie i well i saw it and i was in a commitments cover band for a while that was the commitments huge the decommissioned what happened to that like that movie just disappeared. No one talks about it anymore. I know. It was such a big deal.

But I remember, like, probably VH1 even more than MTV played that music video. You know, they... Oh, yeah. Which was like a scene from them. Try a little tenure. All right, we're running out of time. Bye. Bye.

Bye. Bye. Okay, so now we're back. We're back with Scott Glenn and Species. And our special guest, Kyle Bornheimer, has said that yes. He's saying yes. He's saying yes. Okay. Interesting.

Well, unfortunately, there's no way to find out because we're not allowed to look it up or anything yeah all right we'll see you next time bye bye thanks guys thanks thanks god did you just hang up on him Well, that was a really good episode. I wonder how long they're going to keep that series going. It's pretty good. I mean, look, it can go as long. It's infinite because they'll never find out because they're not allowed to.

Not a lot of answers. Not a lot of answers, but they raised interesting questions, did they not? Kind of infinite questions. Yeah. Or eternal questions. My eternal flame. Okay, so the reason we're here doing a U2 episode is because we went somewhere this weekend and we did something U2 related. And that's pretty exciting.

And we're going to talk about it, but we need to take a break. What do you think of that? I mean, well explained. We have to take a break, though. think of that i mean well explained we have to take a break though oh yeah i mean no we have to we have to we have to okay so here we go we're gonna come right back when we come back we'll talk about what we did regarding you too oh this is you talking you too to me this is you two and cheat codes with a remix. Hey, welcome back. This is a remix of Love Is Bigger Than Anything in Your Way.

Sounds like something that would be played outside at a pool in Vegas. Yeah. Vegas? Yeah, like one of those pool areas in Las Vegas. They don't have pools in Vegas. Oh, I'm getting it mixed up with some other place. Where do you get... What are you thinking of? Swimming pools?

Oh, swimming pools. Oh, I thought you meant when everyone pools their money together. Oh, no, no, no. They don't do that outdoors in Las Vegas. No, they do that indoors. Yeah. So, by the way, I've gotten a message from Kyle Bornheimer that he's staying off all websites and socials until, so that he does not. So he doesn't know if Scott Glenn is in Species.

Yeah. Um. I'm, I'm fairly certain that either Scott Glenn or Lance Henriksen is in Species. It feels like it, but I, I just don just don't know well we'll never know we'll never know unfortunately because the rules who set those rules you but they're they're they're good we need to abide by them yeah they're excellent rules um so the reason we're here and doing an emergency episode and getting right to it and getting right to it my man is uh we i'm not gonna beat around the bush any longer we saw hashtag u2 uv sphere we sure did that's right

u2 uv sphere at the sphere you still not clear on what the uv is all about we okay so we're i'm gonna start in media res okay and not and yeah and we'll we'll get back to how we got there and all that kind of stuff but we're driving up we're looking at the sphere it says u2 uv and we're both like we hadn't even thought about we're like what does this even fucking stand for? Yeah. I mean, there is. Ultraviolet. There is a song, Ultraviolet, parentheses, light my way, on Actum, baby. Actum. Actum.

Baby. But let's back up. Yeah. I started in media res. I hooked you. Let's back up. Yeah. We got to cover, because it's been a minute. Yeah.

Who are we even talking about? Oh, have we not? I don't think we've. Oh, I'm so sorry. Yeah, we have to jump, jump and start from the beginning. Start from the beginning. Catch us up. We're talking about the four lovable lads from Liverpool.

That's right there. You know them well. They come from liverpool england mate and they got together and they started a band and in what early 60s the early 60s they they first they traveled to hamburg germany oh yeah well that's where they got their 10 000 hours hours. And their 10,000 hamburgers. That's right. And they, by the way, they've lived off those 10,000 hamburgers.

Still eating them. Since then. And there's four of them. Yeah. So they only had 2,500 burgers apiece. A lot of burgers, bro. It was the same amount of burgers,

just they had to split them up. No, I know, but. Are you saying they had 40,000 hamburgers? I'd never even thought about this. It's 10,000 each. Oh! 10,000 apiece. They wouldn't still have them if it was 10,000 split up

burgers. They would have finished them back in the 70s. And they've eaten them for every meal. Every meal. And they're still going. Still going. Still chomping those burgers. Still chomping. Yeah, they maybe some meals they only have one bite yeah or a salad you know or maybe they say you know what i'm just gonna have eggs and

bacon today sure you know and put a pin in that hamburger maybe they're like hey you know what i'm gonna have some pasta tonight yeah just something super light. Hot roast. Sure. Some days they do that. Tonight, I'm just going to have baked Alaska. Just baked Alaska. Just crab Louie, you know? Tonight. Clams Casino.

That's all I'm having for this evening. Have you ever had Clams Casino? I didn't even hear about it until maybe a year ago. I heard about it in a movie and had to find out what it was. It seems disgusting. It was in something recently. I think that's how I heard about it, right? Philip Seymour Hoffman orders it in, I can't remember which movie it is. Something recently?

No. Like, I don't know, 10, 15 years ago. Oh, wait, wait, wait. Was it Before the Devil Knows You're Dead? No, it wasn't. I love that movie. Is this an episode of I Love Films? I think it is.

Hey, everyone, welcome to I Love Films. This is Scott. And this is Scott. And we're talking about films here. Some of the greats. You know, you just say the word film. And for me, anyway, it evokes imagery. It does. To me, it's like you go into the shower.

Yeah. You wash yourself off, and then it leaves that little bit of residue. A film. A film. And that's what we talk about on this show. Just that shower film. That's right. I love films.

I love it. Wait, this is our 38th episode or something? I don't think we've ever explained to the audience that that's what we're talking about when we talk about this. Has that not been clear? I think because we talk about movies, which we hate. Not a fan. Not a fan of those. They've assumed that we're talking about those. Oh, if that's the because those are those are also known

as films if that's the case it's a wild misunderstanding sorry no we're here talking about the residue you leave shower films shower film bathtub film i love film yeah come on guys catch up it's not that fucking hard. Yeah. I mean, what? You don't love films. I guess it depends which body wash you're using, but I guess, but come on,

you don't like, let's go. You don't love it. The minute you step out of a shower and you're like, look at all that shit. I left. Get with the program. Anyway.

Uh, I love films. Yeah. And, uh, I love leaving them in other people's houses too oh yeah taking a shower and leaving that film behind yep there's not a single house i've ever been in where i haven't said mind if i take a little shower shower might have mind if i leave a film or two oh all right bye transformative episode wow that's a big left turn they took end of an era beginning of a new one i hope yeah um why are we talking what are we talking about? What are we talking about? Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. So the band U2, they started in Hamburg. They eat hamburgers every day other than when they don't.

