In The Wilderness: origin of the band ~ Road Crew: Ed, Don & I

~:~

Our 'performance to performance' routine consisted of us arriving somewhere like the Greensboro Country Club in North Carolina for a 'private party', unloading the equipment off the truck and down the ramp; big black road box after big black road box. Once in the ballroom, we would set each road box (on wheels of course) end after end thus intimidating anyone who would question our authority. Don taught me this based on his countless road crew experience with the biggest bands in our southeastern market along with his experience with the national acts like Bob Segar and especially Grand Funk Railroad (Bob would actually help his road crew load-in to the arena just for the hell-uv-it). I enjoyed this new found authority and while immersed in it, we quietly opened the large wooden boxes and set-up everything but the stage, although we did have a quite nifty drum riser for the drummer, my dad.

After setting up everything we would sound check the PA which as most of you know has been immortalized in the often repeated, "Check, mic check 1, 2, 3. Mic check 1, 2 3." We would sometimes say "4" but never go any higher than that. After the mic check, I would check Dad's drums with the most important being the bass or 'kick' drum. You would kick the foot pedal until the amazing Don' had it equalized and coming out through the front speakers with a thunderous bottom end sound, "Boom . . . Boom . . . Boom". If the staff still questioned out authority, they didn't now as Don would 'bump' the volume of the bass drum way louder than he ever anticipated using it during the show. After all this audible checking, we would then aim all the lights with their multi-colored gels on two large metal stands on either side of the stage. If we had room, we would set up a back-line lighting truss which we'll refer to later. There was, however, a story from one of the former members of the band--before this new incarnation--where the lovable trumpet player accidentally tripped over one of the bulky light stands on the front line sending it and the lights crashing on top of an elaborately prepared banquet table. Although not a witness to this incident, I have it pretty fixed in mind in just how it happened. It is still funny.

Eventually, we would be all ready for the musicians to come on stage and plug into the amps--already provided and set-up for the little heifers--but being we were almost always probably three to four hours completely set-up before show time, we would first ask where the nearest Quincys or equivalent was so we could let our hair down with an all-encompassing buffet meal and bottomless coffee . . . listening to the inevitable stories from Ed and Don. One of the rare stories that I was in concerned just such an episode. After one of our many set-ups, we arrived at one Quincys in downtown Winston-Salem during rush hour and upon exiting the truck, we noticed that one of the huge, steel back-line lighting trusses happened to still be on top of the truck. It had every chance to impale anyone--front or back of us--on the lengthy trip through rush-hour traffic on the way to our Quincys. You know, somebody had to have been watching out for us and I think they still do. Let's hit that buffet ya'll.

~:~