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Hours before U2 open their residency at Las Vegas’ MSG Sphere, the band have officially shared the video for their new single “Atomic City,” which they premiered live on the streets of Sin City two weeks ago.
“Atomic City” takes its title from Las Vegas’ nickname during the days of nuclear bomb testing in the 1950s, when tourism spiked both from gambling and the ability to view the tests in the desert outskirts of the city.
When U2 debuted the song during a pop-up concert on Fremont Street, Bono described the track as a “rock n’ roll 45 [rpm single] in the tradition of late-Seventies post-punk, Blondie, the Clash.”
The “Atomic City” video finds U2 returning to Fremont Street decades after the band filmed some of their“I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking” videoalong the same road in April 1987. (The visual also features drummer Larry Mullen Jr., who, while performing on the studio version and in the video, won’t accompany the band to the MSG Sphere for the U2 UV: Achtung Baby shows due to recent back surgeries.)
“Atomic City” marks U2’s first new track since “Your Song Saved My Life,” the band’s contribution to the Sing 2 soundtrack.
The group will kick off its residency tonight, September 29, with roughly 20 shows scheduled through December, when the residency – as of now – comes to an end.
“My hope is that this will be a kind of quantum leap forward in the sense of what a concert can be,” the Edge previouslytoldRolling Stone of the Sphere shows.