Still eating those burgers. Still eating them today. They went on. They made a bunch of movies like Help and- Hard Day's Night. Hard Day's Night. And then they hard cut to the 80s. They took the 70s off didn't uh make any music got back

together like late 70s late 79 i think they got back together and then um we're like let's give this band thing another try why don't we oh, should we explain who the guys are in the band? Yes. So the people we're talking about, of course, on lead vocals, and he shakes his butt. Sure. I mean, it's part of the job description.

Look, if you are a rock and roll front man or front person. What are you going to do, say? I refuse to shake my butt, please. This butt shall be totally immobile for this performance. Like, if you're shaking the rest of your bod, how do you keep your butt still? Can you imagine if you go see the Rolling Stones? Wait a minute. Is this an episode of you popping my stones?

I believe so hey everyone welcome to you popping my stones this is scott and this is scott and we're talking about hey look you popped my stones and i have one question for you are you popping my stuff and hopefully you only have one answer and that's yes yeah you are that's in the affirmative now the cool thing is there's a bunch of cool things about this one of them is the stones have a new album coming they do have you heard it either of the songs uh-huh i like the lady gaga i like them both i like i like them both i really like that single the uh the angry the first one yeah yeah i like i i i like them both but i i think i like i prefer the lady gaga stevie wonder one and you hear that combo and go like i don't know stevie wonder stevie

did you say stevie yeah the combo of stevie and wonder yeah but stevie wonders on that track yeah he plays the keyboards on it but you hear that combo of stevie and wonder and you're like whoa i wonder i don't know does that work i wonder who stevie is and then you're like then you read it front to back and you're like oh i got my answer stevie wonder um she sounds great that track's really cool it's really long and fun and big yeah and she and it's not like a duet as much as she's sort of doing backup backups yeah sort of like that one song was like what song is that uh but angry the like big single was super catchy. But back to my point.

Can you imagine seeing the Rolling Stones? The house lights go down, and an announcer comes on and says, For this performance of the Rolling Stones, Mick Jagger will not be shaking his butt tonight. Right. Please. Come on. Yeah. It's not going to happen.

Is this story taking place on planet Earth? Maybe not. Come on. Yeah. It's not going to happen. Is this story taking place on planet Earth? Maybe not. Maybe not. Maybe the Rolling Stones are off there playing Dang Mars or something. Yeah. Maybe if they were, you know, giving a free concert on Neptune. Yeah. Maybe Uranus.

Yeah. Uranus. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Like because it's butthole. Butthole. Okay, bye. Bye. You Popping My Stones.

It's been a while. I know. I haven't heard from those guys in a while. Really good show. Really great show. That's one of my favorites. Yeah. So you got on lead singer duties. he does the vowels he does the consonants yeah and

he projects them out of his throat into a microphone sometimes sometimes yeah i would say a good 55 56 percent of the time he's doing it into a microphone that's right what's his name adam you gotta be talking about bonobos you got it at this point that's our guy we've whittled it down to only bonobos at this point that's that's the only possibility when you have all those descriptors and then um he's got four chords and maybe the truth yeah that's all you need and then he learned a bunch other chords he probably knows like nine chords and the truth i think at this point he probably knows more than nine i mean he's like let's how many chords are there okay well let's there's a there's b uh a sharp oh gotta go to a sharp okay there's b is there a. Oh, got to go to A sharp.

Okay. There's B. Is there A flat? There is A flat. Yeah. B. B. Now there's no B sharp.

There's no B sharp. C goes to C. Huh. Immediately. And then C sharp, D. Yeah. D sharp,

E, F goes to F, no E sharp. Then F sharp. And then we already, no, then G. And then we already did A flat, right? Okay, so that's 12 right there. Yeah. And then you do minors of all of those.

That's 24. Okay. And then you do like six sustains, that's like 36. Hmm. Then you do minor sevenths, that's 48. You just do regular sevenths, that's 60. Hmm. He knows all of those, obviously.

I mean, maybe, I don't know. Why does he have to know all of them? I mean, he's a professional musician. You'd think he'd know. Like if someone were to shout out at him in the middle of a U2 show and be like, Hey, I'm not going to say his name yet, but hey, my guy, play an A-flat minor sustained seventh. And he's like, oh, yes, sir, right right away he's got to be able to bust that yeah because that's in a professional uh world that stuff happens it happens you have to be ready

yeah especially at a concert oh my gosh um yeah especially at a concert the guy the guy you're talking about yeah the guitarist the guitarist of the band Q2, especially at a concert. Yeah, no. That's where that stuff happens. What's this guy's name? We're talking Fedge. Fedge. Fedgie.

Fedgie Baby. The rock and roller. Yeah, that's his nickname, the rock and roller. The jazz man of the group he's wrong guy he's definitely he plays rock and roll instead of jazz if that's what you mean that's what i mean of course that's what that's what you might have got and then on uh four strings sometimes four strings are better than six oh man you have of course the spiritual heart of the band yeah the jazz man the jet in the sense that he plays jazz yes if that's what you meant yes yeah that's always what i mean yeah you know

him you love him who are we talking about adam the one and only adam clay two thousand pounds that's right my man and then backing them up pounding the skins like no one else can like no one else should we're talking larry mullen seniors son the. The best. And these four comprise one singular unit. U2. U2. That's right. So that's who we're talking about. We went to go see them play.

Yeah, we went to a concert. And decided to do a show about it. That's it. It was pretty good it was great let's break it down let's break it down so we were uh obviously i think we did we even talk about the sphere it is uh it looks like kind of a half circle right yeah it looks like a sphere yeah except you can't see the bottom i assume that there's a basement there is the basement has a rounded floor right it's where they keep all their old junk there they're like well it has to be a sphere and everything that's on wheels just rolls to the center they have old toys down there yeah books and shit um but it's a it's a spherical venue that no one has been really inside.

We were the first people let inside, by the way. That's right. Everyone had been outside. We had to come three weeks early. They're like, all right, come on in. And we waited for three weeks. But so we were, they're doing what, a residency? How many shows are they doing?

I think they're doing like five weekends or six weekends they're doing friday and saturday nights is that what it is i think it is sundays as well or no i think it's just two like because they i think it's two shows a week and they're going through december they may extend it or something like that but it's the the first thing to happen at this venue which is a many billions of dollars that uh they they put into this venue in order to make it and um this was the first band to ever do it and we were sort of debating were we not we were like do we go on opening night or do we wait until they've ironed out the kinks yeah because the last time they or one of the last times they opened a big show in vegas i think the last time they opened their tour in vegas was of course pop mart oh

that's right and that was a pretty famously difficult uh opening night where uh the lemon they got stuck in the lemon i think for 15 minutes um and uh it was kind of tentative and so we were sort of like do we do it opening night or do we go this is gonna be a very technical show yeah do we a lot of uh not only effects but special a lot of special ones um so do we wait and see it and so and and and you and i talked about it and i was like, because I think you brought it up to me two weeks before it was going to happen. And it was kind of last minute. It was last minute. Yeah.

