Electrocution at 60 feet in the Superdome
August 2nd, 1992. I remember that because it was my girlfriend's birthday and I was 1500 miles away in New Orleans, and was as tired as I'd been in 10 years.
We were hired to provide light and sound for an enormous christian youth gathering. It was a 2-week show that was held every three years in different cities all around the country. It was a christian convention for teens, with songs, plays, and christian rock bands playing to the 20,000 christian kids that attended the gathering.
Normally a gig like this wouldn't have been so bad; two semis full of lighting and sound, the light grid wasn't TOO complex and the stagehands were better than most... but we had back-to-back gigs and festivals the two months prior, and at least two festivals after it, so all of us (well, most...) were really tired to begin with.
We left Albuquerque after packing all the equipment in a rented truck, the other truck was at another gig and would meet us there. We had to go through Tulsa, Oklahoma to pick up some other lighting gear (a few trusses, dimmers, and socapex cables). As we passed Santa Rosa NM we blew a radiator hose. It was mid-day and summer, so it wasn't too bad, but Larry had to hitchhike back to Santa Rosa to call a wrecker service. This whole ordeal took about 8 hours out of our travel time, so we didn't get into Tulsa until 5am. We had to pick up the gear at 8am and then drive really fast to New Orleans for an evening load-in. We finally made it down to New Orleans about an hour later than our original load-in time, which wasn't so bad. But boy were we tired.
Load-in began at a frenzied pace to make up for the hour or so that we had lost. We even worked through crew breaks to try to get everything done on time. The grid was up by 2pm, and focus began around 3 I think. I was pretty tired. The grid we flew was up about 6o feet, hanging from a much larger, semi-permanent metal grid about 100 feet up. The Superdome is 260 feet high in the center (or so one of the stagehands told us), so it's an impressive sight to see. On one of the side trusses that jutted out beyond the stage area we had about 6 elipsoidals (theater lights) suspended from 6 pieces of 10-foot long, 1 foot box truss, which made these 30 foot trusses suspended out above and beyond the stage, 60 feet up. The wire laddar is one of those things I won't miss; it's about 10 inches wide, and each rung is made of a pipe around a thick wire. It's flexable and swings around, in order to climb up you need to thrust your legs out and reach directly up with your arms and have the the rest of the laddar below you swing all over the place. I never did very well with it, so when I went up I'd get someone to hold the bottom while I struggled to the top. During the afternoon I was up there for a few hours focusing the lights, climbing like a monkey over the larger truss pieces, which didn't worry me too much because they are almost like big cages, about 3 feet wide. I was nervous when it came time for me to focus the lights out on the one foot box truss, 30 feet is a long way out to climb on that stuff, and it sags and sways a great deal. The lights hung from the bottom of the truss, too, so I had to really manoeuver to get to them.
It came time to go out the truss and I started getting a bit nervous. Any grid will sway a bit, especially when hung by chain motors like this was. I usually kept my mind on the task at hand (the focus). Larry was trying to troubleshoot all the dimmers, which were backstage. Plus, they were rented dimmers, so we had to figure out the details with each of them. This meant that I had a lot of time to sit around up in the grid while Larry worked like crazy to get things done. I could feel the truss sway, I'd watch as the laddar would swing from side to side. It's peaceful sometimes up there, when the band isn't rehearsing or doing soundcheck. In about 10 minutes Larry apologized and then we started the focus again, yelling to each other and hearing our voices echo in the superdome. I'm not kidding when I mean one-foot box truss, it's one foot wide, one foot tall and 30 feet long (3 ten-foot pieces bolted together). The truss is 4 long pipes in parallel, with other pieces of pipe criss-crossed for stength, much like how a radio tower looks. It's made of alumnium, so after climbing on this for a while my hands were black. The best way to climb out on this one-foot box truss is like a spider (Larry's description!); point the toes in and step on the bottom parts of the truss from the outside, and grab the top with your hands. I saw our other light guy Dave climb on this same truss on his butt, with his hands behind him and feet forward, but this was way too dangerous. If he slipped he would have toppled over, his center of gravity being so high. Anyhow, I carefully made it to the first light, reached below, the light hanging about a foot below the truss. Larry gave me directions on where to point the light, and I did what he wanted then secured the light with the screws on the side. I moved to the next light another 10 feet out. By this time the box truss was not only swaying from side to side, but also bouncing up and down. This light was in the middle of the span. I had been feeling really tired, and by this time I was up in the truss almost two hours. My whole body ached. I was thinking that I'd only had 2 hours of sleep in two days.
