The return of Weekends with Adele: behind the scenes in Vegas

L-Acoustics help Adele on take 2 of her infamous 4,000 seat Vegas residency

“Adele is very aware of the importance of sound quality—it’s always been a high priority on her earlier tours,” says Johnny Keirle, the production’s system engineer, who began touring with Adele in 2016 and has also worked on past tours with Billie Eilish and P!NK in similar roles. “We began the conversation about using L-ISA early on with Adele and her management team.” Although there had been some initial caution on the subject of budget, he recalls, a demo of the system in London followed by further discussions with production manager Paul English very quickly led to a decision that the immersive environment that L-ISA brings would add a valuable and unparalleled sense of intimacy to her performances. “With tight load in and out times of only 72 hours, this production is quite literally a 40-truck stadium show being staged in a remarkably intimate 4,100-capacity theatre each weekend,” says Paul English. “But the size of the room is only part of the equation. L-ISA gives us the best quality sound for this show and perfectly helps foster Adele’s personal connection with her audiences.” Keirle and FOH engineer Dave Bracey quickly established a workflow for themselves. Keirle created a combination of automated and manual movements for each song in the processors, while Bracey concentrated on perfecting the mix of the vocals, band, and orchestra. “Johnny and I collaborate through L-ISA in a very unique way—it’s not the typical relationship between a front-of-house and system engineer, and he’s not doing a typical system engineering role,” Bracey explains. “He has creative input into the show’s sound. We discussed how we should approach every song in the set, and he created a series of automated and manual snapshots that fit the song and the production. He takes my mix and places it into the Scene, creating an immersive template that I’m mixing into. It’s a very new way to approach a live music mix, and it’s thrilling.” In terms of philosophy, Keirle and Bracey follow Adele’s dynamic cues, generally starting songs quietly—often with just a solo piano and voice—keeping the immersive soundstage relatively tapered and focused center stage. The soundscape then widens and deepens as additional musicians and sounds are introduced and revealed.