You brought it up two weeks before it was going to happen. I said, I think at this point it's a little tough for us to figure out. Yeah. Child care. Yeah. As, uh, uh, you know, that's, it's pretty short notice. And we were like, yeah, okay okay let's definitely not do it yeah and then um five days before you texted me and said hey i think we should do it well what had

happened was we were invited and said no thanks we said not only no but fuck no yeah we'll wait a few weeks and go a different weekend yeah thinking we'll wait till the show's like of you know tight which is high and tight whatever and then we started hearing a bunch of friends were going and it was like and then our then our good friend and previous guest on the show lance uh henriksen yep of species species and mimic no uh uh lance bangs and was like, hey, I'm at rehearsals for this thing. Are you guys coming? It's pretty amazing. Yeah.

And some friends were definitely going and you were talking to them and you said like, hey, I think we should go. So I, Cool Up was away and I texted her and said, what do you think about this for this weekend? And she was, she said, oh no, you just go. Uh, cause you know, we just thought it was impossible. Yeah. And the more we started thinking about it. Sounded awesome. It sounded.

I know. Same with us. We're like, why are we not doing this? Yeah. Like being invited on opening night to see this incredible spectacle. And it's going to be all over social media. Yeah. It'll be spoiled. It'll be spoiled.

It'll be spoiled. Yeah. So we were just like, okay, can we do it? And so we, we put together a plan very last minute. Uh, my sister-in-law graciously, uh, agreed to. That's great that you guys, we have teenagers, so we don't really need child care. Yeah. Yeah.

So it's way easier for us. No. And this was our first experience of being out of town. Yeah. With a Nepo baby. Right. Who already has a podcast. Yeah, exactly.

Where she breaks down nursery rhymes. That's right. It's a special effect. So we said, fuck it, let's just do it. And then the mad scramble to figure out, you know, the hotel and travel and all that happened. And you have a great story. Oh, man. I told you this, I think it was before the concert.

I think. At the incredible party that was happening. Yes. In the sphere. In the sphere, yes. That we were not let into. But then led into I told you this story and you said

talk shows I am saving it for a talk show but since they're two different audiences I think you can spoil it a little bit two completely different audiences I'll tell you the five cent version the five cent version? yeah the nickel tour the five second version

which is what you're hoping for version yeah the nickel tour okay that's the five second version the five second version which is what you're hoping for um we had a flight at noon to go out to las vegas and i could already picture it wait no our flight was at 2 30 in the oh my god even better i can picture this even more the clock i can see the can see the tiny hand right past the two and then the big hand down at the six. Yeah. Which means you should probably get to the airport at least by 1.30 if you're doing it right. You know what you're doing. Right?

Yeah. I mean, savvy travelers know get to the airport before the plane takes off. Yeah. At least five minutes before plane takes off. Yeah. At least five minutes before it takes off. Yeah. So anyway, flight is at 2.30. This is so good already.

Or no, 1.30. I don't remember. This is great. This is even better because now I'm picturing the tiny hand right past the one. Right past the one. And then the other one.

The other one who stayed where, exactly where it is, just right down the barrel of the six. But I get a notification at 9 a.m. that says our flight has been delayed till four. No, no, no. 4 p.m. Now that's.

So that already screws up our dinner plans in Las Vegas. Yeah. With you guys and Liz Banks and her husband, Max. Because if we, if you're, if you take off at four, you land at five, we have dinner resis

at six. At six. And we're rizzed up and we have resis. We have the resbo. We don't have time to go to the hotel and freshen up.

Technically, you have time because it's only like 15 minutes from there. Like, okay, Scott, but I want to go. but you want to wash your ass yeah i just got a double vax i need to take a nap i'm not i'm feeling wiped out did you get the double right before the right before the duble vax so so if you die in the middle of this podcast, we know why. So anyway, I go on southwestair.com. Great website, by the way. Listen, I go there every day anyway.

If you're surfing the web, there is no better spot. Find the 1030 flight. I go to Liz and Max and I say, guys, our flight's delayed. How? Because they were on the same flight. There's a 1030. There's no way we can do this, right? And Liz goes, I'm into it. Let's do it. So I go

back. I get our tickets there. I tell Naomi, we gotta go now. We gotta get your fucking shit together. We pack. We get out the door i text them again they're like no we couldn't we couldn't get tickets we're on the noon or whatever so we're solo on this mission oh you're solo bolo i mean you're with each other short story uh made long we i love that yeah save that for the talk show yeah yeah i can. Yeah. I can just, I can imagine you saying that to Kimmel.

I was road testing it. I think it works. We made it. We got on that plane, land in Vegas, 1130. Good to go. I was able to go to the hotel,

sleep off my vaccination tiredness. And then, and then, then what? And then woke up. Uh-huh. And, uh, made it to the show on time. It was pretty great.

And then, and then at the show, we all get into a car together. We drive over there. You remember this? Yeah. We get out, we get in, go up to this little cocktail party that they had. Um, and then I tell you the story about our uh our and it was it was probably you told it right now even better than when you told it to me then thank you with so much so many more great details like the part where you were misremembering when your flight was fun i'm gonna i fine. I think I might bring it to UCB and just try it out a little bit.

Yeah, yeah. Kind of sharpen the corners. A Night with Adam Scott. Yeah. And his tale of woe. The part I love too is like, Liz and Max, they missed the flight. Yeah, they couldn't get the tickets because I had already gone on and gotten the two remaining tickets. You got the two remaining, but then they get there flight. Yeah. They couldn't get the tickets. They missed. I had already gone on and gotten the two remaining. You got the two remain,

but then they get there on time anyway. Yeah. They got there. They got there even before us. Yeah. And we all, cause our flight was at one and we were all, we were all like freshened up and ready to go and went to dinner.

We went to dinner. No problem. Yeah. And then we ate, um, a single oyster a piece. Yep. And then went to the show problem yeah and then we ate um a single oyster a piece yep and then went to the show that's right and that's all we remember and then just unconscious because the oysters were bad yep um so yeah we're going to talk about what we thought about um the sphere U2UV at the Sphere. Those oysters were actually

great. They were, yeah. We haven't said what the name of the restaurant is, so we can say they were shitty and no one will care. That's right, but they were great. But the restaurant knows we were there. They don't want to hear that. They're listening right now. It was great. All the food was great. It was amazing. Alright, we're going to come right back.

