Atleast I got a T-Shirt

This time it was not only at a concert I didnt really care anything about, it was for a different reason than usual as well.

Granted, Im not a big fan of country, but their are some country artist I like, but most of them are older guys, like Hank Williams Jr, Johnny Cash or people like that.

Still, the only reason why I ever heard of Kenny Chesney was because I read about him marrying Renee Zelewegger (I have NO idea how to spell her name) and not because of any of his music.

Well, apparently, Im one of the few people who havent heard of this guy, because he played in Memphis last night, at the FedEx Forum, and damn there were alot of people there.

Naturally, I was backstage. Not so much because it was a country concert, but mainly because I somehow usually end up backstage at most concerts I go to lately. However, this time it was for a different reason. I was working.

I helped the road crew tear down the stage and load the trucks after the concert. Since I got there early enough, I got to sit backstage and watch the show. Ofcourse I was thinking this would be good and I watched the drummer. Well,not so much. I wasnt impressed at all with this guy, or Kenny, or his music.

However, I was shocked at how big this guy is.

I counted 12 tour busses. Im sure that wasnt all of them. I also learned that at the FedEx Forum, when you see tour busses parked outside (across the street from the side entrance) those are usually the ones for the Road Crew or maybe the opening bands. There is a HUGE underground loading level that hard 8 or 9 busses parked along with 10 or 12 big trucks.

When tearing down a stage like that, it takes well over a hundred people. They are split up into different groups.

Loaders: whose main job is what it sounds like, when equipment gets brought to the truck, they load in onto the trailor. They have a chart that they HAVE to follow exactly or else the next day when they try to unload in a certain order, shit will be messed up.

Lights: whose main job is just that, they go out and unplug, unhook and put into cases ALL of the lights that were used for the show. Not to mention all the power amps etc. that comes along with that.

Band: whose job it is to tear down not only the bands equipment, but also the sound people's equipment and I believe they help with video as well.

Riggers: whose job it is to climb to the TOP OF THE ARENA and run the cables on everything hanging from the ceiling.

Carpenters: whose job is only to tear down the stage itself.

Pushers: whose job is to go to the stage, find any piece of equipment that is ready to be loaded and push it to the truck.

This is just the local crew that works for the main road crew. The main road crew was about 10 people who traveled with the band and they were basicly the bosses of each set of local crews. For example, the guys whose job it was to set up and tear down the stage were the bosses of the carpenters etc etc.

My job last night was a pusher. Meaning all I had to do was walk to the stage area, find a box that was ready to go and push it to the truck and hand it over to a loader, then repeat. This may sound easy, and it really was, but some of those crates were HEAVY! I was pushing crates that were fully of chains used to hang lights etc and they literally weighed two tons. Thank god for wheels! But, let one of those crates get away from you.....that was fun trying to regain control!

It took over a hundred people well over two hours to tear down the stage. I really have to hand it to Kenny's road crew, they really knew their shit.

One of the head carpenters that I talked to for a while (you know me, I will not miss a chance to talk to anyone in any aspect of the industry) said he had been doing this since 1976! Thats four years before I was born! I cant imagine doing that job every day. Actually, they said its usually three days a week, sometimes four.

The shitty thing was, as soon as we got the stage down and loaded, the trucks were heading out to go straight to Atlanta where they are playing tonight. As soon as they got there, they immediately have to start setting up the whole thing again.

I tried to express how much stuff was there by saying it took over a hundred people over two hours to tear this stage down, but that doesnt express how much shit there was to do because his road crew was really, really effiecient at their job. I swear most people would look at something like this and think it would take a full day to set up and tear down.

It was a really cool experiance though, its neat to see how things work behind the scenes. I look foward to working my next concert. Hopefully this next one will be one that I actually want to see.