The next light was just like the first, I reached down and focused, had to struggle a bit with one of the screw handles, but fixed pretty soon. I took a breath. It was kind of hot and I was sweating. Larry yelled up "Only two more Rob! You can do it buddy. Dig Deep!" I crawled to the next light. My feet were pretty secure in the truss, and I reached down to grab the back of the light and ZZZZZAP! I was hit with a big shock. If you've ever been electrocuted you know what it feels like. The shock went through every nerve in my body. My hand jerked back and I fell directly down on the truss, my chest hit the bars and my feet slipped out of the truss. I grabbed tight to the truss and my entire body siezed the aluminum. I was clinging on as hard as I could, still shaking and numb from the shock. When I hit my wrench leaped out my back pocket and went hurling down towards Larry, but stopped short from the rope I'd tied to it, which was tied to me.
I shivered and sweated, couldn't hardly breathe as I watched people move around on the concrete directly below me, so small 60 feet below. Larry called up "You OK Rob?" I tried to speak but my voice was constricted, I managed "Shock... electric... cute.." Larry called up again "Hey man, take it easy, just stay put as long as you need to okay?" My heart was racing. I started to realize how close I was to falling. One foot of truss is not much to hold on to. Because of my landing on the truss, the entire grid was now swaying back and forth quite a bit, all the lights that were on made moving pools of light on the stage and floor below.
I stayed like this for a few more minutes, then shakily started up to move around again. My hands were sweaty and my legs ached. I've learned in my life to try and get over that stuff as quickly as possible, especially in that kind of a situtation. I unplugged the light, found the loose wire and managed to fix it, as shakey as my hands were, then focused it (albeit much slower than before) and made my way back down to the floor.
When I got back down Larry asked how I was "Pretty ... pretty shakey, I guess" I said. That feeling didn't go away for another 3 or 4 hours. I was so tired.
We finally got the grid working and the lights focused by 3am that night, and had an 8am call the next morning. The next 10 days I got about 20 hours of sleep total. Of all the gigs I did in my life, that one really burned me out.
We were hired to provide light and sound for an enormous christian youth gathering. It was a 2-week show that was held every three years in different cities all around the country. It was a christian convention for teens, with songs, plays, and christian rock bands playing to the 20,000 christian kids that attended the gathering.
Normally a gig like this wouldn't have been so bad; two semis full of lighting and sound, the light grid wasn't TOO complex and the stagehands were better than most... but we had back-to-back gigs and festivals the two months prior, and at least two festivals after it, so all of us (well, most...) were really tired to begin with.
We left Albuquerque after packing all the equipment in a rented truck, the other truck was at another gig and would meet us there. We had to go through Tulsa, Oklahoma to pick up some other lighting gear (a few trusses, dimmers, and socapex cables). As we passed Santa Rosa NM we blew a radiator hose. It was mid-day and summer, so it wasn't too bad, but Larry had to hitchhike back to Santa Rosa to call a wrecker service. This whole ordeal took about 8 hours out of our travel time, so we didn't get into Tulsa until 5am. We had to pick up the gear at 8am and then drive really fast to New Orleans for an evening load-in. We finally made it down to New Orleans about an hour later than our original load-in time, which wasn't so bad. But boy were we tired.
Load-in began at a frenzied pace to make up for the hour or so that we had lost. We even worked through crew breaks to try to get everything done on time. The grid was up by 2pm, and focus began around 3 I think. I was pretty tired. The grid we flew was up about 6o feet, hanging from a much larger, semi-permanent metal grid about 100 feet up. The Superdome is 260 feet high in the center (or so one of the stagehands told us), so it's an impressive sight to see. On one of the side trusses that jutted out beyond the stage area we had about 6 elipsoidals (theater lights) suspended from 6 pieces of 10-foot long, 1 foot box truss, which made these 30 foot trusses suspended out above and beyond the stage, 60 feet up. The wire laddar is one of those things I won't miss; it's about 10 inches wide, and each rung is made of a pipe around a thick wire. It's flexable and swings around, in order to climb up you need to thrust your legs out and reach directly up with your arms and have the the rest of the laddar below you swing all over the place. I never did very well with it, so when I went up I'd get someone to hold the bottom while I struggled to the top. During the afternoon I was up there for a few hours focusing the lights, climbing like a monkey over the larger truss pieces, which didn't worry me too much because they are almost like big cages, about 3 feet wide. I was nervous when it came time for me to focus the lights out on the one foot box truss, 30 feet is a long way out to climb on that stuff, and it sags and sways a great deal. The lights hung from the bottom of the truss, too, so I had to really manoeuver to get to them.