We're going to talk about our... Olive about our Olive Garden. Olive Garden. They loved us. We're going to talk about all of this show. We'll be right back with more. You talking you to me. Welcome back. That's the band U2. Welcome back. You're talking U the band U2

and the fact that we went to this Sphere show. Now, the good people at Madison Square Garden hooked us up with the tickets. We want to thank them. Do you have a specific person that you want to thank or do you want to keep that seek?

Yeah. Let's keep it close to the vest. Sure. You know what I mean? We don't want random assholes hitting this person up going like oh i heard you got scott's got tickets where are tickets that's right no it was great and uh it was it was really nice though really nice they they um hooked us up with uh a very nice uh suites there in the uh in the luxury suites. Yeah. And let's talk about the sphere itself.

Yeah. So it takes up two city blocks. Does it really? Yeah. Wow. Yeah, it's huge. I was like, one, two. Oh, I'm done.

And you walk into it. Yeah. And we were sort of like, oh, I thought this place was round because it looks um just like a regular concert venue yeah like with like but tiers and levels and elevators and all that kind of stuff but it doesn't have a round ceiling and it's definitely high it's it's not as um it's not like an arena where it, because an arena is what, like five city blocks? Like this is really, it's much kind of takes up less surface area on the actual street. No, but it's incredibly high and not quite as wide as like a basketball arena.

Right, right. Yeah. So I was kind of like, oh, it's small. Is it small and it's not round? I couldn't quite tell. From the inside, yeah, it's weird. From before you get into the venue, the actual seating area. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

So what they do with it is it's a sphere that they bisect sort of diagonally. From the top down, it's sort of like on a rake, sort of a regular theater where they're uh the you know the the lower you get the closer to the floor you get yeah so when you walk into the actual seating area yeah it's round as hell oh yeah and i mean you can't you couldn't get more round no unless you were a circle itself sure and if you're a circle why are you bothering listening to us come on go enjoy circle time yeah um but yeah so it's it's and then the other interesting thing is and there's only one other interesting thing um it seats as many people as the hollywood bowl yeah it's huge it's huge in there and and when you're when before you enter the actual seating area, you're kind of like, oh, this isn't what I expected.

When you get in, it's giant and just an enormous venue. Yeah. We had wonderful seats about in the boxes maybe a third of the way up or something like that. At a nice vantage point where you could see everything. It's great. You could see everything. So the thing about the Sphere is it's made up the entire, like outside and inside are made up of these LED video screens.

Yeah. With the sharpest resolution known to man. But the one on the outside is a different kind of LED than the inside, isn't it? I have no idea. I'm not a scientist. Okay're not an led talk to fucking stephen hawking if you want answers on this one i can't um but uh so the outside is transmitting like when you're just in vegas and you're driving by it's either like showing an ad for what's happening that night or sometimes they'll they'll broadcast stuff on it and i guess during the show itself i hear that it's it's synced up with the show with what's happening and showing various

things that's cool but um so you walk into this venue and we and we sit down and um they gave us free backpacks from the sphere and there was, uh, drinks and, and a lot of sushi out there. And I just started loading up my backpack with sushi. Yeah. I was just like, Hey, can we get a few more plates of this?

I was just like, I want a little road. Max did right when we walked in, he's like, Oh, and he just ate two pieces of sushi. It was like, we just ate.

We just had a giant fucking, I am full. I don't know why i did that well not only that but but later on we went to an after party and you were like i'm starving i was starving and you had like a bunch of fries and stuff like that i'm like fries we have the most giant fucking italian meal of our lives but yeah no i just i filled it up with a little road sush oh that's good and um that's why you weren't hungry the rest of the night yeah exactly but so so uh you sit down and and the the sphere the the walls of it are like it's sort of like mad maxian industrial kind of it look it's it's sort of like rust rusted metal panels it looked

like concrete yeah concrete or it looked metal it looked like sort of like rust rusted metal panels it looked like concrete yeah concrete but the metal it looked like a little like rusty metal and this concrete wall kind of went from the floor like behind the stage all the way up past where a ceiling would usually be because it's round it goes all the way at the top of the the sphere there's like a hole with a skylight sort of. And Kulop is like, is that open air? And I was like, I don't think it would be open air because I think the rain or instead of like, you know, I just plus the set for sound and all that. I don't think it's open air, but we're kind of looking at this hole going like. What is that?

Yeah. What is it? So it's all, it's all just sort of of like it looks like thunderdome essentially and um there's a stage down at the bottom and there's also a a car being sort of driven around by a dj who's like djing before the show yeah zoo tv car right the zoo tv car right um i didn't see the the uh that tour so oh yeah those were all over hanging all over the stage and it was kind of one of the it's they have them in the octoon baby album art they have some of those minis you drive one right that's what you drive that's what i drive exclusively yeah, with all your headshots in the back. So a DJ was in one of those Octane Baby Zoo TV cars.

And he's playing certain songs and trying to get the crowd to sing along. At one point, hilariously, he's like, are you ready for U2? And everyone goes, yeah. And he goes, well, they're not coming out yet. Yeah. Like 15, 20 more minutes. It's like, dude, that is DJ. Yeah, 101. Like rule 101. Yeah.

Just of like, don't say, are you ready for the band before they're ready to come out. But eventually he gets toted off. And so the band comes out and they start playing Zoo Station. Yeah. And what they're doing is they're they're projected they have these big big lights in front of them they're projecting shadows on the back of the on the back of the wall and they do that whole song zoo station with the shadows on the back of the wall and it's like oh wow this is cool this is really cool um but the shadows were video was animation was it i can't

tell oh okay it was animation okay so we didn't know that but it just it it looks cool it looks like they're shadows yeah but it appears they're just doing like a big show in the middle of a thunderdome kind of thing and then the next song starts and it's the fly. Not by the way. No. The Jeff Goldblum fly. In Zoo Station, right at the beginning, cracks start appearing in that concrete wall. Oh, I thought it was in fly. Oh, okay.

No, it was in the first song? Yeah. Okay. So suddenly the wall, you see smoke coming out of it and it starts to sort of crack and crumble a little bit. And then it just splits open and, uh, starts to,

to move and come apart. And you realize like, no, this isn't metal or concrete or anything like that. This is just a video projection of that stuff. And the hole in the ceiling that we were looking at was all fake yeah um the skylight was all fake everything was fake and it just like starts to split open and then it turns into like the zoo tv kind of iconography yeah uh of all the flashing imagery

and um and it's like i don't know know, 10 stories high of this video. It's crazy. Yeah. And it was a cool introduction of the screen because- Of how it works. Yeah. It kind of introduced us to it and started getting us comfortable with it before they started going absolutely nuts with it.

