I received an interesting note from one of my correspondents, KBar, that gave me a chuckle so I thought to share it.Enjoy.
A long, long time ago I used to be a sound/lighting designer and worked for a number of Boston-area bands. I still have some friends in the business and, when I needed a little extra money, I called up a couple of them to see if maybe they had a little work they could throw my way.
I was in luck. They had been contracted to be the production company for an outdoor performance of the bands Counting Crows, Collective Soul and Live. The concert was yesterday (8/17/07) at the Fisher Cats minor league baseball stadium in Manchester, NH.
They needed a lot of extra help.
I arrived at the stadium promptly at 8:30am to find things right on schedule... the stage had been assembled, a temporary loading dock had been assembled, ramps connecting them were in place and the 18-wheelers carrying the bands' gear were arriving at the dock to be unloaded.
My first job was to assist in making sure the right crates were loaded on to the right areas of the stage. Then we started unpacking the crates, assembled the 3 main lighting trusses and attached the lighting fixtures while the upriggers were working overhead to attach the 2 ton chain lifts to the stage ceiling. All in all, we assembled nearly 6 tons of lighting equipment in only a couple of hours.
The next job for me was to assist the lead sound engineer in directing the labor monkeys on moving the main PA speaker units in to place and attaching them, one by one, to the bottom of the speaker stacks. Yes, the speaker stacks are built top-down. The first units are attached to the main truss. The truss is lifted and then the next units are attached below and the interconnects plugged in to make it all into one great big speaker array. Lather, Rinse, Repeat until we have two stacks, one on stage left and one on stage right that are approximately 20 feet tall and 5 speaker units wide. Total weight? Damned heavy.
I stayed on the job until the load-in was complete and all the teamsters left. I hung around for a little bit to watch as the various bands own people came in to start the instrument setup and line-check. A couple of Live's instrument techs asked if I could give them a hand. I obliged willingly. I helped set up Live drummer Chad Gracey's kit and helped the on-stage sound guy set up and test the wireless units for Live guitarist Chad Taylor's stunning array of guitars. I hope nobody slipped on the puddle of drool I left in front of the guitar rack.
Today I am being painfully reminded of the existence of muscles that I forgot I had... But it was a fun day.
The main reason for writing this, however, was the absolute highlight of the day. A woman who works in management for the ballpark was wandering around the stage. It seemed that her job was mostly to get in the way, ask a lot of questions, and yell at anyone who threw cigarette butts on "her" baseball diamond.
She was standing near the ramp when the loaders were bringing Live's gear up the ramp and on to the stage left sound wing. I was waiting for the crate containing the audio cable snakes for the monitors and mics and stuff to connect to the on-stage mixer for the monitor system.
All crates were clearly labeled with the name of the band and what equipment they contained. As I started to unlatch the crate I was waiting for and lift the lid off, nosy lady noticed that I was opening a crated labeled "Live snakes". The last time I saw her she was running away from the stage screaming.
Yes, it was a fun day indeed. . .
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