I love when a Broadway style show comes through my home road house. Yes, it makes me nostalgic for road life, but when road people cross paths, it’s a social highlight. I spent the beginning of load in stranded 80 feet above the road crew and I barely spoke to any of them before I headed up. Actually, walking into the day I didn’t think I knew any of them personally on this one, but I always have mutual friends with just about every single roadie.
You see, when roadies cross paths I like to compare it to when fur traders used to cross paths in the wilderness. We share information, we compare notes on who is currently working with who. Who is having a good run of luck and who isn’t. Unfortunately there is almost always a death in the road family that someone hasn’t heard about yet as well. Thankfully there were none of those this time around.
On coffee break during load in I chatted with a carpenter by the name of Zach. He and I were talking about what tours I’ve done, places I’ve worked, hadn’t even started mentioning friends yet, and he looks at me and goes, “You’re Tyler DeLong, aren’t you?”. I’m guilty as charged, so I just look at him and ask, “what stories have you heard?” Apparently he’s really good friends with someone I worked with in Santa Fe a few summers ago. I don’t know which stories he’s heard, but I do know that I plan on finding out.
I was downstairs after lunch, but when I left the bridge we had put a serious dent in the supply of weights…
First thing after lunch I saw Dani. I have not seen her in years. She and I toured Mamma Mia together back in the day. At any rate, I saw her walking across the stage after lunch and I immediately threw my hat at her, ran up, hugged/picked her up and immediately decreed that we were going to have drinks post show.
I’ve tried to explain it before, and I’ll do it again here. Your crew on tour is your family. You spend months working, sleeping, and playing with these people never being more than a few feet away. They know all your secrets, you know all of theirs. You know who is single, you know who isn’t, you know who is cheating on their girl back home, and you know exactly how long it’s been since each person on that bus last got laid. The bonds that are formed through your shared adventures are tested and true. Seeing Dani after all these years… and immediately picking right up like it had only been a few days. That is the kind of friend you make on a tour buss or in a foxhole… Honestly I think Dani and I probably have been done both. Haha
A good portion of the rest of my day was spent catching up with Dani and plotting taking the majority of her company out to the bars post show.
Post show is a bit fuzzy. I caught up with Dani, I put some faces to names I’ve heard over the years, and I had more than a few people look at me and go, “Wait, you’re Tyler DeLong? I know so and so and they told me about the time you <insert story that I will never confirm or deny>!” haha! I also spent a good portion of the evening playing pool with the head electrician… she talked a big game, but after I won 4 games straight… I’m not buying it.
The next morning was not pleasant. I didn’t make it to bed until a quarter to five. My alarm went off a little before 9 and I was still at the climbing gym by 10. Rock climbing while hung over is not pleasant. My muscles were cramping, my fingers weren’t working, and according to the staff I was sweating pure jack n coke.
Post that I dropped some doughnuts off for the road crew on my way to work at Theatre department. After working at the theatre I had a show call at the Auditorium, and now I am right back where I was when I started writing this yesterday. On the weight bridge tossing weights.
Do you want to be emailed every time I post something new? sign up for email notifications here: