Rock'n the Rally

OK back to my real life. I've haven't been blogging lately and I apologize to my regular readers (there are two of you). Here's the deal...I was stuck in a state that wouldn't leave me even after I left it. But let me back up...

I've already done my best to explain the insanity that is the Sturgis Motorcycle Rally with bikers galore and women wearing nothing but chaps and lacy underwear (i know guys, and it would have been hot if they weren't well past mid age).

So the reason I was there was for a particular concert series. More specifically I was working as a Production Assistant for a company that films concerts and turns them into DVDs. We were there to film 5 nights of concerts for a dvd and also Nickelback as their own dvd.

2 weeks of prep...14 days in a row...16 hours a day...4 hour turn-arounds...you can see why I didn't keep my blog updated.

Technically we finished the wrap last Wednesday, but it's taken me until now to really get my life back. It's been a little crazy.

Basically the concert series was 4 bands a night for 5 nights from about 4:30 - 11:30. The line up included: Shooter Jennings, Keith Urban, Big and Rich (who, I might add are terrible), Steve Miller (who was rained out), REO Speedwagon, Tom Petty, Sammy Hagar, 38 Special, Live, Gin Blossoms, and Nickelback.

Because the entire state was already booked for hotel rooms (perhaps a small exaggeration) we slept on tour busses. Let me tell you what's not comfortable...tour busses. I don't know how those poor bands do it.

The campground we were at had 80,000 RV spots with water, power and sewage. Here's just a tiny portion of it:


I took this picture from the top of the ampitheater the owner had built over the past year by trucking in a giant mountain of dirt.

This is the other side:


That mountain in the distance is a sacred Indian mountain where the men go to pray. Needless to say they were NOT thrilled with the new concert ampitheater that was built in their backyard. Progress marches on, but so do native Americans, in our case shutting down main street for a day, but I digress...

The fellows in that picture are Rick and Jake. They were filming backstage stuff which I helped with by having releases signed. Mostly though, we walked around in the heat and listened to some decent music.

This is what it looked like onstage...


and backstage...

Remember from my blog about Petty, how I talked about the jumbotron screens? This is what they look like on the back:



So basically it was a week of heat and poorly dressed women and watching people get hammered but working so many hours that one couldn't join the party. Which, at the end of the day, was probably not a huge loss.

I did learn however, that if you're a girl standing on stage with a clipboard and headset, rock stars will talk to you and thank you for running such a fun gig. What did I, the least important person there, do in response? Smiled and thanked him for being a part of our show.

But enough with rock and roll...back to my real life of gardening/cooking/writing/filming and soon: dark-rooming (more on that to come!)