HAMLET – In the past I have had many people ask me about what goes on prior to a major production and after the curtain falls. Not many really know the amount of work and time that actually is spent in putting on a major production.
For those that perform these tasks it is a full time job and lots of education and training are part of the process to be able to pull it off successfully. I am going to pick a particular venue and scenario and give a step by step walk through so you can see how much goes into it for you to go to a concert/show and enjoy the couple of hours of actual “showtime.”
The band arrives at The Lincoln Theatre in downtown Raleigh, NC at 3:30 p.m. All of the equipment is unloaded and taken and mostly rolled into the stage entrance in the back of the building. Stage hands and sound engineers are there and help get things unloaded and into the building. But in an effort to keep things organized we usually start with the back line equipment and place those pieces onto the stage first. In this case two drum kits and full percussion on a riser go to the back end of the stage. Otherwise it would just be too many people in the way.
Once all of that equipment is in place then guitar amps and bass amp is placed in front in a line across in front of the riser. Note that all theatres don’t have risers but it is great when they do as it just makes it so the audience can see everything much better.
And then a Hammond B3 and a Leslie 122 cabinet is placed stage right. Then the placement of microphones go on all instrument amplifiers, including all drums. Vocal mics are placed in the proper spots across the very front. Then monitors are placed in various spots on stage (those big black boxes) so the players will be able to hear everything that is being played on stage. There are two mixes: a stage mix for the band and there is FOH (front of house) mix for the audience.
So once all of this is in place, several hundred feet of cables will be run from all the mics to a central board each marked by a number. Then each instrument goes through what is called a “line check” and each drum has a mic on it also and each drum has to be line checked. Now the sound engineer says OK let’s run through part of a song and let’s see where we are and what needs to be addressed. This process under normal circumstances can take a couple of hours and more if there are problems like having a bad cable or some type of electrical noise issue going on, then it can take even longer. This is not a rush through kind of thing and that is why we get started on this well before “show time.” You know the old saying “What can go wrong, will go wrong” and yes it does happen at times, something going wrong that is.
So the band takes the stage at 9:00 p.m. and the show begins and even after all of that work once the theatre is full of people and the energy is there, adjustments need to be made and the band members signal to the guys pushing the faders for the stage mix of what they might need in their monitors. And the FOH guy controlling the sound for the audience is busy getting the levels just right for all to enjoy a great night of music.
Now the show has come to an end and the band has performed an encore, the house lights come on, the band members do a little “meet and greet” with some of the fans and now another phase of the process begins. The stage has to be completely dismantled, all equipment is removed and packed up in the vans, trucks, buses, or whatever we might be traveling in. And the several hundred feet of mic cables are rolled back up and put away until the next show. The band leaves around 12:30 a.m. heading to Asheville, NC to do it all over again the next night.
Just in answering many questions, many people have asked about this process but most had no clue of what goes on “behind the scenes” at a rock and roll concert. I hope this helps you understand that the life of a musician isn’t all glamour, it is a lot of hard work but it is worth it to give the fans a night of great music and to escape for a little while too.