It came time to go out the truss and I started getting a bit nervous. Any grid will sway a bit, especially when hung by chain motors like this was. I usually kept my mind on the task at hand (the focus). Larry was trying to troubleshoot all the dimmers, which were backstage. Plus, they were rented dimmers, so we had to figure out the details with each of them. This meant that I had a lot of time to sit around up in the grid while Larry worked like crazy to get things done. I could feel the truss sway, I'd watch as the laddar would swing from side to side. It's peaceful sometimes up there, when the band isn't rehearsing or doing soundcheck. In about 10 minutes Larry apologized and then we started the focus again, yelling to each other and hearing our voices echo in the superdome. I'm not kidding when I mean one-foot box truss, it's one foot wide, one foot tall and 30 feet long (3 ten-foot pieces bolted together). The truss is 4 long pipes in parallel, with other pieces of pipe criss-crossed for stength, much like how a radio tower looks. It's made of alumnium, so after climbing on this for a while my hands were black. The best way to climb out on this one-foot box truss is like a spider (Larry's description!); point the toes in and step on the bottom parts of the truss from the outside, and grab the top with your hands. I saw our other light guy Dave climb on this same truss on his butt, with his hands behind him and feet forward, but this was way too dangerous. If he slipped he would have toppled over, his center of gravity being so high. Anyhow, I carefully made it to the first light, reached below, the light hanging about a foot below the truss. Larry gave me directions on where to point the light, and I did what he wanted then secured the light with the screws on the side. I moved to the next light another 10 feet out. By this time the box truss was not only swaying from side to side, but also bouncing up and down. This light was in the middle of the span. I had been feeling really tired, and by this time I was up in the truss almost two hours. My whole body ached. I was thinking that I'd only had 2 hours of sleep in two days.
The next light was just like the first, I reached down and focused, had to struggle a bit with one of the screw handles, but fixed pretty soon. I took a breath. It was kind of hot and I was sweating. Larry yelled up "Only two more Rob! You can do it buddy. Dig Deep!" I crawled to the next light. My feet were pretty secure in the truss, and I reached down to grab the back of the light and ZZZZZAP! I was hit with a big shock. If you've ever been electrocuted you know what it feels like. The shock went through every nerve in my body. My hand jerked back and I fell directly down on the truss, my chest hit the bars and my feet slipped out of the truss. I grabbed tight to the truss and my entire body siezed the aluminum. I was clinging on as hard as I could, still shaking and numb from the shock. When I hit my wrench leaped out my back pocket and went hurling down towards Larry, but stopped short from the rope I'd tied to it, which was tied to me.
I shivered and sweated, couldn't hardly breathe as I watched people move around on the concrete directly below me, so small 60 feet below. Larry called up "You OK Rob?" I tried to speak but my voice was constricted, I managed "Shock... electric... cute.." Larry called up again "Hey man, take it easy, just stay put as long as you need to okay?" My heart was racing. I started to realize how close I was to falling. One foot of truss is not much to hold on to. Because of my landing on the truss, the entire grid was now swaying back and forth quite a bit, all the lights that were on made moving pools of light on the stage and floor below.
I stayed like this for a few more minutes, then shakily started up to move around again. My hands were sweaty and my legs ached. I've learned in my life to try and get over that stuff as quickly as possible, especially in that kind of a situtation. I unplugged the light, found the loose wire and managed to fix it, as shakey as my hands were, then focused it (albeit much slower than before) and made my way back down to the floor.
When I got back down Larry asked how I was "Pretty ... pretty shakey, I guess" I said. That feeling didn't go away for another 3 or 4 hours. I was so tired.
We finally got the grid working and the lights focused by 3am that night, and had an 8am call the next morning. The next 10 days I got about 20 hours of sleep total. Of all the gigs I did in my life, that one really burned me out.
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