Aha, Bono, Larry Jr., The Edge and Adam — and so we meet again!

On a cold winter day in 1981, as my forgettable band Sparkle was loading out of a Dallas nightclub called Sneaky Pete's in the Medallion Center shopping plaza, we cut across the vast parking lot and by another rock joint called the Bijou — where a band was getting ready to load in. I was jealous because whoever it was had their own van, unlike our pickup trucks.

The "rival" group members were standing around, waiting on someone to unlock the stage door, and I could read the lips of one of the "rival" band dudes: "Hey, there goes Sparkle!"

That didn't happen, of course. What did, though, was that I took note of the name of the rival band on the Bijou marquee. U2. 

In those 37 years since what I call The Parking Lot Encounter, these U2 people have done pretty well for themselves, and I assume they won't be hanging around any vans on Tuesday when they hit the Mohegan Sun Arena on their eXPERIENCE + iNNOCENCE Tour. 

As with similarly visionary artists from the Beatles and Brian Wilson to Prince and Bowie, U2 have continually reinvented themselves to keep it all fresh and, to themselves, at least, interesting. That includes their most recent albums, last year's very good "Songs of Experience" and 2014's excellent "Songs of Innocence."

Inasmuch as the pair were divided by a long tour in support of the 30th anniversary of "The Joshua Tree," which presented that album entirely as well as a "greatest hits" component, attendees of the Sun show should expect much more of an emphasis on newer material.

If this dissuades you, so be it. But know this: it's going to be really, really good. The set list will be excellent, and the show will be staged in multiple performance areas with brain-chomping technical effects and innovations. You'll dig it; I'd stake my Sparkle-era pickup truck on it.

U2, 8 p.m. Tuesday, Mohegan Sun Arena; $41-$325; 1-800-745-3000.