Ayrton Rivale Light Up Red Rocks Amphitheatre for Three Nights of Brandi Carlile in Concert

Grammy and Emmy Award-winning singer-songwriter Brandi Carlile returned to Morrison, Colorado’s Red Rocks Amphitheatre for three back-to-back concerts, September 5-7.  André Petrus acted as Lighting Designer and Programmer for the shows, which featured 88 Ayrton Rivale provided by Brown Note Productions in Thornton, Colorado.  ACT Entertainment is the exclusive distributor of Ayrton lighting in North America.

Brandi Carlile’s Red Rocks shows have become legendary among her followers.  Her past performances at the venue were praised for their raw authenticity, strong vocals and the electric connection she shares with the audience, and her new three-night run promised more of the same.

Petrus, a Lighting and Production Designer who heads Nashville-based Outrage Media Group, has been using Ayrton fixtures for at least a decade but had not previously deployed Rivale.  “I actually asked for a different fixture, but Brown Note recommended Rivale,” says Petrus.  “I’m cool with anything from Ayrton and had heard only good things about Rivale so I knew they would do what I needed to do.”

Although Petrus did not have a history with Carlile he had worked with Sandbox Management, which teamed with Carlile’s Phantom Management on the event.  His concept for the concert lighting was to use the venue’s unique rocky landscape as a set piece with no screens upstage and lighting illuminating the artist and the scenery.  

“I was surprised to hear the Red Rocks team tell me that nobody ever really utilizes the scenery there,” Petrus recalls.  “A Red Rocks date is usually a stop on a tour, so the performance is not built around the venue and there’s usually something upstage blocking the scenery.  We got compliments about how they’d never seen the rocks lit the way we did.”

The 88 Rivale were the rig’s main moving lights and were positioned “everywhere,” according to Petrus.  “They were shin lights, they were upstage in a ground row to give depth, they acted as the main key and back lights.  Rivale were also mounted on three layers of truss running upstage to downstage to give yet another layer of depth and texture.”

He notes that PBS was shooting a special about the concerts so TV lighting was also a factor for the shows.  “I generally light everything I do to be suitable for television since I come from that background and want everything to photograph really well.”

Petrus’s first experience with Rivale won’t be his last.  “For their size they are a great solution for medium to large-scale shows.  The optics are great and so is the color saturation.  They lit the scenery very well, and I was super pleased with what I got.  I only wish we had a controlled environment – using atmosphere would have showcased the fixtures even more.”

Brown Note also supplied Petrus with active and  backup full-size grandMA3 consoles with three medium PUs.  “I’ve used grandMA for most of my professional career and have my own grandMA3 for programming in my studio.”