Tait Stages

Hi Ben-

Yeah, this was all shot for a 'reality' TV show that likely lacked the human confrontations needed to retain an audience. "Man vs physics" doesn't have the longevity of "man vs man" like stuff in the custom motorcycle and hot rod shows. For this show, once the wow-factor was done a couple of times the attention span of most viewers was likely eclipsed.

It's great info stuff for we tech folks and stagehands, though. Generally everything is engineered, designed and built to be in show position, whether on the ground or in the air, no more than 5 hours from opening the first truck with the majority of work accomplished in the first 4 hours. This means in the last 10-12 years, stagehand calls have gone from 50-70 hands to 100-150 to perform the miracles of Spectacle Stagecraft. As an IATSE member I'm glad to see more spectacle :D.

At any rate, Tait does really good work and genuinely understands industrial grade touring as well as safety and interpreting designer visions. They are the Clair Bros of staging and set automation.
 
Ben, you need to get on your IATSE Local's "casual" list. It's for folks who don't want or intend to make a living as a hand but are willing to work on 'over hire' situations (where the show needs more hands than the venue has employees). If you've never see a load in and set up, it's pretty awe-inspiring. There are a number of time-lapse videos on youtube, too.

For an arena show the day starts with the tour's head rigger and the venue/Local head rigger doing the "walk and chalk", where the rigging points are chalked out on the arena floor, the bridle calculations done and the "hieroglyphics" written next to the point locations. The first truck is then unloaded, typically with production office stuff coming off first, then chain hoists, wire rope slings and other rigging gear. If the tour is carrying its own stage, that is typically the next stuff unloaded and is sent to the far end of the arena floor for assembly (the stage is on wheels and will be pushed back to the stage-end of the arena after rigging is done and lights/video/set are in the air, usually right before the end of the 5th hour). Headline artist backline and set pieces are placed on stage before the push, too.

With 3 acts on the show, typically the headline act has a 4pm sound check, direct support (middle act) gets the stage around 5pm, and the opening act gets the stage sometime between 6pm and doors opening. On a 5 or 6 band metal show things are more compressed but the headline gets first dibs on the day schedule and everything is subservient to their uses.
 
Should do that. I have pushed a few cases around but nothing even close to the scale of these shows. Would consider but short on time. Thoroughly enjoy watching in full casual mode. Up in my neck of the woods we have a couple smaller venues and some B list Summer fairground outdoor acts but no Arena venues.
 
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