Eagles, UFC, Taylor Swift: Baz Halpin designs it all | Cats | Entertainment

The most eagle Fans have been following the band for decades. Many have seen performances from the 1970s. But the man who staged their most ambitious show is not one of them.

Baz Halpins The first Eagles show was last November in Raleigh, NC

“I wanted to see them on their ‘Long Goodbye’ tour and I kind of thought, ‘Okay, it’s going to be a classic rock ‘n’ roll band playing a few songs,'” Halpin says during a recent phone chat. “But they blew me away. Partly because you still know every single song, and partly because her performance is just incredibly memorable.

“I didn’t want the concert to end.”

Ah, but it was just the beginning. Halpin, who directed Taylor Swift’s “Eras Tour” and the Super Bowl halftime show starring Usher would become part of the Eagles’ legacy.

As founder and CEO of the renowned design and production company Silent House Group, Halpin has since created a captivating experience. The show is a success in every way. On Wednesday, the band extended its Spherical Las Vegas commitment to March 7-8 and March 14-15.

A smart veteran

Halpin is familiar with Las Vegas shows and productions internationally. He designed Cher’s show at the Coliseum from 2007 to 2008 and Katy Perry’s “Play” at Resorts World Theater, which ran from 2021 to 2023.

Halpin’s ongoing Vegas spectacle “Awakening” at Wynn underwent a makeover last year. The show is still being tweaked, tailored and tweaked.

“Awakening is doing great as it goes from strength to strength, and we continue to add to and evolve the show,” says Halpin. “We set out to find some incredible acts. There have been improvements that we call housekeeping. This is not a show that sits and simmers. For anyone who has seen it in the last six months, it will be completely different when they see it again.”

In the longer term

The Eagles’ extension isn’t exactly shocking. Chairman and CEO of Sphere Entertainment James Dolan says, “Look, they can play as long as they want.”

Halpin didn’t headline an Eagles show before Vegas, but he has a longstanding relationship with longtime Eagles manager and entertainment star Irving Azoff. Azoff has been a showbiz executive for the past six decades and now runs the entertainment company Full Stop with his son Jeffrey. The company has supplied U2, Phish and Dead & Company to Sphere.

“I have a long relationship with Irving, dating back to around 2003. The first artist of his I ever worked with was Christina Aguileraback when she made the Stripped album,” Halpin says. “Irving and Jeffrey called me and said, ‘We’re thinking about playing the Eagles at the Sphere. Why don’t you go and see them on tour?’”

Halpin was sold immediately. Zoom meetings with the band became in-person gatherings, focusing on the music while developing the “pretty pictures.” Don Henley refers during the show.

“They were very good at putting the set list together and understanding the complexities of Sphere, which is as complicated and highly technical as you would expect,” says Halpin. “They really embraced it.”

The opening of Hotel California “basically, almost verbatim, came from Don’s mouth,” Halpin says. “He said, ‘I want to start here, I want to see the car in the distance. “I want to see a hotel and it should be dilapidated. He was very specific, right down to the look of the wallpaper.”

Even the car driving along the dark desert highway had to have the right look and feel. It appears to be a ’67 Chevy Impala Super Sport Convertible.

Joe Walsh explained how he wanted “In The City” to be presented. The rock legend explained that the song is about optimism, that there is something else out there beyond towering walls.

“I kind of said, ‘Like light at the end of the tunnel?’ And that’s when I came up with the idea of ​​enveloping the city and rising up through this huge prison of skyscrapers,” Halpin says, “and then breaking through and seeing this utopian nature outside the city.”

The peaceful and whimsical Eagles show has a different vibe than the other event Halpin has hosted at the Sphere. His company also produced UFC 306. That was just a week before the Eagles performed “Peaceful, Easy Feeling” to a sold-out crowd at the Sphere.

“It was just wild. “Doing one thing right after the other was kind of crazy,” Halpin says. “For me, the UFC was undoubtedly a new paradigm in sports entertainment.”

The show attracted a sellout crowd of 16,024, a UFC record $22 million. Merchandise sales were the highest ever for the organization.

“You need someone like Dana White to have a vision for something like that, and you’re like, ‘Holy cow, I would never think of that,'” Halpin says. “It was so incredibly powerful, was so well received and was just a great experience.”

Can UFC return? One gets the impression that this was a once-in-a-lifetime experience even for the adventurous white man.

“Can it come back?” “Yes, there is virtually no reason not to do it again,” says Halpin. “But I have no idea if Dana wanted that. It was something very special. I would definitely like to do it again.”

Cool hang alarm

Las Vegas mainstay and the world’s most famous juggler, Penn Jillette, will kick off the screening of “Night of the Living Dead” on October 23rd at 7pm at the Beverly Theater in downtown Las Vegas. Jillette is a huge Romero fan and the classic horror film is presented in 4K restoration. Magic, humor, classic zombie action and bowling at the snack bar. For more information, visit thebeverlytheater.com.

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John Katsilometes’ column appears daily in the A section. His “PodKats!” The podcast can be found at reviewjournal.com/podcasts. Contact him at [email protected]. Follow @johnnykats on X, @JohnnyKats1 on Instagram.