One minute it’s a huge yellow emoji poking up from the asphalt and winking at you and a second later it’s a blob of lava lamp colors swirling above the Las Vegas skyline. Get inside the Las Vegas Sphere, however, and the spectacle meter gets cranked up to 11 (I hope that Spinal Tap reference landed). I just returned from seeing Dead and Company with a four-decade Grateful Dead-loving friend, and days later I’m still scrolling through pictures and video marveling at it.
Oh, if Elvis were still alive. I’ve loved the music of The Grateful Dead since the late 80’s and was lucky enough to see dozens of shows when Jerry Garcia was still alive and probably close to that many in the various incarnations of the band since. I’ve seen them perform as close as Saratoga and Albany and as far away as Buffalo and Washington, D.
C. I’ve been up close and in the very back of the stadium where the sound didn’t match the moving mouths on the video screen. But NEVER have I experienced a show that was so immersive as the Sphere provided.
While waiting in line in 110-degree (record setting for this time of year) heat, I zoomed in with my phone camera to see what the exterior lights looked like up close. Picture the end of an LED flashlight stuck to a giant snow globe and multiply it by a gazillion. It’s not a screen at all.
Once inside, there’s a wide-open atrium area with escalators to ascend you to your seat – and tons of Sphere workers oddly hoisting ping pong paddle signs .
