Living thru the first show

Evan played his first show of the tour on Wednesday, June 15th in West Palm Beach at the Cruzan Amphitheatre. We arrived early to talk with the production manager and to off load Evan's gear. Being the first show, we wanted to give ourselves plenty of time to wonder the arena and talk with people. My head was swirling with questions as I took in my new environment. I wanted to learn as quickly as possible to build a routine for show nights.

When we arrived at 2 PM I was surprised to see so many people hard at work. I thought we might be arriving to an empty arena since the gates wouldn't be opening until 6:30 PM for the show. Apparently, Heart and Def Leppard had been at the Cruzan Amphitheatre for 4 days rehearsing while their production crew had put together and tested the stage setup. Sort of like boot camp to prepare for the summer long tour.

Evan and I were watching 'how the sausage is made', the backstage preparation that goes into a rock tour of this magnitude. There were men running light patterns, lowering screens, testing drum kits, painting pieces of plywood, using a circular saw to cut 2' x 4's, and everywhere people shouting into handheld radios. There were around 8 semi-trucks backed up to a loading dock and dozens of road cases were precisely places on the concrete slab outside of the backstage doors. Each were spray painted in neon colors with labels like "Nancy Wilson", "Heart", "Def Leppard", "Hardware", "Cables", etc.

Evan sound checking

We wondered the grounds, checking out the view of the stage from the lawn to the front row seats. Anyone that was willing to talk with us, we engaged in conversation. The most interesting stories came from the stage hands. A small number of them were traveling the summer with the tour but most of the men were locally hired. The locals spun long stories for us about the events that had taken place over the last 4 days and then stretched back into their memories to share stories with us of other musical acts they had worked for. We heard about a runner (this is a person that runs errands to help the success of the show, sometimes to the grocery store or maybe the liquor store but a runner can also be a person that drives the musicians around town if needed) that misunderstood their assignment and bought 50 gallons of milk instead of the requested 5 for the Rolling Stones. There were many little treats like this one that they wanted to share with anyone that would listen.

Evan went on stage at 7:30 PM on the dot and was expected to be off the stage by 7:45 PM. He started his set with "Latitude" playing slide guitar on his resonator and stomping on his porch board bass. Towards the end of the song Evan had stomped his motorcycle boots with a little too much enthusiasm and the XLR input cable shot out the back of the bass sending an ear piercing boom through the speakers. Evan was able to make a joke about the event and the crowd laughed in acceptance of his apology. That was the only hiccup in Evan's performance. He continued his show with "Woodpecker", another Evan Watson original and then played a cover, "Shape I'm In" by The Band. The crowd sang along and danced. He finished out his set with "Indiana" and the thousands of listens applauded in approval. I caught a glimpse of Ann Wilson standing backstage listening to Evan's performance while I waited for the stage crew to clear off Evan's instruments. No booing was audible so it is safe to say that Evan's first show was a success.

Evan on stage for his first performance
of the tour. I was standing on the left of
the stage next to the sound board.

Evan had come off stage in a high and for the rest of the evening stage hands, production managers, members of Heart's band, audience members and visiting friends congratulated Evan on his success. We bounced back and forth from watching the performances of Heart and then Def Leppard to relaxing backstage to catch a few more stories from stage hands.

Additionally, it was a successful night for me as the road manager. I had gotten our all access passes for the summer, got a few names on the comp list, introduced myself to all the backstage players and at the end of the night I was able to get Evan's paycheck! Introductions are always a bit uncomfortable but I had established beginning relationships with the production manager, stage manager and merchandise manager. Moving forward I knew it would be easier to make requests for payment and the such.

We headed out a bit early to beat the traffic and drove the hour back to Mr. Bobby's apartment in Plantation, FL. Evan and I were exhausted from the day and needed our rest. We had one day between shows so we made plans to lay on the beach. The following morning we soaked up some sun and relaxed after our hard nights work which is the reason I didn't get to my computer until today :)