Settin' Up Stage

This is a brand new week full of brand new experiences! This week we're out of the office and into a church called 24/7 in Burlington to learn the set-up of our stage. The church is kind enough to allow us to use their entire space. We have two huge rooms where we can set up our ginormous stage. Every time we set up, we have to haul all the equipment off the bus (which is very heavy FYI) and bring it into the gym. Then we put everything in place and start setting it up. Every person is assigned a job which they are responsible for everyday. My job is to set up all the sound equipment ... Good thing I know quite a bit about that! I have to put the subs, speakers, and moniters in place, then I have to hook up the wires from each of those to the amp rack which supplies it with power. One frustrating part is the amount of wires that accumulate around the outside of the stage! Everybody is wiring different things and they all get in the way of each other, but it all works out in the end!
Another job of mine, once the stage is all set up, is to work the soundboard. This one is a bit different than what I'm used to, but it sure helps to have some experience at it. It's so cool being responsible for such big things in the show!

Today was our photo/video shoot. We each had individual photos done, as well as a short video without sound. It was slightly awkward because for the video we literally had to pretend to talk to people off stage, stand there fake laughing, do funny dances and anything else for like three minutes. We also got individual photos done. Then we got to make a team video which was hilarious! The team video will be played at the very beginning as an intro, before anybody gets on the stage to speak. It's kind of to get the kids' attention. Then, as each of us are being introduced when it's our turn to speak, our personal video will be playing. And while we're speaking, a picture of us from the photo shoot will be displayed on the screen behind us.

We also got to meet both of the bands yesterday. The band that will be touring with my team out west is called Crystalyne. The lead singer Marissa was on a show called Disband with her previous band, and this band just got together recently. The other band that's touring with the East team is Brian Melo. He was a Canadian Idol winner a few years back. He's a really nice guy and has a great sound!

It's looking like this is going to be a great year!