The Roadie Show

That’s right, Iggs and I worked with legends… according to some, anyway. Asia is one of the original supergroups, made up of members of King Crimson (John Whetton), Emerson Lake and Palmer (Carl Palmer), Yes (Steve Howe) and The Buggles (Geoff Downes). They hit big in the early 80’s with songs like “Heat Of The Moment”, “Only time Will Tell,” and “Sole Survivor”. The band’s lineup changed frequently so true fans are thrilled to see the original (and arguably best) roster of talent.

On to the Gig…

I got off my motorcycle and limped passed the giant tour bus in the venue’s parking lot. I had tweaked my back a bit the day earlier and wasn’t looking forward to unloading a giant semitrailer or even a 24ft truck. Luckily, Asia had only brought a 15ft trailer attached to the crew’s tour bus.

Awesome. More time in the green room eating bagels and drinking apple juice.

Unfortunately that wasn’t true. It turns out that somewhere along the chain of communication a tiny bit of info was lost: the band brought 3 projectors and screens that needed to be hung. Sounds easy, but it’s quite an involved process. The house lighting designer needs to figure out where he can hang the screens safely while losing a minimum of lighting angles. The tour video tech needs to figure out where to place the projectors and cameras without obstructing the audience sight lines. The screens themselves need to be constructed. Nasty things, projector screens. Sharp and pinchy metal frames that can bite you in a second need to be set up first… Then the slippery and incredibly un-stretchy screen needs to be stretched and pulled until it can be fastened to the frame.

Looks like no time for bagels and apple juice…

Load-In took forever. Most of the band’s gear was relatively new and didn’t have road cases yet. Road cases are built with wheels and handles and are very easily moved. Loose gear is not. Asia also brought a lot of merchandise with them… Boxes of Asia shirts, posters, cd’s, clocks, stuffed dragons and signed photos needed to be hauled uphill to the merch area. We worked hard and got it done as quickly as possible.

Someone shouted the magic word: “Lunch!”. We ate cheese steaks and tuna hoagies while we watched the drum tech work on Carl Palmer’s clear-blue Ludwig drumkit. Drummers can be incredibly particular about their gear and are legendary for giving a technician hell if something isn’t set up perfectly. We assumed Carl was one of those drummers, his tech worked on the kit for over an hour.

During dinner we got a chance to talk with the band members. British accents are always fun and we humored ourselves throughout the day doing impressions based on the conversations we had with the rock stars from the UK. Carl Palmer was full of energy and really entertaining. Steve Howe spent much of his time practicing in his dressing room, emerging only to grab a meal or ask his band mates to turn off a cellphone ringing near his practice area. John Whetton talked with us at length over the dessert choices, agonizing over the decision. Singers often face the green room with dread, knowing it’s filled with yummy food that can potentially ruin their vocal performance an hour later. The guys were all very polite and approachable.

After a lengthy spotlight meeting we got into position for the show. Iggs and I fired up the spotlights, killed the house lights and the show began.

The band plowed through 2 hours of material with no intermission. They played hits from the individual members’ pasts, including ‘Roundabout’, ‘The Court of the Crimson King’ and ‘Video Killed the Radio Star’. There were solos all around. John Whetton’s voice is as strong as ever and Steve Howe’s accomplished guitar skills were envied by prog-rock fans throughout the theatre.

We noticed Carl Palmer looking up over his shoulder over and over again. Iggs and I figured he was looking for himself on the video screen. There were only two cameras. They had to be repositioned often to get good coverage of every band member. After a lengthy drum solo, Carl got up from his kit and walked around to the front of his drum riser. We hit him with the spotlight, drawing the audiences attention to him. He grabbed a microphone and thanked the audience, then turned around to see his drum tech refreshing his stick bag. Carl put the microphone on its stand, raised his finger toward the drum tech and began screaming. He shook his hand and flailed his arms in a violent outburst while climbing his way back behind the kit. Iggs and I were shocked and immediately began to speculate Mr. Palmer’s problem.

Moments later a voice came over the headset. “Video, Please put Carl Palmer up on the video screen more often.”

Carl Palmer continued to check the video screens throughout the rest of the show. Usually he was pleased (the cameras were on him a lot more often). The band finished the show, came out for an encore of two songs, then left the stage. They grabbed a quick drink backstage and headed out to the merch tables to meet the fans. It turns out everyone in the audience was a fan… Over a thousand people lined up to shake hands with the band. They were still out there signing merch when we finished tearing down the stage. You have to give those guys credit, they are real pros. Playing 2 hours and then signing a thousand autographs… that’s showmanship.

It was a long day but a lot of fun. Gotta love this job…

This entry was posted by rand on Sunday, June 24th, 2007 at 12:00 pm and is filed under News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.