Right. Yeah. So the first song, yeah, it splits apart and then they're showing four separate video screens of each of the members. Yeah. And then it just starts kind of going crazy for the next 10 songs. Yeah. Where each song, they do something really weird with the video screens and something mind-blowing. Yeah.

And you've seen some of the videos on tiktok um and other social media sites maybe you've been on southwest.com yeah and they've they've embedded that's where i uploaded all of my photos hey this was my trip southwest did a great job getting me there and this is what i saw but um some of some of the things that happened list some of the highlights for you um i mean the the fly was the second song and because they did the show was focused on the album octoon baby yeah and they played they played the entirety of the album but not in order yeah they play it out of order which i thought was interesting and worked i thought perfectly well doing it other than one part we'll talk about later. Um, but the fly was the second song and the fly really is what blew everyone's

mind. Kind of right out of the water was the, all the imagery of the numbers and letters and going all the way up and they created a tunnel effect, uh, in the ceiling. Oh yeah. So,

and maybe you've seen this on social media. They, they have all these like numbers and stuff flashing across the screens, and then they do this optical illusion, which makes it seem like the top of the sphere is coming down on top of everyone. The ceiling is lowering. I think the shape of the screen of the sphere makes it so they can create 3d effects with it yeah it's it's i was i was looking at the video going like oh okay what they're doing is and kulap was telling me that the goal of the sphere was they wanted to to have people be able to experience virtual reality without goggles yeah and that's what it sort of is they're creating these optical illusions using the sphere shape to make it seem as if like all this stuff is coming out in 3D at you.

And it really felt strange. Like that was part of the excitement of the whole night was being there and being able to look around and watch people experience this new feeling for the first time. It was a brand new it was a lot it was a lot like going to the minions ride at universal studios or seeing the minions movie or just seeing the minions in the wild or just thinking about the minions just thinking about the mini it was a lot like that yeah and so sometimes like i've come home after the show and i've just thought about the minions i'm like yeah this is like what it was experience um so there was that there was there was one part where they you know they were really leaning into the whole vegas of it all how uncool it is kind of for a band there of their generation to be in

vegas but they're like doing what they used to do with the irony thing of like leaning into like oh las vegas elvis i was like finally you two is talking about elvis i hoped they would i know but they had a whole montage of uh various movies that were set in vegas and yeah even better even better than the real thing was the big elvisage. Collage. And even they were using like Ocean's Eleven sections. Yeah, and the Elvis, the Baz Luhrmann Elvis movie. Yeah, Baz Luhrmann. And that was, this is where I started getting very seasick. Oh, you did? Yes.

So I have a hard time with like Transformers, The Ride. Yeah, me too. Harry Potter type stuff. I can't do that stuff, yeah. So that was a collage of things moving downwards yeah and then the stage which you find out later also is totally made up of video screens yeah was moving in the opposite direction right and i had to look away and basically look at fixed points which were the audience i just like had to look at the audience

the entire time because i was getting a little bit queasy especially since i had a bit of a bumpy plane ride there yeah it was uh that was certainly the uh the kind of the most to look at was that even better than the real thing that really and i can see i i could see getting starting to feel a little motion sickness i didn't but I understand why you would. So they run through Zoo Station, the fly, even better than the real thing. They go into mysterious ways. Was that where the thunder was? I can't remember exactly.

Like lightning and stuff? Lightning and stuff like that. And then they go into one. Right. And until the end of the world, and who gonna ride your wild horses like all of the hits basically front loaded until the end of the world maybe that was the light maybe yeah i can't recall um and then suddenly a big sort of like magician's handkerchief kind of rope comes down from the ceiling and there's a giant balloon that is being projected onto the

screens that bono is like sort of holding not projected but is well the balloon the video screen yes the balloon is animated i consider video screens to be projection yes well if it and i have to think if it was projection it would have looked shitty but this was all video so it looked like i also think your anger towards me is also projection you're right i just wouldn't want to affect their ticket sales by me by people thinking oh this is projection oh forget it i'm not going um yes the the balloon is on the video screen but the the the rope that appears to be tied to it is coming down from the ceiling and bono is sort of like holding it and walking around and then in a an interesting and perhaps confusing part uh they a woman was called up from the stage but he didn't point at them it was seemed to she seemed to be pre-screened or something yeah maybe she just comes up and he's like let's go for a walk and gives her this the

the string and they, this is during... This is during Trying to Throw Your Arms Around the World. Yeah, that's right. And they walk around the stage in kind of an awkward manner. And then he's like, all right, let's go for a swing. And I don't think she heard him. And she's like, okay, goodbye. And she starts to go off the stage.

She's like, no, no, no, come back. And then she's like, what? And then he puts her on, it like opens up into like a sort of a swing and she gets on this swing and i'm thinking i'm seeing her thinking going like okay if she starts to do like cirque du soleil rope tricks right great bit yeah where they've like fake this out faked us out but with her going what huh you know and trying to leave like all that is great for and i've seen cirque du soleil bits where there's a plant in the audience and they do shit like that but no she was legitimately confused yeah and then she

gets on to the swing and bono starts pushing her around and everyone's i was nervous that she looks frightened yeah and she's swinging around and narrowly missing fedge every who's like scooting his butt around trying to get out of her way shaking his butt and uh i think it made everyone nervous yes because it didn't seem like they had it it was opening night it didn't seem like they had it really all that either conceptually or practically right had quite figured out what this was so at this point they're they're eight songs in and i'm kind of going like i'm wondering how you felt about it because um i sort of start feeling like wow this is more of a multimedia experience almost like going to a leisure show than a concert in a way because like first of all it's the first

time anyone has seen this stuff everyone has their phones out taking videos and stuff, which when you go to a concert now is like, you know, par for the course pretty much. But it started to feel a little like U2 was playing this thing and which was 25% of the experience, right? Because the screen is so massive and doing so much stuff. So massive. So big. And doing so much stuff. Yeah. And so then they, Bono says like, hey, we're going to take a break from Octoon Baby. And they play an acoustic set, sort of like on their last tour that we saw where they go down to the little tiny stage.

Yeah. They play. So then they did an acoustic set of all Rattle and Hum songs. Yeah. They did All I Want Is You, Desire desire angel of harlem and then love rescue me which is great to hear those those songs and they turn the sort of screens off a little bit or only pretty much show like one projection of of the band but on it for that section they didn't even really do that? I thought that there was just one circle of a close-up of Bono during it or something. For some of it.

