Skid Row

Just a few hours after pulling into town after camp, we headed out again. This time, the kids stayed with Grandma and Grandpa and Rob and I headed to Twin Falls in the big truck. We took the scenic route through Hagerman and it brought back lots of memories. I grew up in Mtn. Home and one of my good friends had a cabin in Hagerman. We spent many happy hours there and I learned to water ski right here on this river:

Kurt and his kids left Boise before we did and made better time so they were waiting for us at the top of the bleachers when we arrived:

The stage and roof were provided by the facility and were already in place when we arrived so we just had to figure out the best placement of our truss and lights.

(This isn't nearly as high as it looks. . . . . . . )

This is one of the bigger shows we have done so we hired a company we have worked with in the past out of Salt Lake to provide the audio. We were also in charge of bringing in backline (guitar amps, drum kit, etc.) and our Salt Lake guy was able to arrange that for us as well. So, this is what we started with:

It took the guys awhile to decide on the truss configuration but they finally made a plan and we got to work. Kurt's kids were picked up by their grandma but the three of us continued to work until well after dark. We arranged our truss in a diamond shape in the middle of the roof trussing and it was pretty tricky raising into place. We used these span sets to hold it until we could put on the half couplers that would hold it during the show:

This design is 8 pieces of truss all conected together and lifted into place. It's roughly 240 pounds, give or take, but the construction is good and it's all held in place with weight appropriate hardware so I felt (mostly) OK about it:

Next, we had to figure out light placement. We had 10 bars of lights (6 1K par cans on each bar), 3 movers (intelligent lights), 4 wash lights and 3 elipsoidals (spot lights).

It took more time deciding where to hang everything than actually putting them in place.

Meanwhile, I cut the new gels we brought in since ours are getting a little burnt. . .

I don't remember what time we called it a night, but it was late, late. Kurt went to his mom's house that was close by and Rob and I caught a few hours of sleep in the redneck RV. We were all hard at work again bright and early since we had to be completely set before the audio guys showed up. Every light that we hang has a corresponding cable that, obviously, has to be hooked up to power for it to work. This is harder than it looks. . .

The light bars are connected to multi-pinned socapex cable that plug directly into our lighting rack but each cable has to be routed along the truss in an orderly fashion and plugged into the correct plug in the rack so that the lighting board out front will be configured correctly. There is nothing random about this process. It has to be done perfectly. No pressure. . .

Rob made these "S-hooks" a few years ago that work great for this. They hang on the truss and hold the cables neatly in place:

It was pretty handy to be able to hang some of our lights on the existing roof truss. We didn't have to use half of the truss we brought:

As precise and difficult as they are, the light bars are the easiest to hook up (Rob and Kurt might disagree with this opinion!). All of the other lights take single, heavy duty extension cords that have to be taped and zip tied into place so they don't accidentally come undone when the roof is raised.

The intelligent lights set up pretty easy but they all have "addresses" that have to be set and I don't understand all of that yet. . .

The washlights or audience blinders:

The real test is when the lighting board is set up and we test all of the lights to make sure they work. There is always the chance that something got plugged in wrong or that a bulb is out. . .

Everything worked!! We had to make a few minor adjustments, but everything lit up the way it was supposed to:

This roof is quite a bit different than the one we use. It is raised by motors on all four corners with the push of a button. It was pretty cool to watch. We finished up just as the audio guys pulled in.

We stood back and admired our work. . .

It was really nice not to have to deal with audio and sound check. This line array is just a little bit bigger than ours. . .

In this picture, the "rigger" is up on the roof securing the corner blocks. . . I'm glad that's not my job. . .

I climbed up the bleachers and took a few distance shots:

The day Rob and Kurt decide to invest in these is the day I retire. . .

The concert started around 7:00 with 3 opening bands. It was a bit of a culture shock going from church camp to this concert. It was NOT family friendly. (This guitar player is a friend of Gary's!):

The lights worked perfectly:

Rob made a quick adjustment to an elipsoidal before the headlining act came on:

Kurt took my camera onstage to get some close-ups of the band for me. This is the backline that was required for this show:

Kurt took some great shots of SKID ROW in concert!!! Yep, the old 80's band can still rock!!!

The crowd was a little crazy and a few people even stormed the stage:

All things considered, it was a pretty good show!

It was after midnight when the concert ended and we still had to take everything down. By the time the audio and backline cleared out allowing the roof to be lowered, we were pretty beat. All of the lights, every cable, every stick of truss, every piece of tape and zip tie had to be taken down and it all had to be loaded into the truck. . .

Around 4 a.m., Rob and I went searching for a hotel so we could catch a few hours of sleep before heading back to Boise for a Sunday afternoon event. . . The cheapest available room we could find was well over $100 so, in our exhausted state, we pulled the truck into a Lowe's parking lot, shifted a few things in the back of the truck and fell asleep in a tiny space like a couple of sardines. . . we were just too tired to care. . . We would be heading back to Boise first thing in the morning, so it was very, very temporary. . .