Tech Talk

Tech Talk

It has been quite a summer over here at  ASU Gammage! We’ve been busy freshening
up the building for the upcoming season and can’t wait to get started! I had a
chance last week to “get in the groove” by working the ASU Fall Welcome Concert
and Event over at Wells Fargo Arena (WFA). (Yes, they do let me out of the
building every now and then!) Working at WFA presents its own unique challenges
as it’s an athletic facility (Go ASU Basketball!) and not the familiar setting
of ASU Gammage.


As you can see in this photo the load-in
area is the West Tunnel (same place the teams enter when playing a game) but it
is continually sloped down toward the court which makes handling road cases that
are on wheels all the more difficult! WFA also resurfaces the court every summer
and guess who has the fun of being the first person on it…? Yup, that would be
me! Since we obviously do not want to mar the bright new shiny floor we use
Teflon maroon cover that protects it from the stage legs, road boxes and concert
goers.


As you can see a lot of work goes into the
construction of the stage and loading in of the Band Gear! The head liner of
this year’s concert was country singer Dierks Bentley and the opener was  rapper
Chingy . It took two full days of working to get the band and their gear loaded
in and performance ready. As you may have realized, there are no “battens”
(pipes you can hang lights or scenery on) in an arena. The way around this is to
crawl up into the catwalks at WFA and hang chain motors onto the steel I-beams
of the building. This is done by professional riggers (even I get week in the
knees when walking around up there, it’s really high!)



At concert time everything was up, the band had been through sound check and we
were set with the lights. Only one thing left to do…. Turn off the lights and
send the talent onstage!



This was a few minutes before “Go” time.
Security everywhere and nothing much to do until concert time.


Chingy starts things off with some high energy rapping!


This was all I could shoot of Dierks
(contract issues), but it was a good show!! And WFA was packed too! Go Devils!

Day three of the Fall Welcome week was the Sun Devil Welcome where all the
incoming students are invited to WFA to listen to people speak and get ready for
the beginning of their new adventure as a Sun Devil. Dr Crow, Lisa Love, Coach
Sendek and others spoke at the event and were very motivating. The day concluded
with the ASU Marching Band storming the arena and teaching the Sun Devil Fight
Song!

Here is the Sun Devil Marching Band standing
by for their takeover of the arena! I am not sure how many students are in the
band (there are tons of them) and yet they all squished into the west tunnel and
ran all throughout the arena while playing their instruments, truly awesome!
Of course all great events come to an end! The floor was unharmed and we cleaned
up all of our messes! It was a great week of load-ins, rigging, rap, country,
inspiration and Sun Devil Pride! I can’t wait until next year! If you can’t wait
to here more feel free to shoot me an email, I always love to talk tech!

-Jeff Rollins