My Crazy Beautiful Life: Nazareth

Way back in April or May sometime, before the stage trailer was even built, we committed to do a show in Pocatello for the 80's band, Nazareth. Our Salt Lake audio guy would be providing the sound and we would be providing the stage (that didn't yet exist), the roof and the lights. I have learned to hold things loosely but, somewhere in the back of my mind, I started to dread this event. I felt a little better once the trailer was finished, although we still had some additions to put on it specifically for this show. . . I'm not a big fan of pulling trailers with anything, much less a full size Uhaul truck, and road trips in general wear me out. This would be a long road trip, driving a truck, pulling a trailer, all to provide crucial equipment to a concert with ticket sales. I think I've mentioned before that free concerts don't stress me out much at all, but the thought of refunding ticket prices due to something we failed to provide could really stress me out if I let it. When the dreaded day arrived, by the time the truck was loaded and the trailer was hitched, I was stressed. . .

I worried about hills and treacherous curves and run away trailers that were, pretty much, loaded weapons . . . It didn't help that I had heard about two fatal accidents involving trailers in the news during the last few weeks. . . We made it to Mtn. Home without a single problem. I was still holding my breath. . .

This was the hill that worried me the most. King Hill. I was just sure the trailer would overtake the truck on the way back down. . .

And yet, we made it to Twin Falls without any problems. Kurt and his kids had caught up with us by that time and he made a little adjustment to the trailer brakes (that he had kindly installed earlier in the day), making the trailer even easier to pull. . .

I know this is beginning to get obsessive, but I was just very grateful to make it to each place that we stopped. I even tried to convince Rob that this lovely rest stop would make a nice place for a concert and that Nazareth should just meet us here. . .

We made it to Pocatello without any problems whatsoever. I breathed a little sigh of relief even though the "fun" was just beginning. Our contact that was supposed to meet us at the fairgrounds was a little confused. . . or something. . .

It was well after dark by the time we knew where to put the trailer so we could set up the stage and unload the truck. . .

We did as much as we could. . .

. . . with the little time and energy that we had. . .

We managed to get the stage unfolded and the roof on by 1:30 a.m. It looks like Kurt is skipping rope in this picture but he's really just trying to toss one end of the rope up and over the roof so it can be tied to the truss on the other side. . . It's a little funnier to think about Kurt skipping rope, though. . .

Rob had put all of the finishing touches on the two stage additions just before we left town but they still needed a coat of paint. After we hung the lights, Kurt painted the two decks and we called it a night. It was close to 3 a.m. . .

We tried to get an early start in the morning, but we didn't get back down to the fairgrounds until after 9:30. We still had a lot to do but it wasn't as stressful as I thought it would be. I think that by quietly dreading this event for so many months, I was expecting the worst.

This concert was sponsored by an MIA POW group that holds an annual event in support of the military. They really went all out to provide an entertaining weekend. This monster truck has seats in the back making it quite a ride for anyone brave enough to strap themselves in:

Just like the Skid Row concert, it was nice to not be responsible for the audio. We've worked with Mark on several shows now and it looks like there will be many more in the future.

We managed to get everything done in a reasonable amount of time and I kicked back on the drum riser and took this interesting picture from that view point. . .

The finished product turned out pretty good!:

This is the guy who hired the guy who hired us:

I always enjoy sitting back and watching the crowd. You see some pretty interesting people at rock concerts.

The turn out for the event was pretty good. Just a little better than the Skid Row concert.

I made my way to the side of the stage when Nazareth came on. I must have taken 100 pictures just to get a few good ones. I managed to put close to 30 in a slide show. They may, or may not, be worth looking at. . .

For all of my worrying, not a thing went wrong for the entire event. Everyone was happy and the ticket-buying crowd had a great time!

They invited some of the Veterans up on stage and honored them with a song. The guy to the right of the lead singer is the guy who hired the guy who hired the guy who hired us.

The concert ended around 11:00 p.m.

The bad part about doing stage and lighting is waiting until everyone else moves their stuff so we can lower the roof and get to work.

We finished up just before 5 a.m. and headed back to the hotel to catch a little bit of sleep before hitting the road. . . again. . .

We were all moving pretty slow in the morning. After only about 5 hours of sleep, it was difficult to get going.

Kurt went on ahead of us and we took our time going home. . .

. . . By the time we got to Burley, we realized we couldn't go any further without a little more sleep. We stopped in a park, spread out a blanket and took a little nap.