Riders on the Storm

It was a day just like any other Texas day  at the Cotton Bowl: hot and humid. A crew from Showlites was making steady progress, and we were well ahead of schedule that day, putting up a fairly decent-sized lighting rig for a Journey show that was about to be unleashed upon unsuspecting Dallas residents that weekend. The rig was a 400-plus lamp system, not including audience lights and the Molefays that were to be used on the P.A. wings to light two enormous scrims on either side of the screens used for Eidophore (large scale) projections.

{mosimage}One of the gags that was planned for the show was to have the roof lowered to the deck, with the downstage edge tilted to expose the band’s album graphic—a cosmic burst that was lit up. Just as the music started and the band took the stage, liquid nitrogen was to be pumped through a steam injector to fill the stage with fog. The rig would light and the roof would rise to expose a collapsing fog bank and the band. Pretty cool!

We were having the time of our life, finishing our work on a major tour going out the door, and getting to do a great gig for a great band. We were well ahead of schedule, and we pulled a daylight focus that was right on, and the only thing left to do was to put the Molefays up for the scrim wash the next day. Nature, however, decided to put us all to task. We’d heard reports of scattered showers that day. As we neared the end of the day’s work, clouds started to gather, and the stage manager, TD, decided it was time to secure everything because some lightning had been spotted in the distance. We figured we’d be able to hang and focus the roof lights on the towers after it all blew past. The weather figured otherwise. A light breeze kicked up, so it was determined that the roof would be brought in and the trusses would be set on bar-boxes. All the chains were to be taken in and the roof strapped to the deck. Mind you, this is a 40- by 60-foot mass of aluminum and steel we’re talking about!

The wind started to crank up pretty steadily, all the racks were covered and most of the stagehands went up to the catering tent to wait out the rain. Suddenly, things started to shake as the wind gusted. The guy in charge of the staging system screamed at all of us to abandon the rig just as the sky went black and the rain went from vertical to horizontal! He pulled out a buck knife and ran across the stage, cutting the roof cover’s lashings just as a huge gust of wind came along—reports later on said gusts were between 50 to 60 miles an hour—and lifted the roof and the entire rig off the stage about 6 to 10 feet and slammed it all back down hard enough to break the filaments in the PAR cans! Lightning flashed and the rain drove down even harder.

Then, as suddenly as it came, the storm passed. The sky turned a dull gray, wind all but stopped and the rain came down at a steady, but gentler rate. We all clambered back onto the deck to survey the damage and see if anyone was hurt.

All told, we had to relamp about a dozen cans, plus all the Ultra-Arc followspots on the stage. We spent the whole night in the driving rain resetting everything. Once, we had been hours ahead of schedule, but now, we were a day behind with the show scheduled for the following afternoon. The production manager and promoters wondered if we could pull it off or if they were going to have to cancel. But none of us, from the sound crew to the staging and lighting crews, would hear of it.

The next day, the stadium filled with excited fans, and we had just hung and focused the last Molefay when the opening act started to play. We all learned later than a funnel cloud had been seen just outside the venue, and through the night we had continued to work with severe storm warnings in effect for the area. The band took the stage, the opening effect went off just as planned and all of us finally let loose a deep sigh of relief. We wondered about the following gig in Houston. At least that one would be in the Astrodome. Mother Nature, it seems, likes to rock as well as we do.

Thomas Michael Simmons
Lancaster, CA