The last time – the only other time – I saw the Irish band U2 in concert, I was sitting with my wife amid nose-bleed seats in the upper-most deck of what was then called Seattle’s Qwest (now Lumen) Field.

That was in 2011, and being a long-time U2 fan I was disappointed. I could barely see Bono, The Edge and the other two – bassist Adam Clayton and drummer Larry Mullen Jr. – all of whom looked like Lego characters moving mechanically and distantly around the stage.

Even worse, the sound was garbled. I could make out the tunes, but only barely. And that was a shame. Going all that way and spending a fair amount of money, even for third-rate seats, just hadn’t been worth the effort.

So I was reluctant to believe that my second experience would be any better. But, as has happened so many times before, I was wrong. And that’s because the new venue was something special.

It’s called The Sphere.

If that sounds familiar, it’s because The Sphere has become one of the most publicized event venues in Las Vegas. It opened in September, and it’s been the site of a U2 home stand since then (the lads, with Dutch drummer Bram van den Berg sitting in for Mullen, will play through March).

I’ve written the past couple of blog posts about the weeklong vacation my wife, Mary Pat, and I took recently in Las Vegas, keying on all the non-gaming activities we were hoping to pursue. I talked about playing golf (three different times), about going to the Mob Museum, about seeing a movie at the artsy Beverly Theater, about exploring two area state Parks – Valley of Fire and Red Rock Canyon – as well as eating out at various restaurants such as the Carson Kitchen.

For the record, we also ate at the Chinglish Winebar (good fusion Asian food), La Strega (tasty neo-Italian food), the Buffet at the Wynn Las Vegas (pricey but deliciously diverse and prone to enticing one to embrace gluttony) and the Yardbird Table & Bar (a decent variation on Southern cooking).

It was at The Yardbird that we ate just before heading to The Sphere. But before I get into that, I want to talk about another couple of other curious places that we visited over the week. One was a museum – a self-described “boneyard,” so to speak – that celebrates a (pardon the pun) “bright” aspect of Las Vegas history. The other was an immersive art experience.

Let’s begin with a bit of artistic immersion called Meow Wolf, which had been suggested to us by my Going Mobile colleague Leslie Kelly. Owned by a group that was founded in Santa Fe, N.M., in 2008, Meow Wolf is set in Las Vegas’ Omega Mart, part of what’s described as an “entertainment complex” called Area15.

Omega Mart may be “an interactive grocery store that blends narrative storytelling, technical wizardry, and commerce,” as Wikipedia explains it, But it’s all that and more. Secret doors from the store installation open to multiple levels of artsy light shows, an engaging interactive puzzle, plus other bizarre effects.

Then we toured the “Boneyard,” which is how our guide described the Neon Museum, an outdoor garden of neon lights – not all of them in working order – that once graced Las Vegas’ streets. The nonprofit that runs the place has collected everything from signs once set over casinos such as the Moulin Rouge to the gigantic sign that marked the spot of the now-closed Hard Rock Café.

As a writer from the Las Vegas Weekly wrote, “Over the years, the Neon Museum has made efforts to connect the signs in its Neon Boneyard to the greater history of Las Vegas – to illuminate the lives of the people who have lived and labored underneath these glowing giants since the day they were switched on.”

(I should add that we also took in a show, at the Wynn, called “Awakening.” And it’s as complex and eye-opening a spectacle for something that supports as simplistic a storyline as I have ever seen. Enough said there.)

The highlight of our trip, though, was The Sphere, the venue that seats some 18,000 people and which sits like a giant eye (at times) east of The Strip, next to The Venetian resort complex.

As one story describes it, “The entire spherical façade acts as a giant screen, fitted with 1.2 million LEDs, which can be programmed to display dynamic images and animations, transforming the building into an attraction point in … a city that already boasts eye-catching features such as Bellagio's dancing fountains or the half-scale replica of the Eiffel Tower.”

There is nothing cheap about The Sphere, especially the tickets. Most of us would have to think hard about whether we’re going to want to shell out hundreds (and hundreds) of dollars to attend anything there.

Which the two of us were willing to do, at least this once. Showing some restraint, we opted for seats on a lower level that, unfortunately, limited our ability to experience the full Sphere effect. The overhang caused by the upper levels shaded us from much of the digital light show that can fill a full half of the wall that backs the proscenium stage.

But we saw enough to thrill us, a fact to which the photograph that accompanies this blog can attest. At times, even with our view somewhat obscured, the magic of the Sphere came blasting at us.

And regardless, what I really came for was the music. And the sound as experienced from our seats was as good as any indoor-arena-type concert that I’ve attended. Certainly it matched, and even surpassed, what I heard at the Paul McCartney show last May in the Spokane Arena.

Even a few blocks removed from The Strip, one of the most neon-splashed areas in the world, I could bask in the glow of a place – again pardon my tendency to use a play on words – “Where the Streets Have No Name.”

No name, that is, except for The Sphere.