U2 hint at a Super Bowl comeback

LAS VEGAS – U2 are returning to the concert scene later this year for the first time since 2019, but without one of the original quartet as drummer Larry Mullen Jr. is on the injured list.

The band hinted at a resurgence on the biggest stage – in an ad that aired during the Super Bowl on Sunday – and announced they would be playing a series of shows this fall to open the new MSG Sphere in Las Vegas.

The concerts will be dedicated to the band’s 1991 album “Achtung Baby”.

“We need to get back on stage and see the faces of our fans again,” band members Bono, The Edge and Adam Clayton said in a statement Sunday.

No dates other than Las Vegas have been announced, though it’s unlikely the show will be built for just one city. In 2017 and 2019, the band made a world concert tour based on their album “Joshua Tree”.

Mullen is possibly the group’s founder; the four members met in his kitchen in Dublin to answer an ad he had posted on the high school’s bulletin board looking for musicians. U2 did not elaborate on his health issues, but a November report from The Washington Post stated that the drummer had neck and elbow problems requiring surgery.

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Only twice before had the band taken the stage without all four members – when Clayton missed a show in Australia for health reasons in 1993 and after Mullen broke his leg in a motorcycle accident in 1978, according to Bono’s book Surrender.

Mullen will be replaced in Las Vegas by Dutch drummer Bram van den Berg.

Next month, U2 plans to release the “Songs of Surrender” CD, containing re-recorded and reimagined versions of 40 songs from their catalog.

Edge said he was impressed with the state of the art sound and video system being built for MSG Sphere. “We all thought about it and decided that we would go crazy if we didn’t accept the invitation,” he said.