And then some of it, there was nothing. But it was pretty much them saying, hey, we're still here. We're here, too. Yeah, yeah, yeah. This is still a rock show. We're going to turn off all the Sturm and Drang. Yeah. And that was cool and that that was sort

of what i needed because i was kind of like uh this is very overwhelming but it's not feeling it was sensorily overwhelming and then um max turns to you and says like why did they turn the video screens yeah he was like are they are they out of ideas which i just thought would be such a funny thing to open the sphere and they're eight songs in and then they're like well what do we do fucking next oh shit oh well we don't have any more ideas oh well i thought it was an an interesting you know just because the the weird thing was that the stage that they're actually playing on is not much bigger than the second stage

that they've been playing on for 25 years. The entire show they play in a pretty small stage because everything else is taking up so much space. By the way, they're playing on a circular stage, and at one point Bonobos goes like, this stage was conceptualized by Brian Eno. Oh boy. Here we fucking go. All sourpuss himself so what he designed a

circle yeah thanks bro i saw a photo of brian eno with a mini turntable and like like gesticulating talking about did he have a light bulb above his head? Yeah. Like, oh, what if I did this? Circle. So it looked sort of like a turntable and the center revolved, unlike a real turntable where the record part would revolve. Yeah, but the center, it created a cool effect for that first song where Bono's- Bono's hanging on the mic and revolving around and stuff. But I wonder if they tried having the the band bigger part yeah and they were like fuck this it seemed like it because when when i first saw this band set up and it was on a circle cool up said to me she goes oh the the band must revolve yeah during the show and i was like oh yeah and then they never did yeah i can only imagine them getting sick while

they while they're performing but i kind of felt like since that stage was around the same size as the second stage that they've been using since zoo tv or their little acoustic set that they that they usually do they when all the screens went off and it was just them playing they were a little confined right and i i thought the show worked the best. Like, who's going to ride your wild horses when they're playing the song and it's just them up on the screen. So the whole audience is focused on them and the song. But when it was just them and nothing on the screen, just because usually Bono's running around, going out into the audience.

That was the thing. I was reminded. He was like, he couldn't. There was nowhere for him to go. Nowhere for him to go. I was reminded of the early, back when I first started hearing about U2, you'd read like all the reviews of him

like climbing the rafters. And, you know, when I saw Phoenix recently, I forget if I mentioned this on the show, but he, the lead singer of Phoenix, basically it was like went out into the crowd. He's been doing this in shows. I saw him do it at the hollywood bowl but at the forum it was crazy where he's like he just gets a really long mic and goes out into the crowd and then at a certain point his friends lifted him up into the second section which i've never seen before and then he

like shook everyone's hand in the second section and then he didn't go all the way up to the third he came back down but you know it's like while the band is playing for 20 minutes he's just like saying hello to everyone in the crowd eddie vetter used to do stuff like that heady better yeah heady isn't that his name i think so heady um heady lamar vetter i felt like i'm sure the show will evolve over time but maybe they make that stage a little bigger there's room on the sides to make it. That's what I was sort of like. If the stage was even just all the way across, they could run around a little more. Because it's just a small square down at the bottom of the screen. And because the screen's so massive, it makes them seem even smaller.

Right. And they basically don't have room to do anything. Yeah. So that's one criticism. room to do anything. Yeah. So that's one criticism. I did think it was very interesting in that section where you then find out the screens are sort of translucent as well.

The lights were shining through them. Through it, yeah. And there are speakers behind the screen as well. Yes. That's the other part of it is people say, well, is the sound shitty? They've worked it all out where there is an individual speaker behind every screen pointed at everyone's seats like every single seat in the venue there's a speaker pointed at it yeah um and so the sound was crystal clear man the sound was really i thought it was really good

and i thought it was loud too yeah i heard someone saying after they wish it was louder but i thought it was i kept shouting at them like fucking turn it down um yeah so then after what happens after the so then they went home part then they came out and finished up actoon baby and this is the part where i go i was sort of like i wonder if they fucked with this a little bit because they then play the four least well-known songs from acting baby in a row which are so cruel uh acrobat ultraviolet light my way and then love is blindness right and those are all like the least well-known ones and they're side two basically and they're sort of like getting the video projections back up but they're not like totally not really yeah they're not blowing you away with them yet and it it's sort of like that,

that I felt was sort of like, oh man, you wish these were spaced out a little bit more musically. This was my favorite chunk of the show. Oh, sure. Cause I thought so cruel. What sounded incredible and acrobat sounded incredible.

Yeah. They, they sounded an ultra all, all four of those songs. But I think that's where they should be having uh you know images of the band really clearly up on the screen to get the correct because that's like u2's strength is unifying the crowd and making the place feel yeah intimate a giant place feel intimate well that's the that's the whole thing that u2 has been doing since the Zoo TV tour, right?

Yeah. They've been trying to use technology in order to not put you at a distance, but in order to strengthen the connection between the audience and the performer, right? And so they've been doing it. could they imagine when they first got that giant screen out for the Pop Mart tour 20 years ago, or almost 20 years, yeah, almost 30 years ago. Almost 30. Could they imagine how far it would come to where they're sitting here at the Sphere doing all this crazy shit? Yeah. Because that was the biggest screen in the world back then, wasn't it?

Yeah. Yeah, they started basically, they were the people to invent these giant screens at concerts. And so now they're doing like the newest version of that. So yeah, there was occasionally it kind of felt a little like spectacle versus music,

music versus spectacle. But I thought it all really came together beautifully in the encore yeah i mean then they come back and fuse it together like you said perfectly at the end but i just thought for that middle section they needed to use the tech a little more maybe right then because ultraviolet they just had like some pretty designs behind them i don't know i think when you can see the guys that's where the it starts feeling intimate and it's such a big place yeah i don't know well i also started to think like i get why they wanted to do actung baby first of all it's very it's their second biggest album so

it's very marketable of like hey we're playing actingoon Baby in full. But also like, hey, all of this technology, we're going to sort of like recreate what we did on the Zoo TV tour with new technology. I get that. But then I was kind of like, would the majority of the crowd give a shit if they didn't play those four songs? Yeah, maybe not. Like, would it have been just like,

hey, we're doing the Zoo TV tour, but we're doing, we're not, on the Zoo TV tour, they didn't play every single song off Acton Bay, right? No. So. I never, I've never seen them play Acrobat or So Cruel. Yeah, they, So Cruel was the first time since 1992 that they played it. That's crazy. So.

And that sounded great. Right. Like there was a slightly different melody. It was so good. And they didn't play anything off their first four albums. So I was kind of a little like, I wonder if this would be, I, but, but it is so cool that they're starting with Zoo Station and, and, and that kind of stuff with that. That was like all technology. Those last four.

I don't know. I mean, you and I enjoyed it, of course, obviously, but, but that was like all technology. You think cut those last four? I don't know. I mean, you and I enjoyed it, of course, obviously. But I felt like Joshua Tree, it's not like the audience is clamoring for Mothers of the Disappeared or Exit. But they played them because they're on the album. Yes, and it's a marketable hook of like- Come see the album.

