Had to be done. Don't want to loose Eminem as a client, and since I've been involved in all but one of his tours, I think I have a pretty good grip on his music. So it makes sense to call on me to do even just one show with Slim Shady. Means at least 50% of the lighting will be right and in time.
The day before the show, I fly out to New Orleans. I take the latest possible flight (Nicole was in the hospital the night before and wanted to make sure she was okay before I boarded a plane), and went straight to the venue where I spent the entire night programming.
Hit the pillow in my hotel room at 7:30AM the next morning only to be drawn out of my room and sent back to the venue at 3PM that same day. The management was "worried" because they hadn't seen any of the lighting and video work during the previous days rehearsal (I was on a plane while Marshal Mathers was rapping away), so I had to be there before they showed up to calm their nerves.
Show day was your standard day in New Orleans. Warm with about 120% humidity in the air. All your clothes are damp and sticking to you. At least it was October so it wasn't hot, just warm, comfortable really. The opening acts were playing on our stage.
As you can see there's plenty of lights on the stage to make a good show. It was a little overcast, but slowly the clouds grew gray and more and more ominous.About 4 in the afternoon, a cold front blew through. This was the first time I had ever experienced anything like it. One moment, it's a comfortable 76 degrees, and the next it's like someone opened the refrigerator door and the temperature dropped 15 degrees easily. I looked around in the crowd and could see everyone who was sitting around in shorts and bikini tops, pulling on sweatshirts and hats. It was, for me, rather surreal.
Then this happened:
Yes, that is rain coming down. The music you hear is the second stage playing behind me as I film. I hadn't seen rain like this since living in Kane'ohe, and even then, at least it was warm. This was cold and miserable. I could see the field in front of me slowly turning into a pool of brown mud. And all I had was a pair of sandals (I was packing light for the trip, you see)
The strangest part about the rain, it only rained when the other acts were playing on the second stage. It never rained when any act was on our main stage. It was a rather strange phenomenon. I'm not complaining, I was glad of it, because there was talk of postponing the show if the weather got too severe. Granted it's raining hard, but at least it wasn't thunderstorms. I wouldn't want to be one of the 60,000 + fans standing outside when a bolt of lighting cracked a surrounding tree. Which I saw happen on a tour back in 1996.
In 1996, I was just a lowly moving light tech on the Furthur Fest. Which was basically the guys from the Grateful Dead still trying to make money. Anyway, we were in Colorado at the outdoor venue called Fiddlers Green. It was mid afternoon, the show had already started, and I was standing backstage by the buses watching small funnel clouds touching down in the fields behind the venue. I knew this was not good, so I headed into the venue and stood on stage, ready to help in anyway possible. While standing there, I saw a bolt of lighting strike a tree at the back of the lawn seating yards away from some dancing hippies. I jumped preparing for the worst. The hippies cheered and carried on dancing. Go figure.
Moments before Eminem was to step on stage, the rain stopped, they roadies ran around and took the protective plastic sheeting off the instruments. A couple quickly mopped the floor and moment later, the band ran on stage and started the show.
If anyone is sensitive to coarse language, don't watch the following video clip. They swear a lot.
And so it went. Eminem did his one show in 2009 with all of us hoping he does a tour in 2010. The show went well, management was very happy, and I can only assume Slim Shady was happy too. Fingers crossed.
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1 comment:
talk about good timing
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