Blue Man Group and idiot rednecks
Well gang, I just got in from a pretty good day working with the Blue Man Group. I was working as a sound and drum tech for their South Carolina stretch of their "How To Be A Megastar 2.0" tour.
Load in was actually no where near as bad as I thought it was gonna be. They had only 6 trailers but granted there sure were A LOT of audio equipment, a whole truck and half worth. The Blue Man Group relies heavily on MIDI control and lots of back up sound elements. The back up band with them consisted of one bass player, three guitar players, a keyboardist, a DJ and three drummers. It was an interesting setup, there was one regular Drum kit and then two other standing sets. Now those other drum sets were actually drummers, so all of that was just the back up band that's not counting the custom made percussion equipment the Blue Men played on stage. Almost 75% of their sound equipment were speakers, it was a huge array.
Well now to the crappy side of things. A lot of times some of the most random people will show up to some of these calls. I mean most have good intentions and really want to help but in real life they aren't cut out for this type of work. The company that sub contracts them will basically hire pretty much anyone so that is where the trouble starts. During the load in there were so many idiots that did not need to be there just getting in the way it was absolutely ridiculous. The touring crew was getting pretty pissed at several of them because they were just wandering around or just sitting on their asses getting in other peoples way. There was an older woman there who was on the small side and she really didn't know what she was doing but she was at least trying to help me and the other guys. Well I'm on stage helping set up the drums and this idiot redneck is sitting on top of all the drum cases. I walk back there to grab some of the equipment and he looks at me like I am crazy when I tell him to get off the cases. He gets up and I get the equipment I needed and walk back to the riser. Well I go back to get the rest of the gear and this moron closed the case and again was sitting on it! I admit I kinda lost my temper, I yelled at him to "Get off the cases and find something useful to do" he got down and the whole he was staring at me. Well I didn't notice but the small lady had walked up to help me get what I was looking for, she was standing off to my side. I turned around and King Redneck was in my way so I said "Get out of my Damn way." The little lady thought I was talking to her and she looked so sad! She put her head down and said I will just stand over here. I looked at her and said "Oh no! I wasn't talking to you! And I tried to reassure her that she really was helping and that it was those other idiots." She came back and started helping but she didn't talk to me much afterwards. All in all it was a good night though.
Greg
Well gang, I just got in from a pretty good day working with the Blue Man Group. I was working as a sound and drum tech for their South Carolina stretch of their "How To Be A Megastar 2.0" tour.
Load in was actually no where near as bad as I thought it was gonna be. They had only 6 trailers but granted there sure were A LOT of audio equipment, a whole truck and half worth. The Blue Man Group relies heavily on MIDI control and lots of back up sound elements. The back up band with them consisted of one bass player, three guitar players, a keyboardist, a DJ and three drummers. It was an interesting setup, there was one regular Drum kit and then two other standing sets. Now those other drum sets were actually drummers, so all of that was just the back up band that's not counting the custom made percussion equipment the Blue Men played on stage. Almost 75% of their sound equipment were speakers, it was a huge array.
Well now to the crappy side of things. A lot of times some of the most random people will show up to some of these calls. I mean most have good intentions and really want to help but in real life they aren't cut out for this type of work. The company that sub contracts them will basically hire pretty much anyone so that is where the trouble starts. During the load in there were so many idiots that did not need to be there just getting in the way it was absolutely ridiculous. The touring crew was getting pretty pissed at several of them because they were just wandering around or just sitting on their asses getting in other peoples way. There was an older woman there who was on the small side and she really didn't know what she was doing but she was at least trying to help me and the other guys. Well I'm on stage helping set up the drums and this idiot redneck is sitting on top of all the drum cases. I walk back there to grab some of the equipment and he looks at me like I am crazy when I tell him to get off the cases. He gets up and I get the equipment I needed and walk back to the riser. Well I go back to get the rest of the gear and this moron closed the case and again was sitting on it! I admit I kinda lost my temper, I yelled at him to "Get off the cases and find something useful to do" he got down and the whole he was staring at me. Well I didn't notice but the small lady had walked up to help me get what I was looking for, she was standing off to my side. I turned around and King Redneck was in my way so I said "Get out of my Damn way." The little lady thought I was talking to her and she looked so sad! She put her head down and said I will just stand over here. I looked at her and said "Oh no! I wasn't talking to you! And I tried to reassure her that she really was helping and that it was those other idiots." She came back and started helping but she didn't talk to me much afterwards. All in all it was a good night though.
Greg