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FOH Interview
It seems a fitting way to begin a new
year. More than five years ago, as the
very first issue of FOH was just starting
to take form, I met and spent the day
hanging with John Cooper at the Forum
in Los Angeles where he was getting
ready for his first L.A. show with Bruce
Springsteen. The result of that afternoon
was the very first FOH Interview ever.
That show sported a huge JBL VerTec
rig courtesy of Audio Analysts who have
been the sound providers for The Boss
since 1991. This latest swing — the Magic
Tour — has the same foundation, just
bigger, with more than 120 boxes in the
air for arenas, and still, that is sometimes
not enough. When I met up with John at
the show in Philly (during AES in October
— the trip from NYC and back was an adventure,
including getting lost in Camden,
N.J., trying to get back to the city.
But that’s a story for another time…), he
told me that it was loud inside, and that it
From solo acoustic to full-blown rock — on tour with “The Boss”
wasn’t about the P.A. Knowing that stage
volume is always a concern with Bruce’s
three-guitar attack, I asked about it. “The
guitars are loud,” he says, “but that is not
the issue. It’s the crowd. Sometimes they
are so loud that I have a hard time getting
the band up above the crowd.”
“It’s the crowd. Sometimes they are
so loud that I have a hard time
getting the band up above the crowd.”
— John Cooper
18
This is the first E Street Band tour in
a while, but there was an acoustic jaunt
and The Seeger Sessions shows. The last
time we talked was the stadium leg of
The Rising tour.
At the time we got together, the tour
was just starting. Philly was in the first
week of official shows that you could buy
tickets for, and some details were still being
tweaked. For example, the original
staging had a lighting truss positioned
directly in front of the line array, where
the spot operators were stationed. Besides
inspiring pity for the lampies who
were directly in the line of fire, it made
for a challenge at the front of house posi-
JANUARY 2008 www.fohonline.com
tion. That positioning was set to change
on the next tour stop. On any tour of this
size, you make adjustments as you go.
Here’s a look at how Coop is doing it this
time around.
FOH: OK, let’s start with the particulars
and a little review. Tell us about the
tour and how long you have been with
Springsteen.
John Cooper: It’s hard to believe that
I’ve been mixing Bruce now for more than
six years. Rehearsals for this tour started
in September in Asbury Park, N.J., at
Convention Hall, On the beach! The first
hard-ticket show was in Hartford, Conn.
— although we did some charity shows
in Asbury Park and The Meadowlands.
What else have you been doing to stay
busy since then?
Frankly, I try to stay home as much as
possible and spend time with my sons.
But when I have to, I will venture out. I
mixed Dashboard Confessional on a couple
of tours in 2004; I mixed Patti Scialfa
(Bruce’s wife). I did a lot of fill-ins and
one-offs, and last summer, I spent a couple
of weeks with STYX. Then it was on to
system engineering responsibilities with
Projekt Revolution working with Pooch.
That backed right into the Magic tour.
During that time, Bruce also did two
other major tours of the U.S. and Europe.
By BillEvans
Magic Tour crew. Back row left to right: System Tech Ray Tittle, Monitor Engineer SL Monty Carlo, System Engineer Europe
Klass “Bob” Bolender, System Tech Rob Zuchhowski. Front row: System Engineer John “Boo” Bruey, FOH Engineer John
Cooper, System & Protools Engineer Brett Dicus, Monitor Engineer SR Troy Milner.
In 2005, it was Devils & Dust (a solo acoustic
show that still managed to be more
than 30 inputs) and last year’s The Seeger
Sessions tour with an 18-piece band. So I
stay as busy as I want to be.
What kind of system are you driving this
time around?
The Magic tour is once again an amazing
Audio Analysts rig with packing and
infrastructure that is very flexible to use
and easy to move around. The P.A. is 64 JBL
VerTec 4889s and 32 4880s for mains and
sides, with eight JBL 4887s as front fill.
Another 48 JBL 4887s are spread across four
columns around the back of the arena. The
show seats in 360 degrees with the stage at
the end of the arena, and all shows are sold
to capacity. At the front end, we are using all
Crown iTech amps with Dolby Lake processors
with full Crown IQ control.
You recently made the switch to the
Digidesign Venue.
Yes, and I have been very pleased with
the change. I’m using a 96-channel Profile
with no external hardware whatsoever for
the mixing — all plug-ins, which is a first
for me. It really is a great way to work. The
sound quality is amazing. We also have a
ProTools HD4 rig out for multitrack capture
of all shows, which we archive and send to
the vaults.