Load In  The smell of diesel fuel from this multi truck/bus show slapped me in the face as a trudged thru the backstage gate after my long walk from the employee parking lot.  The clock was just about to strike 8am when I signed the list of names for the stagehand crew this morning.  Moments later, our commander in chief "Gene Ellis," who may be the oldest working stagehand, calls out "assholes and elbows on stage now."  Luckily, I was able to avoid morning feeder and the lighting department all together.  After doing a couple special projects for road stage manager John, he assigned me to backline.  Basically setting up the instruments, ie drums, risers, guitar rigs, etc., which I am quite accustomed to handling since I own many of the same instruments.  One thing that caught my eye besides the gaggle of vintage guitars is pictured here...

 

...who says no Peavey on the rider?  This bebe has been on the road with .38 special forever!  One of the road guys even told me a story of how they had to use it on stage one time during a guest appearance.  He said the other musicians were asking "how'd you get that sound?"  LOL

Show Call  Deck Hand.  Just the usual here ...custom drumkits, stacks of "dummy" amplifiers, and heavy wheeled metal decks and risers.  The life of a deck hand is not glamorous.  Sure you get to go out on stage, in front of thousands of people ...only thing is, almost no one is watching!!!!

Load Out  Ahh yes!  The grand finale!  Multiple musicians from each of the bands join in onstage for one last song before the night is over.  I haven't seen that many 50 something year olds with long hair since I stopped in the local VFW to grab a six pack up in the boondocks of Pennsylvania!  Hey, don't knock it - these cats could play their instruments.  Now onto the audio department, I disconnected the massive Meyers boxes and wheeled them to the truck but, the night wasn't over yet.  We still had a show of our own to do!  To see what happened after the show, go to WJAM JamTV It was the all stagehand band - LIVE of course, for you to enjoy!

Note Worthy  Our beloved Sean of the Mountain has been awarded the state trophy for Snake Charming or something to that effect.  Here he is pictured putting on a show for the band members and crew with one of his numerous recently captured and deadly Rattle Snakes!  Thanx Sean - peace!