Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band in Paris

To our great delight the Wrecking Ball tour hit Paris Bercy for two days, allowing us to (re)discover a true American rock concert, traditional style, with a setup in which the audience surrounds the stage area and the singer for a total communion, which was an obvious pleasure to watch.

But since the sixty-year old rock star never ceases to reinvent himself and above all aims to satisfy his fans, the light show, once again created by Jeff Ravitz and the teams from Morpheus, in turn manufacturer, supplier and provider of technical support for the installation, had quite a few surprises in store for his fans from the get-go as well as for our eyes, which were focused on even the smallest projector rigged in the Paris venue.
For example the lighting design, always true to its warm whites and variations in intensity, innovates this year with the integration of Ayrton and Zap Technology LED moving heads, Clay Paky beams and even fog!
A brilliant production for 2012, which, whilst always focusing on the music and its performers, indulged in a few technological «infringements», whilst preserving its must-haves: colour temperatures at 3200K, “televisual” shading of the light ambiences, projectors assembled by Morpheus and spotlights galore.

The Morpheus technical lighting crew headed by Todd Ricci (right). Valère Huart, in charge of export sales at Ayrton (second from left).

We were therefore filled with wonder to meet the lighting team in situ, from operators to lighting director, not to mention the technicians. And to conclude, the icing on the cake, the American lighting designer Jeff Ravitz, who has earned numerous awards in entertainment and to whom Bruce Springsteen has been loyal for nearly 30 years, spoke to us about his choices that are always in agreement with those of the performer.

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TODD AND HIS LIGHTING KIT

By introducing a large number of innovations this year, the large rig gives the wash projectors the priority by entrusting the major task of the show’s ambiences and colours to the WildSun 500 C, associated with other innovative LED sources such as the L2D2 LED head from Zap Technology, or the Philips bars and converters, which reduce the power consumption of an installation with numerous discharge lamps that use a lot of energy.

Todd Ricci, lighting director. He is the one who follows the tour and who adapts the lighting kit to the venues and Jeff Ravitz’s concept to the old titles that the artist chooses to sing.

SLU : Todd, what is your job here?

Todd Ricci : I am the lighting director and field designer. Each time we need to create a new design for specific songs, I step in. We adapt Jeff Ravitz’s concept as the days go by, in accordance with Bruce Springsteen’s wishes.

The Wildsun treat us to wonderful colours. This time, the concept places the band in the background in order to focus on Bruce Springsteen.

0998. Wildsun 500C Ayrton, VL3000 and VL2500 for stage lighting.