Winnemucca

Rob and I left town Wednesday afternoon and headed to Winnemucca. This is the third year we have provided lights for the Superior Cattle Auction concert. Last year the main act was The Belamy Brothers and this year it was Hal Ketchum. http://www.halketchum.com/
This is one of the events that I look forward to because the set up is always the same and I know what to expect which is very unusual in this business.

Another reason I look forward to this event is that we are only responsible for the lights. No stage trailer, no canopy, no audio. Besides, it gives Rob a chance to talk about audio gear with other techs like himself which gives me a little break. . . I did have to admire these cute little JBL speakers that the audio company used for front fill- just my size.

After 5 years in this business, you'd think I'd know to expect the unexpected, but I thought this event was immune since there is really only one way to set up the lights leaving Rob very little creative liscense. Last year we did have a little problem with the lift stands becoming a trip hazard and this year the tent over the tables was too close to the stage to allow room for the stands so it wasn't entirely Rob's fault. . . We ended up borrowing a Genie lift in order to attach the truss and the lights to the tent. Yep, we had to fly truss.

We raised the truss up in the usual way with the lift stands. . .

. . . and then Rob secured them with these couplers:

We then cranked the lift stands back down leaving the truss suspended on the tent bars. The whole thing stressed me out just a little AND it took much longer than our regular set up would have which seriously cut into my nickel time. After nagging Rob about additional safety measures I felt pretty good about the end result.

The lights at the back of the stage turned out to be a little easier than our usual set up because the backdrop and stage roof were too far back to set the lift stands behind them like we've done in the past so we just set them in front of it. Pretty simple:

When we finished setting up, I was carrying a few things to the truck when I noticed a man standing next to the stage. As I walked by, he stuck out his hand and said, "Hi, I'm Hal." I'm usually not star-struck but this caught me off guard and I said something stupid like, "Hal Ketchum???" Duh. So I introduced myself and we had a nice little conversation. I was impressed with how down to earth he was. So often when we run well-known bands they stay on the bus until they go onstage and then they jump right back on the bus. Hal actually mingled with the crowd. I was impressed.

I had some time to relax after the set up and didn't make it back to the stage until half-way through the opening act.

The lights actually looked pretty good:

Just before it was time for him to go on, Rob asked if we could take a picture. Hal was very accommodating and, even though it's not a great pic of me, it IS a picture of me with Hal Ketchum so here it is:

It was a great concert.

The opening act played a few more songs at the end and the event wrapped up around 11:30. Time to take it all down. . .

With the help of 4 "loaders", we managed to take everything down in a reasonable amount of time without too much work and worry on my part. It's amazing how much easier it is with many hands. I didn't have to lift a single thing into the truck! We headed back to the hotel around 3 a.m. and got about 5 hours of sleep before hitting the road to go straight to our next event in Garden Valley. . .