I've been working with Phil Reigh Sound since roughly the age of 15, which is at least seven years of dutiful servitude to my father's sound business. I'm the only one of the females in the family to work consistently with my father, an honor that I happily accept. This weekend is one of our largest events ever, Chrome at the Dome at the Clearfield County Fairground. Today we had a long load in day under a hot sun. Let me tell you more...
I spent much of this past week preparing with my dad to get things ready for this massive event. In addition to renting a stage and lights, we rented some other sound equpment to fill our complement. It's been an adventure to say the least, and that's just the start.
My dad and my bro-in-law Bryan went out yesterday to get the fairground paging system going. Luckily I was not needed for this part of the project. The crew left town spread across three vehicles at the butt crack of dawn this morning and hit the fair grounds around 9:30. After sitting around and reading The Periodic Table by Primo Levi for most of the morning, I went with Dad to meet the stage (yeah, I meant what I said) around 11:30. After getting back to the fairgrounds, the stage--which merely looked like a plain white big rig--began to unfold. It took two guys about an hour and a half to set up this beautiful stage. It was hydraulic, very professional looking, has a roof and side wings for speaker stacks. We ate lunch while they worked on it. As soon as the stage was up, however, it was time to get to work.
After unpacking everything and semiorganizing, the work was fairly nonstop. It wasn't grueling nonstop, mind you, but if you sat down for more than a few minutes there was something else that required attention. Things were rolling along quite efficiently when the lighting company arrived early, around three o'clock. All but my father and I helped with the lighting work. I set myself upon a most daunting task, which I not only royally screwed up but made much harder than it had to be.
So let me set the scene for you. There's two huge pipes that run under this gravel track from one side of the stage to the place where house mix is. This pipe, about eighty feet long, had a rope tied to the large, manhole cover-like lids on each end. Let's just say I was having a royal blonde moment. First of all, I didn't realize the manhole covers just pulled right off. The seven bolts on each lid on each pipe did not need to be removed quite patiently by hand, requiring at least five minutes per bolt... No, the lid just popped off, more like a beer bottle. If that were the only stupid thing I did, that wouldn't be so bad. The magical rope, the rope that was needed to pull cabling from one end of the pipe to the other? I just tossed it in the pipe. All of it. So now, there's no way to run the cabling through this pipe; the rope is all on one side of the pipe with no concievable way of getting it back through. Luckily, there's the second pipe. As I was complaining about having to unbolt the lid, it was indicated to me that they could be just pulled off... after I had spent oh I don't know, an hour getting the lids off of the other pipe. Right about now, I'm feeling like the largest horse's ass to ever enter that county fairground.
After a little self pity party, I got back to work. But I was still frustrated, and it was after five, so I was starving. Yes, I'm pathetic, I become immediately hungry as soon as the clock strikes five. I swear I could set a watch by my stomach. Anyway, three Domino's pizzas arrived, and I was instantly happy again. What a great dinner. Not much later, we were all set up, and we left the fair ground closer to nine PM.
When we got home, I took the second most necessary shower I've ever taken in my life. The first is a tie of about five or six showers, actually, that occurred during my high school production of West Side Story. I was Puerto Rican, and the make-up was brutal. Tonight's shower included multiple instances of field dirt and cabling dirt, but the worst of all was the nasty grease that was piled insanely thickly on all of those nuts and bolts on the pipe covers... the ones I didn't need to remove in the first place. After wiping off all the dirt layers, the sunburn showed through, worst on my back and shoulders. Right now I am physically exhausted beyond compare, and just want to go to sleep. This event is tomorrow and Sunday, featuring motorcycles, stunt bikes, rock bands, and most importantly, Evel Knievel. I'll explain more when I'm more awake. Love ya.