LAS VEGAS — Sphere at the Venetian is truly a visual and sonic marvel. The bubble-like theater for about 20,000 along the Las Vegas Strip is 580,000 square feet, 366 feet tall and contains 1.2 million LED lights. There are hundreds of speakers hidden within its all-absorbing IMAX-like screen, delivering precision audio to each seat. It was so impressive, in fact, that headliners U2, who opened a three-month residency there on Friday and followed it with another on Saturday, were barely noticeable for the first eight-song act of their Saturday performance.

The amazing sound and crystal-clear imagery—especially on show highlight “Even Better Than the Real Thing”— made everyone look up, up, up while Bono, The Edge, bassist Adam Clayton and fill-in drummer Bram van den Berg did their thing below. It was the kind of total performance that could be its own special on Disney+. The band could have been backstage, or the music could have been piped in from a CD; it was still that good.

But luckily, after this first batch of songs from 1991 album Achtung Baby, U2 showed time and time again that they can move even non-fans live in concert solely with their music and charisma. Even better: When the spectacular visuals returned for the final arc of the show, they complemented rather than overpowered the band, accomplishing one of U2’s missions for the project.

The show is titled “U2:UV Achtung Baby Live At The Sphere.” It features the band performing its hit 1991 album broken up with a short acoustic set in the middle, and concluded with a set of other hits.

As announced months ago, drummer Larry Mullen, Jr., dealing with an injury, is skipping these shows. Dutch drummer Bram van den Berg, filled in admirably through the Saturday show. His drumming, at times more powerful than Mullen’s, fit right in alongside the rest of the band.

Sphere is basically an indoor amphitheater, with four levels of seats and the top level being amazingly steep. U2’s box-shaped stage was made to resemble a turntable with a circular platform on top. Bono had his own smaller rotating platform. Each of these platforms cycled through numerous lighting combinations “generated by an algorithm.” Fitting into the setting of Achtung Baby, the screen resembled East German brutalism with humungous tarnished-looking concrete slabs reaching upward. At the top was a Greek-inspired cupola.

As the band sauntered onto the stage, about 10 minutes late, beams of light broke through in the cracks between these slabs, which shifted just as Bono picked up a pair of “fly” shades on stage and the band kicked into “Zoo Station.” Large images flashed on the screen to resemble the band’s performances from its ZooTV days. Bono hopped onto the spinning platform and slowly revolved, holding onto an attached mic stand.

“All the creatures are out tonight,” he purred, in character as the Fly.

“The Fly” followed with the song’s signature platitudes flashing across the screen in quick succession. Overload was the goal, of course, but during no other tours have the visuals overpowered the band. A series of codes in many colors then climbed up to the top of the massive screen.

The psychedelic visuals for “Even Better Than the Real Thing” will be an instant talking point. The slow-motion avalanche of skin, camp, Elvis and everything else under the sun were so detailed and multidimensional that this writer didn’t once have a chance to see what the band was up to on stage.

Following the solid “Mysterious Ways,” the screen filled with a nighttime scene of lights for “One,” which was probably placed perfectly in this set. Bono has been in a habit of making this his speech song, leading to 10-minute renditions that included his many causes. That didn’t happen here, and the song was made more interesting with a snippet of Elvis’ “Love Me Tender.”

The blistering “Until the End of the World,” with images of a flag composed of flames; and “Who’s Gonna Ride Your Wild Horses,” which showed the band members being showered with burning embers, were also a potent pair. On the former, four tall crane lighting rigs bent over, their glowing eyes making them look like menacing praying mantises—insect and animal imagery was plentiful in the production. Bono later spoke about saving the planet and its animal life.

The opening act concluded with “Tryin’ to Throw Your Arms Around the World.” A swing that resembled a bunch of tied sheets was then rocketed upward. Bono made a few laps around the stage before selecting a young lady to go swinging. But only after she was on the stage did he realize this wasn’t going to work—she was wearing a dress. Instead he promised her a raincheck.

“It’s the end of side one,” Bono said. “We’ll get to side two later.”

But something peculiar happened during the next act, which consisted of a handful of acoustic-led songs from older albums. Many U2 fans who see this band often complain about the band skipping more rockers in favor of slower ballads. But each of the tunes U2 performed on Saturday (same as on Friday; the setlist has remained largely identical so far) hit right on the money. And these songs, which began with a goosebump-inducing “All I Want Is You,” traded the amazing visuals for a simple video of the band members at work. Bono had the crowd sing the first verse and later a chorus, He later added a bit of Lou Reed’s “Walk On The Wild Side,” dedicating it to Las Vegas’ burlesque dancers.

“Desire” and “Angel of Harlem” also struck gold.

“Did you hear those whispers?” Bono asked attendees sitting higher up, in reference to the amazing acoustics. “It cost $2.3 billion to hear those whispers.”

“Love Rescue Me,” which Bono and Edge performed by themselves with Edge on bass, was also a highlight. And before the acoustic set overstayed its welcome, the band was right back to Achtung Baby songs. Only this time, the visuals stayed relatively simple. That allowed the audience to focus on the album’s under-appreciated “So Cruel.” The passionate and heart-aching song started slowly but continued to build until it reached an impassioned burn.

The momentum and pressure kept building through “Acrobat,” “Ultraviolet (Light My Way)” and “Love Is Blindness.” The latter included a short, somber cover of “Viva Las Vegas.”

In the third act, the art-wizardry returned. It included songs like “Elevation” with a snippet of “My Way” and new tune “Atomic City,” which was paired with a life-like video of Las Vegas being deconstructed.

During “Vertigo,” there came a moment where I briefly forgot that we were all indoors. I won’t spoil the surprise. On “Where the Streets Have No Name,” the setting changed to the American Southwest. Bono started the song with a bit of “Moment of Surrender”—other than “Atomic City,” it was U2’s most recent song featured in the set, from 2009. The song also featured one moment—pairing visuals with the song’s climax—akin to flying up to heaven (only this heaven included lots of birds, fish and bugs).

The group concluded with “With or Without You” and “Beautiful Day.”

Pauli “The PSM” Lovejoy, who’s also Harry Styles’ drummer and bandleader, opened the show with a DJ set that started off great with the green-wigged artist spinning popular dance tunes and a couple of U2 remixes from a moving Trabant that had been reconfigured as his DJ booth. As the vehicle slid along, he high-fived fans.

But as U2 was delayed more and more, and his song selection devolved into American classic rock, a noticeable chunk of the audience actually started booing.

Follow Roman Gokhman at Twitter.com/RomiTheWriter.