I Survived The Big Guns

Wednesday. Event Day. Sold out concert at 28 bucks a pop. 2400 people expected. Nationally known band. Semi truck full of millions of dollars in equipment. Tour buses. Expectations. Responsibility. Serious lack of sleep. It all makes me want to throw up just a little bit. I have often told Rob that I feel a huge amount of responsibility for our events but I really lack any kind of control over it. So I stand around and wring my hands and hope for the best. And take pictures, of course. The stage extensions turned out great. There is one of these on either side of the stage:

We still had a lot to do before the semi and the tour buses rolled in at 11:00 but everything was going as planned and looked pretty good:

I have said before on this blog that I'm seriously opposed to "flying" things over people's heads at concerts. The thought of someone being seriously injured, or worse, because of something we did, makes me ill. And yet, over the years, Rob has pushed my limits little by little. This concert calls for speakers that are bigger than anything we own so we called in our Salt Lake guy and he brought in the big guns. These span sets that Gloria was playing on yesterday will hold up more than 600 pounds on this little piece of truss. . . This is 2 span sets and 1 little quick link that will hold a stack of speakers on this one stick of truss held up by 2 little lift stands. OK, it's all safety rated and all of the proper precautions are being taken to make it as safe as possible but I still don't have to like it.

The quick link holds the chain. . .

. . . that holds the motor. . .

. . . that pulls up the 600 pound line array of speakers:

The tour manager and all of his people pulled in just as we were rigging up the first set of speakers. I think they were a little dismayed at the small size of the venue and stage so there was much discussion going on. I stayed out of the way.

The set up got the tour managers approval so the crew got to work unloading. . .

. . . and we proceeded to pull up the line array:

I realize I could have left at any time but I just had to stay and watch. . . and take pictures. . .


I didn't realize until afterwards that we didn't need the motors after all- Kurt lifted the whole stack with one finger . . .

Apparently he didn't feel like showing off so he got to work rigging up the span sets on the other side:

I left before the second stack went up so I could meet the driver that was coming to pick up the cases. They turned out beautifully:

I didn't mind at all that the driver was running late and I could just hang around the shop and wait. . . When he finally showed up, he didn't have quite enough room for these huge cases so we had to do some creative packing:

It was a relief to see the cases go but it meant that I had to head back to the venue.

A lot of progress had been made in my absence.

I'm so glad I missed it. . .

Just as we were ready to take a break and get something to eat, the truck decided to act up. Thankfully Kurt knows about these things so he gave it a temporary fix and we'll have to worry about the rest later. . . Maybe we can fix it right after we replace the alternator on the van. . .

These cases are filled with the things that couldn't be used because the stage was too small:

This semi was full. . .

It was a good thing we added on to the stage . . .

So much stuff. . .

People poured in when the gates opened.

We settled in at the side of the stage where our nice little speakers that we used for sidefill gave us just the right amount of volume and enjoyed the show:

Everything went perfectly and the crowd seemed to have a great time. When the concert ended, the loaders arrived and started packing it all back in the truck.

We were still the last ones out even with plenty of help from the loaders. Thankfully this is the last big show for a couple of weeks so we just might have a chance to recover . . . maybe.

Wilco on Youtube: