It just occurred to me when I saw a band on tour go from Connecticut on the 20th to South Carolina today the 29th while playing at various venues between the two states.
Like logistically it’s insane to me plus how are the singers voices not burnt?
12 hours later: Thanks everyone! Absolutely fascinating for sure, especially the Wendover YouTube links. Didn’t know that channel existed.
In: 344
Lots of semi trucks and personnel. Taylor Swift has a reported 90 trucks for her Eras tour.
Singers voices do get fatigued though, it’s not rare for a singer/band to pause their tour (Paramore just paused theirs as Hayley has a lung infection). Depends on the genre/style too, if you aren’t belting lyrics then there’s less strain, also matters how loud they are actually singing when they have a backup track playing (the female pop stars who do lots of choreo don’t really sing much during those segments).
The touring life is no joke, weather your a stagehand, in the band, or Eqing the set. It’s very stressful with a lot of deadlines. Most people who go on tour with a band make pretty good money. My buddy was a main lighting technician for a semi popular group and said your basically on the road about 8 months of the year. Your constantly working so you never really spend your money since they give you daily money for food and whatever. He was making almost about 90 grand a year doing that. The bus life is not for everyone.
This YouTube explains it well
That’s only about a 12 hour drive, I doubt it takes a whole week to set up and tear down at a venue, especially when you consider the amount of personnel both the band and the individual venues have.
Back in the day Pink Floyd had over 120 semi trailers to carry The Wall from city to city. The logistics must be a fucking nightmare.
The short answer is: A large support team of dedicated logistics specialists. It isn’t just the band. Wendover actually did a video on it last year: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MY8AB1wYOtg
When I was in college I worked at the venue of my college town. Bands like Metallica, guns n roses etc would come. It’s basically a full day (24 hour) event for the workers. The trucks show up at 6am on Saturday. You work all day setting up til maybe 4-6pm. There are roadies traveling with them who are basically the managers since they are familiar with the setup and equipment. Then there’s the rest of us who work the venue who knows the venue. We would work together to get everything setup, split into teams like carpentry (set building), electricians, lighting, rigging etc.
Once setup the band or someone would come do sound tests while a lot of people are cut loose to go take a break til the concert is over. Some people are kept on to work the event. After the concert, you do the same in reverse but it goes a lot faster. You generally finish around 1-4am. When there are back to back events it’s even more crazy. Just finished working 6am to 4am, but there’s a basketball game later? Spend the next few hours putting the basketball floor back after the concert is torn down! Make a lot of money in overtime but damn is it exhausting lol. I think I worked like 4 days straight once when there was basketball Friday, concert saturday, basketball Sunday, and career fair Monday.
It is some impressive shit and some of the hardest working mofos I’ve ever seen. The ones who tour or run the venue get paid very well too I believe (could be mistaken). Usually we measured show size in semi count. Big shows like Metallica and whatever we’re like 12-16 trucks full of equipment and set pieces. Then as soon as you load a truck it’s on the road to the next destination. The performer typically got in their bus and left immediately after the show
Edit: this was 2003-2007ish fyi. Just realized the 2 bands I listed are older so someone might think I’m talking about the 80s lol
It takes a day and a half (24/7) to set up a concert and just a day to tear it down.
Everything is orchestrated and most of everyone knows their role and does it about 6 times a month.
This is a FANTASTIC explanation of the army of staff and masterwork of logistics that makes it possible.
Large tours will have two complete setups, so that one setup is being moved and erected while they are playing using the other, then they swap.
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