Eagles’ Joe Walsh has shared the challenges of performing at the Las Vegas Sphere, and revealed that there was one issue that almost became a ‘deal-breaker’ for the band.
“It’s very different onstage,” Walsh admitted during a recent interview with Rolling Stone. “There are some non-musical things that we have to put up with to make it all work, and we’re OK with that. We’ve had to learn how to do it. At first it was maybe a deal-breaker, but we’ve learned how to do it.”
“On the Sphere there’s 160,000 speakers behind the screen,” he continued. “No matter where you sit, you have speakers pointing at you, so they don’t have to be really loud. To do that, computers have to delay it a little bit from what we’re doing. Because it goes to everywhere in the Sphere and comes out of these speakers all at the same time, there’s a delay there to process that.”
“If we’re aware of that, we can’t play. It’s like singing the national anthem at a baseball stadium. [The sound from] right field comes right back at you, and then left field comes back at you, and then center field. There’s three of you and you don’t know which one you are,” Walsh added.
Delayed speakers can make performing on stage confusing. Walsh also clarified that Eagles use special in-ear monitors so that they can hear themselves clearly.
The band started their residency at the advanced venue in September as part of their farewell tour. However, they had to adapt to make these shows work.
Eagles will continue their weekend performances at the Sphere through 2025. Originally scheduled to end in late January, the residency has been extended due to high demand. The final concert is now set for March 15.