This past Friday we had Brad Paisley scheduled at the Expo. It was a fairly large show for that size of arena. It's not the biggest show we have done, (Carrie Underwood takes that title) but it was up there in the top three. That itself was going to be a lot of work on its own but thanks to a crazy January schedule the concert fell between ballgames. So our schedule went something like this; ballgames, clean arena, remove court, place stage, arrive for load in, have concert, load out concert, clean arena, install basketball court, full day of ballgames, ending the weekend with a bridal show on Sunday. So before we even began a long show day, I already had crews working to put the court down and building the stage. They then also had to work after the concert ALL night to get the basketball court back down, get the stage out of the way and all the other stuff that had to be set up for the games that would begin at noon the next day.
Which leads me to my cleaning crew. They put in sooooooo many hours. They worked the games, cleaned the arena, worked the concert, cleaned the arena after the concert (which took until morning), then was back to work a full day of basketball games and then clean the arena after. And dont forget that I mentioned a bridal show on Sunday. I can not express how much I depend on these guys and I appreciate how much work they did this weekend.
bt Event Service stagehands, cleaning crew and maintenance crew I thank you from the bottom of my heart and want you to know I see all of your hard work!!
The morning of the show started early for me, 5:30am to be exact. But overall load in went pretty smooth. It took a smidge longer than anticipated but the show changed some things with rigging two or three times which slowed things down about an hour and a half.
The following pics were taken during load in.
And now its time for my funny/dumb moment of the show. While standing backstage getting ready for sound checks, someone asked me a question about Brad Paisley. My answer to the question was, "I don't know I haven't seen him all day." To which I was told," He's standing RIGHT behind you." Maybe it was because I was a little tired, or maybe it was just because Brad Paisley is just so cool and awesome that he can hang out and blend in with us plain folks. He was awesome by the way!
Paisley brought his own catering with him, and boy was it good. Here is Tabor and Loren enjoying that great food.
BTW, this was Loren's first show working as my assistant. I am pretty sure I wore her out.
The show was amazing. I loved his video show, laser show...and his hologram of Carrie Underwood. It was so life like many show goers actually thought she was there.
The finished product.
This is a shot of the cool laser intro/first song.
Show days can be very long and you find yourself waiting for a place and time you can rest. Most of the time I end up finding a road case and laying down for a few. If I am really lucky I actually get to nap.
This show Tony chose road cases, Tabor scored and found an empty set cart.
Load out was the crazy organized mess it always is. And after 3 hours this is what the arena looked like.
At this point I still had a cleaning crew going full force to get the place cleaned. Also while I was taking this pic I had a crew starting the basketball court behind me. It was about 2:30 in the morning. Everybody worked very hard and the games started at noon. Yes we had a full day of basketball games less than 12 hours from the time the concert ended.
Saturday night Tony, Kevin and Jason headed out to Columbus to represent Mountain Music Exchange at guitar show scheduled for Sunday. So while Tony was peddling guitars and amps, Brian and I were working it at a bridal show.
And boy was my dogs-a-barking afterwards. I actually felt like one of these......
had ran over me. Actually I kinda felt like they all ran over me.
The Boss Lady
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