following a tour across usa across road trip and work
- Thread starterDagger
- Start date
If you are making it work, more power to ya. I can't see to many lvenues wanting to be doing ppwk on someone they know for sure they will only see once. I know that is part of the business and I do plenty of that, but if I can avoid it I do. Also, if you are able to get on the call lists at each stop that takes some real talent. Unless you are following a 150-200 hand show...
Now, I know plenty of people who have done 3 days of attending Phish here in town and then found themselves in San Francisco 8 weeks later also at a Phish show with no way to explain how they got there.... but that is a bit different way to follow a tour.
Now, I know plenty of people who have done 3 days of attending Phish here in town and then found themselves in San Francisco 8 weeks later also at a Phish show with no way to explain how they got there.... but that is a bit different way to follow a tour.
porkchop
Well-Known Member
I am surprised this is working out for you, but if it is then more power to you. You may have gotten lucky, but if you're actually working for the IATSE local each city this will eventually become an issue for you because some larger locals will look at this at you taking work away from one of their members. A local labor company or a weak union local may not care as long as they're getting paid for your labor, but that won't always be the case. For this to work for any length of time you're going to have to get the show's Production Manager to add you to the touring crew. Large shows like that often hire several different vendors for specific parts of the show rather than try to manage everyone as an employee so this might be easier than it sounds if they like you're work.
Good luck buddy!
Good luck buddy!
porkchop
Well-Known Member
I'm happy that has worked for you thus far, but you're putting in a lot of risk with absolutely no guarantee of reward. I have worked with IA halls out there that will view what you're doing as taking work away from their members and they are large enough to fill all of the spots so there will be no open spots left over. There's even some buildings where a union steward could be a very insistent on the contract and refuse to use you to fill an open position.
When I was a touring stagehand I wouldn't have cared who got the work as long as they were good at doing it, but a union steward, who among their other duties is protecting the union's workers, could see it very differently (and there are those I've met that do).
Whoever you're talking to and working with on the touring unit that his helped you get work thus far talk to them, convince them you're worth keeping for the entire tour, start an official relationship with the production manager or the rigging vendor, and get a contract that guarantees that you'll continue to have work. Otherwise eventually you're going to find yourself as having driven a long way for nothing.
Agreed that this seems like a bad idea but if its working for you, more power to ya. It does sound like you've gotten lucky. Have a plan for when your luck runs out and you're in some random city. Are you actually making enough doing this and road tripping and staying places?
Personally I'd look at cruise ships. If you're that willing to move around... there are tons of production companies and rental houses where you an get rigging and touring and event experience, and many will hire some inexperienced people if they can prove they have common sense and work hard.
Personally I'd look at cruise ships. If you're that willing to move around... there are tons of production companies and rental houses where you an get rigging and touring and event experience, and many will hire some inexperienced people if they can prove they have common sense and work hard.
Union pyas rigger fairly well im also working 10+ hrs a day .after 8hrs OT and overnight double time.
I stay in hostels fairly cheap.
This is the last city tbe tour is in after this gig i am heading back home. I got work waiting for me at home. ( corprate rigging gigs mostly. ) its end of rockn roll season , the tour dates lined up perfectly to roadtrip crosscountry so i did it.
I just love building stages and stage rigging and rockn roll is coming to an end this season i am going to be stuck doing corporate gigs the next 8 months so i went for it. I also always wanted to roadtrip across country .
I stay in hostels fairly cheap.
This is the last city tbe tour is in after this gig i am heading back home. I got work waiting for me at home. ( corprate rigging gigs mostly. ) its end of rockn roll season , the tour dates lined up perfectly to roadtrip crosscountry so i did it.
I just love building stages and stage rigging and rockn roll is coming to an end this season i am going to be stuck doing corporate gigs the next 8 months so i went for it. I also always wanted to roadtrip across country .
DavidJones
Well-Known Member
So I assume this was Metalica? No matter who it was, the band does not know you exist. None of the local unions remember you exist. Best case scenario is that one staging providers did several of the shows and remembers seeing you a lot. If you really just want to build stages, talk to the staging guys, get to know them and make it known you are looking for steady work. It is tough to find good staging techs. If you can do ring steel, mobile stages, stick roofs, and more importantly manage people and give good directions to others, there are openings that need to be filled. Consider sending a resume to Mountain Productions in PA, or maybe there are some companies close to you, I'm just spitballing here.
Blacksheep0317
Active Member
Hey man, rock on.
This past March I spent 19 days in a row living in my truck chasing rigs. I tend not to wander further than about 8 hours drive from home for gigs, but the money is there. And quite frankly, I have done better than when I was touring full time and having alot more fun at it. There is a steady crew of about 20 of us in the northeast who do this. Some guys are knocking out 200+ a year living in their vans and such. Granted most of us climbers and outdoors types, so were happy being "dirtbags" anyways.
