New Excerpt from my book "We Are The Road Crew"

Ramones


I used to stagehand at all the clubs in my area where there was work. It would consist of load in and load out, and whatever the bands crew needed, whether it was help with gear, running lights, running spotlight, and anything else you could think of. When I heard The Ramones were going to play one of the clubs I worked at, I made sure I was on that crew call.

I had always been a big Ramones fan, so the thought of doing this gig, and possibly meeting them, was a big deal to me. I got to load in early; I wanted to make sure I didn’t miss anything. When the Ramones crew got there, we unloaded sound, lights, and backline, and started setting up. As a stagehand you are there to set up anything and everything that the band needs. Sound check was going to be around six, and I heard that the band would be there for it, and they were. I got to meet them one by one and they were all pretty cool guys. After sound check the Ramones lighting guy said he needed two guys to work the show running spotlights for the band. I volunteered right away.

In an arena spotlights are placed in secure areas away from the crowd, as they are not only important to the show, but they tend to get hot, really hot. So safety is an issue. Now this club didn’t really have anywhere to put these enormous lights, so the Ramones crew put a road case by either side of the soundboard, laid them on their side, off their wheels, and put the spotlights up there. They told us there would be enough room to stand up there as well, and run the light.

Before the show the lighting guy gave each of us a headset so that he could tell us what he wanted us to do. Just before the show we climbed up onto these road cases, fired up the lights, and held on for dear life. This club was packed to the walls with fans that were going wild. They were jammed up against my road case so tight I couldn’t have fallen off if I tried.

It wasn’t long before things got so crazy that my entire road case with me and my light started moving. The lighting guy was yelling at me to stay on Joey the singer, but my case was being shoved around the club ten feet in any direction. I couldn’t focus on anything, I was just trying to hold on and not get burned. I’m pretty sure that my spotlight did shine in the area of the band a few times that night, so it wasn’t a total waste.

After the show I figured I was just going to get fired off the gig right then and there. I was sure that the lighting guy was going to be pissed off at me for screwing up. When the club finally emptied out to a point where we could start working, I went over toward the lighting guy to take the hit. I figured I would just get it over with. When I got there he was laughing so hard he couldn’t talk. It turned out this sort of thing was a regular occurrence at their shows. There really wasn’t any other way for them to run spotlights at their gigs, so they just did what they could and laughed at the local crew guys later. Lesson learned, and I still had any amazing time that night.