LOS ANGELES – With four billion YouTube views, a sold out national tour and the title of the “Hottest Latin Artist” today bestowed on him by Rolling Stone magazine, Bad Bunny is poised to bring his vision to an audience that has grown well beyond his home of Puerto Rico.
More details from XiteLabs ( https://xitelabs.com/):
Making it all a creative and technical reality is the domain of the team at XiteLabs. The Calabasas-based experiential visual studio that has created for artists from Tame Impala to the LA Philharmonic, is the only mainland US team tapped to translate Bad Bunny’s music into a visual spectacle. The result is a high-energy stage show that intersects popular culture, music and digital art technology. The multi-arena X100Pre tour kicked off in San Juan in March, with US dates through April 28, European dates beyond, and more being added at the time of this article.
Creative Directors Vello Virkhaus and Greg Russell, along with Producer Amish Dani and the entire XiteLabs team of digital artists and technicians produced all original content designs, programmed the live show and iMag effects using the latest real-time technology — all in an effort to explore the fertile imagination of Bad Bunny.
The three-hour, 360-degree show forges new ground in the use of real-time effects in Notch and playback from Resolume.
The tour then headed to the United States with a big multi-weekend stop in Coachella featuring a separate, one-off stage. The team built an entirely new set piece, with technical design and fabrication/supervision by Xitelabs’ Matt Guertin, to fit the staging parameters of the Coachella Music Festival. With only hours to build it onsite before each show, and minutes to execute the staging between acts, Xitelabs executed a not-so-mini miracle.
The design — a giant LED and lighted acrylic eye based on Bad Bunny’s signature icon – was created for his stage entrance, and for content that was experienced in real time. LED tiles were custom configured by Xitelabs for the outer circles of the eye and played their own content while the center of eye acted as a revolving video portal through which Bad Bunny made his dramatic entrance. In addition, the center was outfitted with custom LED panels which were re-engineered by Xitelabs to fit the shape of the eye.
As Bad Bunny continues to take home more awards, the team of XiteLabs had its eye on its own prize – a tour within a tour, both equally unique and challenging – and sure to live on in the mind’s eye of the many audiences along the way.
Tour Dates:
April 25: Las Vegas, KAOS
April 25: Billboard Music Awards, Las Vegas
April 27: Madison Square Garden
April 28: Reading, PA
Photo Credit: Courtesy of Bad Bunny / XiteLabs
