INDIA VS THE WORLD

The Bright Spark by Viraf Pocha

I’ve travelled a lot this year. To both old familiar towns and to places I’d never been. None of it has been project-driven. Had a chance to take it easy and chill with a fair number of people doing exactly what I do.

These guys who gravitated to desk jobs as they grew older, while I stayed in my thirties.

For the first time I could observe the functioning of our industry from a distance with NO pressure.

Obviously, everybody talks about their landmark shows. I was lucky to visit some. See some set ups at planning stages to load-ins to the main event. Avoided the load-outs. Only part of our job I hate, and have avoided. So, huge gratitude to all my load-out buddies who spared me the pain and allowed me to enjoy the inevitable calming of the senses after the high of performance.

Obviously, the large set ups were spectacular. The technology, the detail, the creativity, the scale, the comfort – amazing. Air-conditioned consoles in 35 degrees during Europe’s heatwave. Complete with loaded fridges and cots to sleep in. The sheer size of back-end equipment that converted open fields into townships. Complete with backstage cafes and fairly large stores for necessaries like tapes, bulbs, vanities etc. during the longer festivals. Trailer parks for millionaires who arrived in helicopters and Rolls Royces. Some light rain turning the paths in-between to slush, so a scramble for silicone covers (from aforesaid stores) to cover their Gucci Boots.

I’d never experienced a festival from this perspective. For old school guys like me who just don’t get Electronic Music with their bobbing heads behind laptops – I found wandering around backstage to be far more interesting.

But enough said about megaliths. These are the shows listed on Instagram and glossy production magazines. You can browse them at leisure.

I’d like to talk about the medium and small shows I visited and compare them with medium and small shows in India.

What’s medium? - a 30ft x 40 ft. stage. Roughly between 1,000 –3,000 people.

What’s small? – Smaller to some- times no stage. Less than 1,000 people.

The first most glaring difference is people. Or lack of people in most cases. In the larger festivals, there is so much going on that it’s difficult to track what any one individual is doing. Here you can spot and appreciate the many hats each guy wears during the set up for an event.

Load in times are really tight. Totally centered around the 8-hour shift. Wages go from around $11 an hour to $100 an hour for the techies.

Here’s a typical day:

9 AM: Load in. World over the venue is NEVER open. Load-in manager is on the phone with the venue manager who assures him man with the keys is minutes away. Surly dude shows up with keys and promptly disappears leaving the load-in team to figure out everything. So usually, the local company sends someone who knows where the loo keys are, how to turn on coffee machine – you know the important stuff. Sometimes they send two guys. But I have never seen more than five. They unload everything. Sometimes haphazard dumping of flight cases in and around stages.

I found load-outs to be quick energetic affairs. No sign of tiredness or sloppiness, whatever the hour. In fact, I was struck how better organized it was as it all happened so quickly. Everything returned to the same flight case, and then rolled aside until its turn came to be loaded onto the exact same spot in the truck. Including wardrobes. ALL flight cased.

Often a detailed plan where each flight case is marked and there is a map of exactly where it has to be unloaded. Sometimes even the truss is in flight cases.

Surly dude reappears. Looking neat and groomed. He’s showered in the dressing rooms, cleaned bathrooms, had his coffee and ready to start his day. That’s when he signs the entire load-in inventory. Goes back to the venue cleanup. (Toilet paper in bathrooms, vacuuming front of house, et al.)

11 AM: Riggers arrive. Today almost every venue, including hotels, conference spaces, theaters and auditoriums ALL have hanging points. Around England, I visited some venues that were swimming pools – complete with sloping floors. Counties find them expensive to maintain (Heating). Their natural slopes are exactly what performance venues need. Charts are unrolled and often equipment goes straight from flight case to being clamped onto trusses. (NOTE: Few to no iPads here). 50% of the lights are still ground supported on stands and foots. LED Screens are usually standard-sized.

4 PM: Show runners arrive. Sometimes, they are already there as part of rigging team. Consoles are opened and mains are switched on (if metered). Within minutes, everything is fired up and just works. Rarely will you find a dodgy cable. Rarely will you find a wiggly light no wiggling. Rarely will you find an LED Par with any LEDs missing. Sound system checks are remarkably SHORT and very quiet. Systems are calibrated on computers so a very quiet pinking sound. Lights are trimmed if truss heights are an issue. What strikes me is that even in small venues, the lighting and sound are distributed around the venue. Not just centered around the stage.

Lots of smoke machines, pyros, and confetti are also present.

Band arrives at some point and I was amazed how quick sound checks were. Even bands with multiple guitars and keyboards. None of that metronomic beating of the snare.

The other thing that struck me was the clean living. No sign of any substances or alcohol inside the venue. Maybe a quick coffee or smoke break. Good job.

A lot of venues have washing machines – so every day, a couple of guys, especially guys on tour, do laundry. Catering arrives around 6 PM. Pizza or lasagna reign as favorites. Boom – You are ready to go on at 8 PM.

Show is done – As I said earlier – Load-outs are a pain. Which is why this part struck me the most. I found load-outs to be quick energetic affairs. No sign of tiredness or sloppiness, whatever the hour. In fact, I was struck how better organized it was as it all happened so quickly. Everything returned to the same flight case, and then rolled aside until its turn came to be loaded onto the exact same spot in the truck. Including wardrobes. ALL flight cased. Like I said earlier – washing machines are onsite, but every company always had its own electric kettle and an iron board.

The quiet concentration and efficiency impressed me. Most crew were young college dropouts or older construction workers who found this lighter work. Rarely, the backstage crew numbered more than five (Not including loaders, if union required).

In general, I found the events technically proficient, tightly cued and run efficiently. We have so much to learn from the organization. We do not treat our equipment very well. So we have to spend so much time doing jugaad on site.

The question – Do we look after our people?

World over, crews are small – each person’s job is vital and so both work and workmen are respected.

Each team has the ‘doer’ guy. The one guy who just quietly gets things done. In India, we are over-staffed and under-trained. Let’s not go into reasons here. I just hope that as more and more technology creeps in, our teams will be better trained so everybody’s life becomes better.

Smaller shows. Honestly, for a lot of the reasons mentioned above – smaller shows seem to run smoother and are more detailed in India. The single reason again is manpower. Smaller shows around the world are very restricted due to manpower.

However small a show in India – there is a team dedicated to do that show and nothing else.

Overseas, there is usually just one guy managing – sound, lights and video. Often, that gentleman also carries other duties like housekeeping. He is swamped and can barely cope.

Technical packages are tight and rigid. It’s tough getting a spare mike or a decent rehearsal. If it’s a performing company, a performer usually doubles as a techie.

Lead times are long.

In India – even the smallest Ganpati mandap, a small business venue or a local theater will be manned by a dedicated techie. Rarely so overseas. Hey – I’m generalizing, so don’t call me out on the specifics.

I’m seeing it as a good thing. It creates employment. Gives the young guys something useful to learn and keeps them off the streets. This access to manpower also allows our teams to be mobilized and ready in hours.

It’s up to us to nurture the more enthusiastic ones to specialize – especially if they not distracted with other duties. I hope they find both mentors and opportunities to go onto greater things.

Let me end with a big shoutout to Lolapalooza. Foreign design. Indian equipment. Indian technicians. Everything came together smoothly and we rocked.

Hope opportunities like this brings us all up to bigger things.