Nostalgia. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But I started to want, i was sort of a little like yeah if they were if they instead because that that the closer was you know they played elevation then they played their new single we'll talk about vertigo where the streets have no name with or without you and beautiful day i mean that was and the the visuals and all those visuals were like really moving and incredible so i was like oh wow they did the whole the whole thing and i i know i get it it's also hard to be out there like we're just

playing old songs yeah we don't have any like new material although they do have the new thing we don't have a new album to cover you know i get it but um it was i, it was, I mean, it was definitely a thing that we were like, holy shit. We are glad we went to this to see it's unlike anything you will ever see. I felt like zoo TV in 92 elevation in Oh one. And then this are the three, like most impressionable concert experiences I've had. It's like, I'm seeing something brand new. But you're right. There's something where the venue and the screen

were the stars of the show. And I have to think for a second that I actually got to see U2 play as well. It's just a weird, it's such a new experience that I feel like I want to see the show again, but down on the floor where I get to see the band play. See the band a little more. Yeah, that would be cool.

Because they sounded great. There wouldn't be any road soosh there though. Oh yeah, no road soosh. Yeah, Naomi was saying like, she thinks this may change concerts forever. I mean, in the same way that Pop Mart Tour did, where every band now has giant video screens. Yeah, an interesting...

I mean, it was a very cool show. I agree. I think the Elevation Tour is maybe the best pure U2 tour I've seen. Because I saw Joshua Tree which was good but I think Elevation was just better for some reason for me I just thought it was an amazing show it was amazing Zoo TV was amazing too

right when that because it was also a brand new experience no one knew what they were going to do when I saw it anyway yeah very cool and I would like to see other things there yeah you know i would go see this show yeah again easily i would so if you're if you're listening out there you know and you work for madison square garden who owns this place

give us other tickets you already hooked us up with ticks bro yeah more ticks and if you're in the band which by the way in t-shirts by the way should we talk about the after oh yeah yeah no no we should talk about the the drummer oh yeah yeah so larry mullen senior's son was not playing he was not there they i remember when they announced this and they buried it in like paragraph eight of the New York Times article that he wasn't going to be playing on this tour. And I sent it to you like saying, they haven't announced this,

right? Yeah. It was the announcement. Yeah. He's recovering from back surgery. Yeah. Our bud, Larry,

who gave us those great t-shirts. I still have mine. I have mine. I have mine. Treasured possession. He was not playing because he's recovering from back surgery. And so some guy named like Paul Lillehammer or something was playing.

We have his name. We do? We have his name? I would imagine it's Bram and then the- Stoker's Dracula? His surname was difficult to pronounce for me. Bram Vandenberg. That's actually not difficult at all.

You nailed it on the first try, I would say. And he was great. I thought he did an incredible job, but it was strange watching you two without uh without a rolling senior son and he he did good and they were all very much like hey he's doing great yeah bono was doing a bit where he's like i don't even know who this guy is through the most of this until he did the band introduction he was like who are you he kept saying that to him um so very weird for them to be playing without him but uh i guess when they because they are touring with we uh liz banks did talk to someone

and and they were saying like you two owns all of the the the uh all of the projection the imagery imagery not they're not projected again we don't want to cut into the ticket sales but um they own all the graphics and everything and that's what they'll be taking on tour with them i'm interested to see how they do it me too you know in a non-sphere space in a non-spherical space i'll be sort of like this is flat as hell like how are you going to do this inside of a rectangle yeah um but uh yeah so he was larry mullen senior son will be on that tour the octoon he will be he'll be touring on that tour yeah um and he's he played on the new single atomic city and he's in the music video that they just shot a couple weeks yeah do you want to hear a little bit of the by the the way, the new single? Because they dropped a new single the day that we flew out there to go see it.

And it sounded pretty good live. It sounded good live, yeah. I'm a little underwhelmed by it on record, but let's hear a little bit of it. Very Clash. Mm-hmm. Very Clash. Oh, UFOs, come on, you're at home, alone There's no way to be carrying on, come on We've been in our future this long Calm, ill-ocular and sound You just have to be right one more time and you're wrong

Atomic City, Tommy Atomic Citadel I'm free Where you are is where I'll be I'm free It's all unexpectedly Come all who serve above Yeah, I mean, I don't know. It kind of, to me, he mentions Vegas at the end of it.

It felt a little like, hey, this is a song we had to put out because we're doing this show or something. I don't know. It didn't feel like, oh, we need to put this single out. It kind of felt like a contractual obligation a little bit to me, but it, but again, it sounded great live.

It did sound great live and it's, it's catchy. The, the chorus sounds like, call me. Yeah. Yeah. Like,

call me. A tip of the hat to call me. I, I thought it sounded great live and catchy song. Um, and then, um then we went to an after oh well we went to the after party at the sphere we should talk to someone that we

saw there let's give him a call what do you say? Sure okay so calling him right now. He's been on several podcasts before, including he's been a guest on such podcasts as was Scott Glenn in Species and also was Lance Henriksen in Species. He was on that podcast. Please welcome, for the first time on You Talking, You Too to me, please welcome Kyle Bornheimer.

Well, you mentioned the other two podcasts I've been on, and the only other ones I've been on are those. So this is only my third podcast. I hope I do this right. You're doing okay. So far, you're doing great. You're doing all right. All right. so we go into this party uh at this roped off little section of the sphere afterwards and um suddenly this this shadowy figure lunges at us yeah jumps out at us like assaults us

yeah like like not only physically assaults us but also sort of like mentally assaults us with just vibe assaults us yeah but yeah i would say i'm a vibe i had bad vibe ideation yeah yeah and he's like oh you guys are doing an episode well i want to i want to be on your episode and yeah and i rub my eyes comically like i'm a drunk who just saw superman for the first time yeah and. And I say, Kyle, is that you? Mm-hmm. And you're there. You're at the sphere. And this is your dream coming true.

You're on the show. Yeah, two dreams come true. Seeing you guys and then being on your show. You've had both of those in your dreams. So now, Kyle, there was a big TMZ article about the U2 thing where it listed every celebrity that was there. Were you listed? Didn't make the cut, huh? By the way, I don't know what side of the rope of this roped off area was in either.