The locals get to know you (most of my calls come right from the union halls unsoliciated, and often ask for more), or from other friends doing the same thing. The tours do get to know you, just like you know heads from coming into your own venues. More so actually. Doing the same gig in different rooms helps you pick up skills you cannot get being in the same space all the time to. We bring carded guns for hire in to our spaces to sometimes. Its the name of the game now a days once your out of the metro areas. (NYC, LA, Vegas) B and under market cities simply cannot provide the labor for alot of these new shows coming around right now. Atleast with the riggers, esp if there is even one other thing going on in town. I did 6 TSOs this season. How many cities do you know that can put 28 solid guys in the air for a 4am rig? I know Buffalo can't; or the 5 others I left home for.
Then there's the gigs the locals refuse to do to. There is a couple spots I do some work that the IA still provides hands, but lost the rigging. Purely because they could/would not meet the safety and training requirements. A couple spots require us to demo a rescue for the TD from the design company before any work at height can begin or if there is a change in the local lead. The local IA wasn't interested in making it happen, so we (all card holders) end up with the work. (FTR, one of these venues is also where a good buddy of mine got hit with 240v while in the air. 120 year old building, countless old lighting, etc. systems abandoned. He was able to self extricate with a buddy close, but man do you feel good knowing that there was a system already in place and you know the guys around you can use it)
The best response I can give to some one on this though, its a lifestyle. It is not a career choice. If you love it, it will love you. If your in it for $$$, it will kill you. Literally. Too many friends in ditches or around trees late at night chasing the tour, too many guys burned out or hurt. But at the same time, I have met some of the most amazing people doing this. Its amazing. Esp in the northeast. My general goal is to work places where I can go, hang a show, grab a buddy and get in a hike or some climbing (skiing now), nap, put it all on the ground, do it all again. And once you get smart and some more connections, you start setting up your own little circuits. Go out for a week, get 5 or 6 gigs, see a bunch of awesome dudes, drink some great beer. Its a heck of a way to live. And alot more money than Mountain will ever pay you, but you didn't get that from me.
And yes, this is from some one with a house, a wife, and a dog. It's not tour if there's no bus, right?
For real though, PM if you get to the Northeast.
This past March I spent 19 days in a row living in my truck chasing rigs. I tend not to wander further than about 8 hours drive from home for gigs, but the money is there. And quite frankly, I have done better than when I was touring full time and having alot more fun at it. There is a steady crew of about 20 of us in the northeast who do this. Some guys are knocking out 200+ a year living in their vans and such. Granted most of us climbers and outdoors types, so were happy being "dirtbags" anyways.
The locals get to know you (most of my calls come right from the union halls unsoliciated, and often ask for more), or from other friends doing the same thing. The tours do get to know you, just like you know heads from coming into your own venues. More so actually. Doing the same gig in different rooms helps you pick up skills you cannot get being in the same space all the time to. We bring carded guns for hire in to our spaces to sometimes. Its the name of the game now a days once your out of the metro areas. (NYC, LA, Vegas) B and under market cities simply cannot provide the labor for alot of these new shows coming around right now. Atleast with the riggers, esp if there is even one other thing going on in town. I did 6 TSOs this season. How many cities do you know that can put 28 solid guys in the air for a 4am rig? I know Buffalo can't; or the 5 others I left home for.
Then there's the gigs the locals refuse to do to. There is a couple spots I do some work that the IA still provides hands, but lost the rigging. Purely because they could/would not meet the safety and training requirements. A couple spots require us to demo a rescue for the TD from the design company before any work at height can begin or if there is a change in the local lead. The local IA wasn't interested in making it happen, so we (all card holders) end up with the work. (FTR, one of these venues is also where a good buddy of mine got hit with 240v while in the air. 120 year old building, countless old lighting, etc. systems abandoned. He was able to self extricate with a buddy close, but man do you feel good knowing that there was a system already in place and you know the guys around you can use it)
The best response I can give to some one on this though, its a lifestyle. It is not a career choice. If you love it, it will love you. If your in it for $$$, it will kill you. Literally. Too many friends in ditches or around trees late at night chasing the tour, too many guys burned out or hurt. But at the same time, I have met some of the most amazing people doing this. Its amazing. Esp in the northeast. My general goal is to work places where I can go, hang a show, grab a buddy and get in a hike or some climbing (skiing now), nap, put it all on the ground, do it all again. And once you get smart and some more connections, you start setting up your own little circuits. Go out for a week, get 5 or 6 gigs, see a bunch of awesome dudes, drink some great beer. Its a heck of a way to live. And alot more money than Mountain will ever pay you, but you didn't get that from me.
And yes, this is from some one with a house, a wife, and a dog. It's not tour if there's no bus, right?
For real though, PM if you get to the Northeast.
Blacksheep0317
Active Member
Also since I didn't answer your actual question, no. I would not follow a single show across the country persay, but generally it works out that your chasing the same tour here to there with some randos in between for giggles.
HOWEVER....I do have that one buddy who ended up on N'Sync's No Stings Attached tour and many Victoria Secrets months in NYC rigging by chasing the Dead for a year with some bad butt dreads.
HOWEVER....I do have that one buddy who ended up on N'Sync's No Stings Attached tour and many Victoria Secrets months in NYC rigging by chasing the Dead for a year with some bad butt dreads.
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