We had another successful show yesterday. The weather calmed down compared to load in. It was not nearly as windy and only scored a 6 of 10 on “Charlie’s Shiver-O-Meter.” A local band and Drew Seeley from High School Musical helped open the night up. The show was headlined by Jordin Sparks from American Idol.
We arrived in Cleveland last night in order to do this show for the RTA Celebration. It’s a Celebration concert for the new transit authoriy route in Cleveland headlined by American Idol winner Jordin Sparks. This show calls for a new “Charlie-O-Meter”. Load in scored a solid 9 of 10 on “Charlie’s Shiver-O-Meter”. The cutting winds, time of year, and my general unpreparedness for Cleveland in October all factored into this score.
This is sort of an odd event for us in Mobile Staging. Normally, we arrive day of show and have five or six hours to set up prior to the show. This event involved getting to Cleveland on Thursday night, setting up on Friday, and doing the show on Saturday. It is a far cry from SHOUTfest where we get there at 8am, setup til show time at 1pm, and load out before midnight and get on the road.
At any rate, we set up our 32X30 foot stage today and did line checks. Tomorrow is sound checks and show. I’ll give you an update on how the show goes.
Our 32X30 foot stage flew solo in Cullman, Alabama yesterday for Youthquake 2008. Youthquake in Cullman was one of the legs of the Creation Tour. We provided only the staging for this event that hosted several bands and a couple thousand fans. The bands included Thousand Foot Krutch, Pillar, and Kutless and several others including two CTS Mobile Stage vets from the summer baseball tour: Capital Lights and Run Kid Run.
SHOUTfest is here! SHOUTfest is a traveling outdoor festival tour that strives to be more of a tool for ministry in each local community than just an entertaining music tour. The tour dates feature 15+ CCM artists on two CTS mobile stages each date. CTS has been trusted to provide the audio, lighting, and staging.
We had a greatly successful SHOUTfest show yesterday in Mt Vernon, Ohio outside of Columbus. The forecast called for rain and the big Ohio State vs USC game was scheduled… and the result? A rockin’ show, no rain, a 9.5 of 10 on “Charlie’s Sweat-O-Meter,” and a crowd of more than 6000.
The show was headlined by Sixpence None the Richer, Family Force 5, Thousand Foot Krutch, and Relient K. That’s right Sixpence None the Richer is back on tour and making SHOUTfest a part of their reunion tour. Family Force 5 also put on quite the show. As far as gimmicks go, they have one of the coolest. They built a full 6 foot by 6 foot working MPC drum machine. If you get a chance to see these guys in concert, do it.
Yesterday we had a great show after a Minnesota Twins, Detroit Tigers game on the field in Minneapolis. We had twenty minutes to set up on the field after the end of the game. This show was a little different. The clearance to get on the field would not accomodate one of our hydraulic stages, so we used custom carts to roll everything out onto the field and just used the field as a stage. CCM artist Matthew West put on an incredible show. The show was a big hit and truly touched the hearts of a couple thousand fans.
We had another great show in Tucson, AZ at the Diamond Backs’ and White Sox’ spring training complex. We set up on one of the spring training fields outside the Tucson Sidewinders’ stadium for a post-game show. The show started a little after 9pm and a couple thousand people showed up to see Hawk Nelson. The show had a lot of energy and the crowd was really into it! It was a 9 out of 10 on “Charlie’s Sweat-O-Meter” for load-in and easily a 7 of 10 by show time.
Getting on the field was a little tricky, but lucky for us we have the Mega-Stage 32X30 foot stage. To get on the field we had a tight turn onto a sidewalk leading to the field. It was a tight turn, flanked with obstacles, that likely could not have been accomplished with an SL250. The SL250 is another popular stage in the industry that compares in stage size quite well to Mega-Stage that we own, however our stage is only a 34 foot trailer. The SL250 has a fold out tongue that is not used for extra stage space. It’s a little over 46 feet long making the SL250 a whopping 12 feet longer while driving down the road.
Right now we’re headed to Fresno to start our run of shows in California. I’ll be keeping you updated on these as we make these shows happen. I hope to talk to you soon.
We loaded up the covered wagon and headed west. I’m on the road out west after two great shows with the Hawk Nelson Baseball Tour. We did a show at an incredible ballpark north of Dallas in Frisco, TX. If you’re ever in the area when it’s baseball season, I highly recommend taking in a game there.
A couple thousand showed up to see Capital Lights, Mark Stuart, and Hawk Nelson on our 32X30 foot Mobile Stage for a pre-game show. The temperature was in triple digits and scored a solid 8.5 out of 10 on “Charlie’s Sweat-O-Meter.” Next on the dial—Tucson.
It has been some time since my last entry. So 
where to start. We did the WAY-FM Brownbag with Sanctus Real and American Idol Chris Sligh on the 24′X20′ and the Hawk Nelson Baseball Tour on the 32′X30′ since my last correspondence.
The WAY-FM show went great on our 24′X20′ Stage. It marked the second American Idol Finalist on that stage in less than a month after Mandisa in Colorado. Idol Finalist Chris Sligh opened for Sanctus Real. The day scored a 9.5 out of 10 on “Charlie’s Sweat-O-Meter.” It was a very hot July day in Franklin, TN.
The Hawk Nelson Baseball tour met Big Ten country in this last leg through Indiana, Ohio, Wisconsin, and Michigan. We used the 32X30 Stage. They had a couple of different openers on this leg including Run Kid Run and Capital Lights.
Coming up soon is The Baseball tour on the West Coast including a Major League post-game show in Kansas City. Talk to you soon!
Greetings! I had intended for my first entry to introduce myself and the kind of things I would be talking about on this blog, but– the unexpected, as it often does in outdoor shows, intervened and completely threw my plans out the window.
Most of the CTS production gang and I were scheduled to do a festival on Independence Day weekend on the western slope of Colorado called Nightvision, put together by Praise Him Ministries. Our responsibility was to provide the audio for the main and side stage and to provide the side stage. Our preparation went well, but did not prepare us for what was to come.
The show on July 4th on the main stage headlined Leeland and Kirk Franklin. July 5th was to headline Mandisa and Mercy Me. Our 24′X20′ side stage was simply to host a worship band talent contest.
Rain and high winds ensued just as the worship bands were to begin. Mike and I rushed to get tarps on our equipment. Once the side stage gear had been covered in its tarps and Mike and I had time to catch our breath we looked at the Main Stage. It was a 60′X40′ concrete stage with truss built towers and roof. The roof was now sitting at a sub 90 degree angle and looked to be coming down. The Main Stage staging company crew did a great job at securing the roof and readjusting it to the correct angle. Great right?
Nobody felt safe doing a show on a tweaked stage. The integrity of the stage was questionable after the unpredictable weather event had occurred. Once the storm had passed the decision was made to move the festivities to our side stage. Video was moved over, some extra PA was moved to accomodate the newly scheduled side stage bands. The show went great and the crowd was pleased and the client was satisfied with the results. Our stage saved the day!
In coming posts I’ll bring you stories from the road and shows, including the WAY FM Brownbag coming up in a couple of weeks with Sanctus Real and the Third Coast Sports Hawk Nelson Baseball Tour. I hope to talk to you soon.
