August 2005 – When you’re sitting in the audience getting ready to see a concert or some other event at a place like Worcester’s own DCU Center, how many of you ever consider what has to happen behindthe- scenes before someone like Madonna can mount the stage or Triple H can get in the ring and start trash-talking his opponent? Not many. You probably don’t notice the grid of truss suspended from the venue’s ceiling, supporting a multitude of lights and speakers. And that’s good. You aren’t supposed to notice or even think about these things because if you do, then the show is clearly boring you out of your mind and you should demand a refund for your ticket. But now that I’ve mentioned it, aren’t you just a little curious as to how one of these big shows actually comes together?
 

Depending on the size of the show, the set-up, known as the load-in, starts sometime between 6:00 AM and 8:00 AM. The trucks, all 18 wheelers, roll into the venue after traveling all night from the previous show’s location. The road crew – yes, the (in)famous roadies – roll in right along side the trucks on their tour buses. Generally, each roadie group is in charge of a specific portion of the show. One group is responsible for sound, one for lighting, one for video set-up. And don’t forget pyrotechnics, backline (those are the people in charge of the musical instruments), wardrobe, catering (if it’s not provided by the venue), and of course, the person in charge of it all, the Stage Manager. But in most cases, although a road tour has somewhere between 20 and 30 members, each responsible for some small part of the production, they can’t do it alone.

Enter the Local Crew. These are workers who do not travel with a particular show, but instead stay… well, local. They work for a particular venue or work in a particular area, covering several venues in that area. These are the people that provide the extra man (and woman) power for the road crew. They serve as a sort of general labor pool and get broken up into smaller groups to work with the different departments of the production. Some go to sound, some go to lighting, some go to work with the video guys (FYI, the video help are known as “vidiots,” just like if the show is a theatrical performance the crew that ends up working for props become “propstitutes” or “prop tarts.”) An average local crew size is about 40.

Before anything can really start happening, the trucks have to be unloaded. This is the responsibility of the loaders, members of the local crew whose main and often only responsibility is getting the trucks unloaded quickly and safely. They have to pass all the road cases and set pieces and other equipment from the trucks down to the pushers, the guys who then have to get all of it out to the floor and the stage. Everything is placed in a certain area so it can be easily found and accessed to make the setup go as smoothly as possible. While some cases are easily handled by only one or two people, other items that roll off the truck can weigh up to 1000 lbs, sometimes more. When such a cumbersome creature is encountered, either a bunch of stagehands gather ‘round to help (“many hands make light work”) or a fork lift is called upon to make the job a little easier.

As the trucks are being unloaded, riggers climb up in the ceiling to start setting “points.” These are the hanging points to which motors will be connected. The motors will be used to haul up the grid of aluminum truss from which the lighting and sound (also known as PA) will hang. This is perhaps the most important time during the setup. Everything has to go up quickly and safely (safety is always stressed, for obvious reasons) because until the grid is floating off the ground, very little else can be done. If all goes well, the grid is hanging and ready to “fly” when the sound and light equipment is rolled out onto the floor.

Any load-in looks like an exercise in chaos. Workers are moving in all directions, including up and down. Fork lifts move on and off the floor and are constantly beeping, humming and grinding. Radios are being shouted into. Road crew department heads are cursing, and not quietly. However, this choreography of chaos is moving towards a common goal – show time. The process can be painful, especially if the roadies and the locals are not getting along, but most of the time there is a mutual respect between the two groups and the show gets put together with a minimum of hurt feelings and bruised egos. Hard to believe, but sometimes it can be downright fun with the right combination people.

An average production, amazingly, gets put together in about 8 hours. Sometimes it takes a little longer if some of the smaller details need to be perfected, but very rarely does it take even ten hours to get everything ready.

It’s after those 8 to 10 hours that the audience comes in to play. The gates open, the spot lights come on, the PA system starts its assault on your ears, and the talent takes the stage (they arrived in limos about an hour – if the Stage Manager is lucky – before the show). If the roadies and locals have done their jobs right, then all you notice is how awesome Eddie Van Halen’s solos sounded, or how great the light show for the American Idol tour looked.

Then even before the show is over, the stagehands are waiting in the wings, just out of sight, for the final curtain call and for the house lights to come up. As soon as the band is off the stage, the roadies and locals are on it, packing the instruments, pulling down the set, packing up the lighting and miles (literally) of data and power cables. Hang around for a few extra minutes in your seats and you see them come out like super-energized ants. Now think about the whole load-in process I just described and reverse it. That’s what the load-out looks like. How fast does it happen? Very rarely does a load-out take more than four hours, even for the larger shows. The roadies need to make their next scheduled stop and they want to fit in some sleep, too. And the locals don’t want to be there any longer than they have to be either; they probably won’t be seeing their beds until 2am or later and they will have to get up and be back the next day at 7am for the next show that comes through.

So again, it’s actually a compliment to the roadies if you don’t notice any of their work. It’s means that everything they did is hung right, cabled right, placed correctly and on schedule. But next time you’re at a show, maybe just take a second or two to appreciate what you “don’t” see.