BY MIKEY MIGO
You're covered in sweat. Some of it is yours, but a lot from complete strangers. Your heart beat is slowing down to a normal pace. You adjust your clothes and make sure you have your wallet and keys as you look around for your friends. Your eyes regain focus as if you just got done staring at the sun. You take a deep breath and grin ear to ear as you find your ride in a sea of people. You catch up with your friend or friends and join the flow of people piling out. Everyone is sharing the same beat. They're going home and will be telling their friends and coworkers the next day about how great the show was.
The band has said their "Thank you! Good nights!" to the sea of fans. The artist is most likely now on a slight ego buzz. They just shared their art, music, and soul with a crowd of eager fans. In exchange the fans cheered at the right parts, sang back at them, and gave them one more night of living their dream. The artist takes a deep drink of his beverage, cleans himself up a little, and makes his way to his dressing room. He discusses what could have been done different, that chick in the third row's tits, and apologizes for missing his cue on the second verse of the 12th song on the set list. The entire band continues on with enjoying their success and relaxing before the next night's gig.
Then there are the tired, scruffy, and often un-kept men hard at work. These guys are focused on their task and are working as if their machines. In many ways, thanks to repetition they are. They are scurrying about the abandoned stage in the abandoned arena picking up the broken guitar pieces from the big smashing finale. They are rushing to dismantle the stage props, put away the instruments, organize the rigs for the next night, and all of the unseen and seldom appreciated tasks. These guys are hard at work; tearing down what was a memory for hundreds, sometimes thousands so the next hundreds and some times thousands can experience their own.
These workers are sometimes called "road crew" or "techs" or "engineers" or even "road manager", but to many they are just summed up as one and called "roadies". While they have their own designated task for the bigger bands and become a utility man for a smaller one. I don't know every crew member out there on the road, so I can't say I know the proper PC term to call them. I'll go with the term "roadie" today in the highest amount of respect.
Let's face it, without roadies we wouldn't have the same concerts we go to. We'd not have the proper sound, glitz and glamour, or an energized performer. It would be the band loading and setting their equipment up every night and wearing them out. It would be a simple production without any of the big lights, fluent guitar changes, and huge problems going unnoticed. But instead, these unsung heroes take the task of going along on the ride that is a tour or concert.
I know what I think the answers would be, but I still can't help but wonder "Why?" Is it the money? Is it the journey of the road? Is it the love of the music you're around? Is it the people you meet? What is it? And then I think about it and it seems like it could easily be any of those things. Doing something you love, seeing the world, living out of a suitcase, and experiencing the rockstar lifestyle without playing a note seems very appealing.
Even if a roadie never takes on a dream of being on the stage, they can still share some of the spotlight. You gotta really put it in perspective that these bands and the crew making them look good are all way from their homes, families, and normal lives. So with the time on the road they become close and sometimes family. Pink Floyd actually recorded their roadies speaking and used it on "Darkside of the Moon" so that's one way. Bands like Pantera featured the roadies on their tour videos, while bands like Lynard Skynyrd went as far as to put them on album covers. One of the most notable roadie references was when Neil Young wrote a song about one his crew members who overdosed.
As if this was a total stretch, there has been quite a few world known musicians who got their start as roadies. Soundgarden's Ben Shepard was a roadie for Nirvana, Henry Rollins roadied for Minor Threat, Bill Howerdel was a tech for Tool and Nine Inch Nails before starting his own A Perfect Circle, and Lemmy was a roadie for this one guitar playing guy named Jimi Hendrix. So other than the proper respect they should be given for making the show go off without a hitch, you never know which one of those guys lugging equipment around will become the next rockstar icon.
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