Backstage, big clean up, and what's on my design wall

Tuesday night was the first time I got a tour of the backstage area for a Springsteen concert. My brother, Bob, is so funny. He said "stand here and don't touch anything." My nephew had a t-shirt on that said "Listen to Bob." Here is my nephew, my brother Mike, and my SIL Robin in the background.

Here are Nils Lofgren's guitars.

Soozie's guitars.

One of Bob's jobs is to take care Soozie's guitars and violins. He tunes them and runs up and down these steps all night switching out the instruments for each song and they do seem to change for each song! I sat where I could see him up and down these steps all evening!

We headed around the back and there were road cases and huge cables everywhere!

In the back center of the stage was an curtained opening to underneath the stage.

Underneath was Bruce's guitars and lots more equipment.

These are the steps the band uses to get to the stage.

As we walked to the other side of the stage Bob would introduce us to crew members. They were all very nice. Here is more guitars and equipment on the right side of the stage.

We turned around to walk back and we stopped at the back center of the stage area and Bob opened the curtain so we could see the art work one of the crew members put on the floor. He made this free hand with gaffer tape. He does this for every show and the band walks across it to head to the stage. It takes the fellow 4 hours to make this. Pretty cool! This is in the area between the stage area and the loading dock.

To the left and right of the floor design there was mountains of road cases! Yes, more! I can't imagine having to pack up all that equipment! I don't know how many semi trucks they were using, but my best guess would be at least four to six. I remember on the Pink Floyd tour my brother said they had twelve equipment trucks and that didn't include the stage!

So now you know what a back stage area looks like. And I didn't touch anything!

I was tired last night. I knew if I sat down I would fall asleep and after getting a bite to eat I did exactly that. I woke up at 5:30 so I made myself get up and clean up the studio. Here is the before

Here is the after. I also did a couple loads of laundry, but ran out of time to vacuum. I ended up with a garbage bag that was 3/4 full of bits. The room feels and looks much better. Tonight I will be getting after the laundry room. I had a pile of scraps I toss on the floor in there and well, wait to you see the before pictures tomorrow. I will be honest and show what two weeks of sewing and not doing laundry or cleaning up looks like!

I did dig out all my AC/DC shirts and they were in a pile in the studio, so as part of the clean up I cut them up, ironed on the interfacing, and hung them on the design wall. My Akron Art Prize entry this year will be a t-shirt piece with just AC/DC shirts and patches. I still need to get a few more shirts. I have bought some patches already. I want to get this piece put together so I can start the embroidery on it sooner than when I stated on the piece last year. Michael has some concerts already booked so I can take it with me to work on while I sit at the merchandise booth.