I might have assaulted you from the wrong side of the rope. Just a big fleshy neck coming at you. It was quite a VIP experience being on the other side of the rope just a big fleshy neck coming at you it was quite a vip experience being on the other side of that rope no i did i think it was josh dumell and then they just must have skipped over me and went right to oprah huh they yeah for some reason they were doing it alphabetically and it started with josh dumell i know maybe that was it they just skipped ac just the same time they skipped the eight years what did you think of the show beautiful i mean i don't want to repeat anything as i've said i have so many thoughts as i told you behind when i assaulted you i had so many thoughts yeah you

were like i have so many thoughts i got to be on the show well get them fucking together bro because you're on i know i should have been preparing this no the spectacle of it is all over anyone can see that the spectacle of the sphere itself is anyone can kind of and it is a spectacle and it was incredible it was a real mind fuck can I say mind screw it was a real mind screw for me

your brain got fucking railed my brain got fucking railed there was you bring yourself you bring what you you bring yourself you bring your own experience into those things too so the combination of the sphere of you two of the 90s the 90s thing really messed with me so seeing that album actoon baby and then i kept contextualizing it within the 90s and then seeing it in 2023 in vegas at the sphere was i my

mind was just racing with with everything what was what was going on in the nineties for you? What was, well, I was getting really snobby about music. So first of all, I was probably not as into you too, in the early nineties, as I had been throughout the eighties.

I was probably sort of pivoting to the pavements and guided by voices of the world. It was probably, probably, uh, I remember liking on tube, maybe, but I wasn't playing

it as much as i had you know josh or tree and unforgettable fire toon baby yeah toon baby and it was just on the radio it just it was on mtv it was like part of a part of the environment you were you know of that era but i kind of i think i wasn't thinking about too much but i i think i got what they were doing it was a very ironic album was a very, it was sort of playing a lot with sort of end of the century anxiety. It was playing with celebrity. And so just, I just kept thinking of that

because I hadn't revisited it. Just if you're going to see, I would just urge people who can't make it to the sphere because they only have, what, 25 shows? I'm sure they're all sold out. Revisit that album because it's kind of fascinating

to watch or to listen to 30 years later and experience. So that's what was going through my mind a lot. You're saying if you can't go to the show, just listen to the record? Yeah, but maybe listen to the record. Oh my god. That was Kyle Bornheimer, everyone.

With color commentary. So then we leave that after party and we go to a different after party. And who's there but half of the band themselves. Fedge and Adam Clay 2000 Pounds. And Bram Vandenberg. Bram was there. Who I talked to for a second. Oh, you didn't tell me you talked to him.

What did you say to him? It was his birthday that night, by the way. That's right. They shouted him out from the stage. Quite a birthday present getting to be in U2 for a night. Was it really just a birthday present? That's it. Did they even know he could drum?

Anytime anyone who knows how to play the drums has a birthday, they get to play with you too. I have one coming up next year. I know. I'm going to learn how to play the drums. I'm not going to learn how to play. I'm just going to get up there and wing it. So what did you say to him? I said, happy birthday and slapped him in the face.

No, I just told him he did a great job because he did um well we did not talk to theg and adam because we were like even i we were trying to handicap it yeah like because look there's there's nothing more embarrassing in the world to say to someone than hi you were on my podcast because i saw some other people there look it was a star-studded event i saw some other people who were like even on the comedy bang bang podcast that i haven't seen since they were on that and i felt embarrassed saying that to them too right so i just didn't i i didn't want that look of like what yeah pod what yeah so we we didn't go up to fedge we didn't go up to uh adam played two thousand pounds yeah even though we spent we spent that nice hour with adam where

he showed us around everything but without the without an intermediate an intermediary saying like hey remember when you were on this guy's show yeah i did not want to bother either one of them but um thought they had i mean they must have been there must have been so much adrenaline pumping through their veins or vein because their main vein that it must have been nerve-wracking putting that thing on for the first time in front of people jesus i did i did get a sense that um bono had some nerves when in his stage patter, you know what I mean? Like,

because I kind of feel like it's one of these things where you have an opening date and you're just careening towards it and you're like, what the fuck is happening? And I got the sense that he was sort of like, okay, is this all going to work? Is this all coming together? And,

but mostly, I mean, there was a few little hiccups here and there, but nothing with the big tech. No, no. At one point, I heard an acoustic guitar that was being tuned or something.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. I heard that too. Like from backstage. Yeah. And that was the biggest flub there was. And then at the end, it kind of seemed like they thought they were done

and then Bono was like, let's play Beautiful Day and they all got their instruments back. But then they had so much, they had so They had so much graphics for it that I think it had to have been planned. I know. But it seemed a little rough. I don't think anyone planned for him to give a long list of thank yous that he was doing. But he did. He thanked everyone involved.

I mean, I would say if you have a chance, you have to go see this thing. If you have a chance and you have the money, go to this thing. And if you don't, then listen to the album, as Kyle Bornheimer said. The 30-year-old album.

And listen to it once. Yeah. And then throw it out. That'll do it. Great Night in Vegas. Did you gamble at all? Did you hit the tables after a little bit hearted company what'd you play i played blackjack and uh sounds like you promptly uh lost my money no it took me a while it took me a couple hours to lose my money uh but it was fun. But I did it. I sure did. I got there.

Yeah, we went to bed. We were so like, because, you know, as new parents, we're often in bed permanently exhausted by 10. And it was so last minute.

And I was the one who like got up at six to get the baby and everything. I was just like, and I wasn't drinking or anything. I was just like

sipping Diet Cokes all night going like, I got to stay awake somehow. I got to stay awake. And then even then the minute the show was over, I was just like, and I wasn't drinking or anything. I was just like sipping Diet Cokes all night going like, I got to stay awake somehow. I got to stay awake. And then even then, the minute the show was over, I was like, ah!

I was tired too. Yeah. But a great experience. Thanks for hooking it up for me. So fun. And you did all the press in order to get us those tickets. You went through the press line

and you got the talking points. Yep. And what were the talking points? There was- The sphere is an incredible experience kind of stuff. Can't wait to see what you two does with all this tech.

Did you bring up any of those talking points? I didn't say that, but- You know, I'm always trying to speak from the heart. Yeah, no, one of the gentlemen who was guiding us through the experience was we mentioned the talking points he was like oh yeah we just wrote those this morning because we realized no one had any really yeah that's so funny it's very funny they were all super nice they were oh they were so nice and everyone at the sphere was really lovely and um and all the madison square garden people are in new york are

are really cool they've hooked you up with a lot of shows they're great um so good experience anything um anything else that's it i can't wait to see see it again i thought it was really great i can't wait to listen to the album yeah which is the exact same thing as seeing this show all right so we're going to come back next week with our regularly scheduled sister show um you spring in springsteen on my bean that's right and we'll be talking about we're going through track by track if you haven't been listening this uh next episode we'll be talking about darkness on fedge of town yeah that's right darkness on fedge of town darkness on fedge of town um so we're gonna see you Darkness on Fedge of Town. Darkness on Fedge of Town.

So we're going to see you then. But until then, we hope that you find what you're looking for. Bye. Bye. We'll see you next time.