What’s New at Las Vegas Residency?

For the opening track of the evening, Useless & Firm performed a canopy they’ve by no means performed since their 2015 formation: The Spencer Davis Group’s “Gimme Some Lovin’.” Trying again within the Setlist.fm archives, the Grateful Useless carried out the track dozens of instances between 1988 and 1990. Whereas attempting to see when else the quilt had been deployed, Billboard discovered a fan discussion board discussing what occurred to the band enjoying the track, with one commenter writing: “That ought to undoubtedly get dusted off and performed once more within the Useless world!” Your want has been granted.

Of the evening 1 setlist, “Gimme Some Lovin’” was the one track that wasn’t additionally performed at the least as soon as throughout final 12 months’s reveals.

One of many coolest visible updates got here through the third track of the evening, “Bertha,” when a grid of the band’s colourful Dancing Bears stored zooming in earlier than morphing into multicolor pixels that made up movies of the band enjoying reside. The consequence was nearly like sporting night-vision goggles, the place you might make out the shapes of Mayer strumming his guitar or Hart banging on the drums in a kaleidoscope of kinetic colours. It was the proper mixture of the band’s nostalgic imagery with the cutting-edge prospects of the Sphere.

One of the vital notable visuals from the primary residency was the establishing shot in San Francisco’s Haight-Ashbury neighborhood that zooms out right into a disorienting drone shot of the entire Bay Space earlier than whisking the gang into outer area. It’s a hanging, gorgeous first impression that makes you query which method is up, and that picture well remained (throughout track 2, “Mississippi Half-Step Uptown Toodeloo”) for the 2025 opening evening.

However the band had a brand new trick up its sleeve to go away the gang in awe but once more. For set 1 closing quantity “Don’t Ease Me In,” previous CRT televisions started stacking on prime of one another onscreen all the best way to the Sphere ceiling… just for one big TV to tumble down from the highest of the stack towards the gang in jarringly sensible vogue. The second left followers holding their arms as much as cease the imaginary tv from crashing down on them and despatched a loud, in-unison “whoa!” up by the gang earlier than an eruption of cheers on the wildly profitable phantasm.

For the second track after a 30-minute intermission, “Scarlet Begonias,” a brand new video options six individuals sporting absurdist masks and costumes all staring down on the stage and the gang. In varied scenes, they maintain a tv display that options grainy footage of the band, they usually alternate positions – typically dancing collectively, typically standing utterly nonetheless like statues or draping their our bodies over chairs and couches. They nearly regarded like Teletubbies in human type, and it really made for probably the most surreal second of an general surreal evening. Can we please get a full thesis on the symbolism behind every of those weird characters?

Uncle Sam is again on his motorbike, however his journey has a brand new closing vacation spot this 12 months. After driving by a pastel, cartoon world, he emerges on the fringe of a canyon earlier than making his strategy to a Useless-branded model of the Sphere’s dwelling of Las Vegas, together with the “Terra-Pin Bowl” bowling alley, a billboard for the “Darkstar Lodge & On line casino, Useless Forward,” and an indication for “Shakedown Road.” The present begins and ends in San Francisco, however it takes a becoming detour to the band’s new dwelling of Sin Metropolis.

SET 1
Gimme Some Lovin’
Mississippi Half-Step Uptown Toodeloo
Bertha
New Speedway Boogie
Brown-Eyed Girls
Good Lovin’
Don’t Ease Me In

SET 2
Really feel Like a Stranger
Scarlet Begonias
Hearth On the Mountain
Terrapin Station
Drums
Area
Standing on the Moon
Althea
Going Down the Street Feeling Unhealthy
Knockin’ On Heaven’s Door
Contact of Gray

March 21, 22

March 27, 28, 29

April 17, 18, 19

April 24, 25, 26

Might 9, 10, 11

Might 15, 16, 17