Being a weekend warrior for the last 15 years has generated many crazy stories, but this one tops them all. The itinerary I received from the production company stated “six piece band, company party, 13th floor of the … hotel, sound check @ 6:00 p.m.” My wife of 27 years and I carry a one-ton rig in a utility trailer that I pull with my day-to-day AV install company truck. We pull up to the hotel at 2:30 p.m. and begin questioning the staff as to where to load in.
When I finally get an answer, I have to go looking for the loading dock security guard, whose two-way radio is broken, so he can open the door to let us in. After a half an hour of searching, we find him in the hotel cafeteria and then have to wait 15 minutes for him to open the door to find the entire dock area loaded with dumpsters.
After getting permission to double-park my truck and trailer in the street, we take the first load on carts and navigate our way around the dumpsters, down a long ramp, up a short ramp, through a greasy kitchen and into a freight elevator.
We were told that we had to load all of our gear onto the 12th floor first, park the truck and trailer, then roll the gear down a long, thickly-carpeted hallway to another elevator to the 13th floor. After a little over an hour, we finally have the whole rig stationed in the hallway of the 12th floor, and the truck is parked a half mile from the hotel in a pay lot.
With the first load in tow, we are informed that the elevator to the 13th floor is on a timer and it won’t be available until 5:30 p.m. They told us they would open the restaurant, but we have to take the stairs if we want to load in before 5:30 p.m. So just to get things going, we grab a couple items we can carry and head up the stairs.
Once in the room, we find part of a DJ system consisting of an 8-channel mixer, no snake, no amps, two monitors, a sub and two 10-inch two ways on sticks. I explained to the restaurant manager that the gear was not usable for the act they had hired and that we needed it moved out of the way before we could load in my gear.
When the manager’s boss shows up, he says there is nobody on staff that can move it and there is nowhere to store it. So I decide to patch in what is needed from my system because it is getting late.
So I separate the needed gear and stage it next to the still-locked elevator when the security guard approaches me with “you can’t leave the rest of your system on the 12th floor, you have to put it back in your truck.” So I get a cab back to my truck, drive back to the hotel and load the remainder of my system back out and re-park my truck.
When I get back to the 12th floor, soaked in sweat, I find the elevator is now working, so I grab a load and enter the elevator. When I get to the 13th floor to start patching the system together, I find that someone has removed the house system, and I am told that it is stowed away in a storage closet on the 5th floor.
It is now 5:50 p.m. and I am greeted by an old fella dressed up like “old blue-eyes” claiming to be the opening act, and he needs PA by 6 p.m. Nobody told me about an opening act!
So I grab the keyboard amp from the band that my production company hired, banged in a mic and his boom box, and told him to “go for it” while my wife and I load the house PA back up the elevators and into the restaurant.
I managed to get a minimal system up and working by the time old blue eyes finished his act without disturbing anybody. The show went on without a sound check and was a success despite the mess. That night, it was confirmed that a good portion of what I get paid for is dealing with idiots while keeping a cool head, maintaining a marriage and providing good sound no matter what. I did demand a raise that night…and got it. I love my job!
Kevin Lloyd
Moonlighting Enterprises, Inc.
Edgewater, Maryland
tooloud@moonlightingent.com
