by TC Peulausk

My vantage point of U2's Atlanta show is a bit diferent. I am a stagehand in Atlanta and was on the local stage crew for the show here at Philips Arena. During the show, I shot house spot number six. My responsibility? Keep Bono lit for the entire show!

We began unloading the sixteen semi-trailers at 7am. Except for maybe a couple of trucks, it was a pretty "loose" pack with the majority of the equipment rolling off on its own wheels. It all came off rather easy, and relatively quickly, too.

I must confess to fighting a strong dose of disappointment the entire day of the show and the entire week leading up to it. I am a huge admirer of U2 -- it's may best band. But, I am also a huge admirer of PJ Harvey, her music and the way she approaches her art. For me, seeing the two together was the ultimate concert. I have never been able to catch her in concert before (I had to miss her here in Atlanta last December), so for nearly three months I have been looking forward to March 30th with tremendous excitement and anticipation. Then I got the news that she caught ill and was going to miss the first four U2 shows. Putting salt on my wounds was the knowledge that her first show on the tour was the next show AFTER Atlanta! Ouch!! PJ, if your read this, stay in good health for your own sake, but, too, PLEASE come back to Atlanta soon!!

As you might guess, a large part of the touring crew was Irish or English. Many of them I have worked with before when they've come through town on other tours. I have worked under the tour's stage manager, Rocko, before, but working this show under him was different. Normally we work either in audio or lighting or video or staging for most if not all of the entire set-up. For U2, we all began in one area, then when things slowed down, Rocko would immediately assign us to another area. Twenty minutes in audio, thirty in staging, fifteen in lighting and so on. This type of efficiency was needed, though. While I have worked shows with far more trucks (Ricky Martin and his twenty-six trucks comes to mind), I have never seen a venue floor so covered with equipment and workers. It made for very cramped working conditions.

Th set-up was basically finished by approximately three o'clock pm. Most of the stage crew was cut, but I stayed on the entire day helping to finish the detail work. This provided me indepth insight as to the design of the set, sound system and lighting. The real fringe benefit, though, was getting to watch U2's sound check.

I was working on the arena floor immediately stage right where the steps leading on stage where. The Edge came out first, walking right past me on to the stage. He worked his guitar's for awhile, talking over the PA system as needed to the front-of-house sound techs. Then Adam walked out from the dressing room area. Instead of going onstage, he walked out to the front-of-house area. Soon he was back and making his way under the stage where his bass tech was set up. About this time Bono came out. Oddly, though I was around the band several different times, I never saw Larry up close. He would just suddenly materialize onstage. How he got there, I never saw! The entire band was onstage for soundcheck maybe fifty minutes. I missed part of it because I was sent to catering for dinner. After the other members left, The Edge lingered awhile working out his sound. That is very consistent with what I've read about him.

In the spirit of being professional, I never approached any members of the band. It's not my place to unless it is part of my work. Interestingly, whenever I saw them walk by, they never, ever made eye contact with anyone who was not part of their entourage. I understand that, though. Every one wants a small piece of their time and I know they simply want to have the freedom to walk from one place to another without having to make small talk with strangers. Hence, the no eye contact. It varies from artist to artist. Shania Twain would always look you in the eye and smile when she went by. But the guys of U2 are gracious, as I later witnessed. Maybe two hours after the show ended, The Edge, Bono and Adam walked past on their way to the limos (I still never saw Larry!). There were maybe a hundred U2 fans outside and they let up a collective scream when the guys appeared. The Edge got into his limo immediately, but Adam headed out to the crowd. Instead of signing anything, he walked along the crowd, chattering with them. Later I saw him working down the line, signing. While he was doing this, Bono, in a camoflouge flop hat and shades, started to get in his limo, but stopped and headed out to the crowd. I never saw him sign anything, but he was very gracious in talking to people and shaking hands. A couple of times I saw him pose with individuals for a picture. Soon The Edge got out of his limo and went over to talk with the crowd to sign and chat. Though a fellow stagehand told me he saw Larry there, I am afraid I just plain missed him every time!

I say this only by way of observation, but I was surprised at.......how "not large" the guys are in stature and weight. They are not at all "large" men -- maybe five-ninish and not at all heavy. As I work in various areas of the entertainment world, I have observed over time that rarely do I see a perfoming artist who is a "large" person. I am just curious about this trend.

The show......I shot house spot number six, which was on the extreme house right. All told, there were six front-of-house spots and nine truss spots. Each of us front-of-house spots was assigned a band member as our "home" position and I, along with house spot five to my immediate left, was assigned to Bono.

He was a challenge to follow because, obviously, he moves around so much. I forgot whether it was during "Where the Streets Have No Name" or "With or Without You", but Bono was crouched down at the tip of the heart. My spot was the only one on when Bruce, the very competent lighting director for the tour, said to me over the head set, "Okay, he's about to take off." I clutched my 3K spot to be on guard to swing it when Bono took off on a run around the heart. I did a good job of following him, but I must admit to falling behind him for a brief second as he swung around the stage right-top-of-the-heart. What made it more difficult was that I was in a blue gel at the time, which is very difficult for a spot operator to see as compared to the standard no color (i.e., white).

I have worked many, many concerts in Atlanta for world-prominent artists, but honestly I have never seen as effective a lighting design as I did at U2. From my spot light I was at a vantage to see everything and how it all worked together. It was absolutely splendid!! The artistry of lighting was truly remarkable. Obviously, I was at an advantage because I was at a good vanatage and I was listening to the lighting director for the entire show, but the sensitive manner lighting was used to enhance different lyrics, different points of musical expression and movements of the different band members made the concert that much more tremendous. I would love to see the show about ten more times so I could concentrate on different aspects of it.

In finishing (finally!), the energy of the show was exhilarating!! I loved the way house lights stayed on while the band walked on stage.

After the show, we had it all torn down and packed into trucks in about three hours even. Charlotte, I heard, did it in two hours and forty-five minutes, so the bested us. I was on the clock from seven am Friday until three am Saturday. It was a full day and I, literally, was as physically beat as I have ever been. But, I wouldn't trade the day for any other -- it was worth it!! If only Polly Jean could have been there.....

God's best to all!!

TC

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