So Organized Chaos
Behind the scenes at the Taste of Chaos show at MTS Centre
Mike Warkentin



“Drink this beer or you’re fired,” Deftones bassist Chi Cheng says to a roadie between songs.

Cheng’s taking deep pulls from a bottle of wine, but it looks like it’ll last him the rest of the band’s one-hour Taste of Chaos set at MTS Centre. Cheng can spare the beer, so he forces another brew on a techie standing near the stage-monitors soundboard.

The atmosphere is loose as frontman Chino Moreno screams his way through the set. Backstage we can’t hear much beyond Abe Cunningham’s drums because the band is using in-ear monitors, meaning all the onstage sound is projected at the audience while the musicians listen to themselves via small earpieces.

The rest of the show goes down without a hitch, and The Deftones are done shortly after 11 p.m., capping off a 13-band bill that began at 4:20 p.m. with local punks Sick City.

The day actually started a lot earlier, and it didn’t start well...

At 9:30 a.m., a phone call from the Taste of Chaos convoy informs MTS Centre officials that the fleet — which includes three trailers and about 13 band and crew vehicles — won’t make its 9:30 a.m. arrival time because someone didn’t figure out Saskatchewan’s reluctance regarding Daylight Saving Time.

About 30 Nasco labourers stand down and wait for the semis to start rolling down the arena’s loading ramp from Carlton Street.

A couple of crew members explain how things happen at an arena gig. For me, the experience usually involves beer, a ticket, beer and some earplugs, but it turns out that putting on a concert can be a logistical nightmare full of sweat and stress.

Tony Shepherd is a veteran roadie from England who now lives in Winnipeg. As a lighting tech for Supertramp and Ringo Starr, Shepherd has seen venues all over the world, and he rates the MTS Centre near the top of the heap.

“I’ve pretty much done the whole circuit worldwide, and MTS is one of the best,” he says after detailing how modern computer-controlled lighting systems are far simpler than the rigs he dealt with back in the ’80s.

A few other workers explain that modern shows only bring a skeleton crew of experts who direct local stagehands, and it’s obvious these workers take a great deal of pride in the work they do to help put on an event.

The local crew swings into action when the tour’s first trucks start to roll in at about 10:40 a.m. After some jostling, three 50-foot trailers are sitting in one loading dock, and band buses are backing into two others.

Once the trailers open, the tour’s small road crew co-ordinates the local help. Massive PA crates roll down the ramps, and racks of lights, rigging and other equipment follow. The crew members quickly push the boxes to various locations around a stage that was set up the previous night by another crew.

Upstairs in the main concourse, a heavily tattooed woman does yoga in front of a concession stand while merch tables and posters start to go up.

A forklift places gear onstage, and road-weary Taste of Chaos techs set up a front-of-house soundboard in the middle of the arena. Riggers in the rafters start ‘dropping points’ for the backdrop, lighting trusses and speaker banks.

Shepherd is at Upstage Right, in ‘dimmer world,’ where the lighting controls are situated. He says the set-up is actually going a little slowly considering its size. ‘Supertramp,’ as Shepherd is sometimes called by co-workers, recalls that Aerosmith rolled into town with about 15 trailers, so the Taste of Chaos is a relative breeze for what Tony Seaver calls a “small crew.”

Seaver is the regional supervisor for Nasco, a Canadian stage-tech company based in Vancouver and Toronto that boasts about 2,500 part-time employees. The Nasco workers at MTS Centre are locals who have been working for the company since it was awarded the MTS Centre contract when the building opened in 2004. That move seriously pissed off Local 63 of IATSE (International Allegiance of Theatrical Stage Employees), who had held the stage labour contract at Winnipeg Arena. There has been tension since, as IATSE members have picketed many MTS shows, including the Juno Awards.

(A study, Contracting labour for the MTS Centre, by Dr. Ian Hudson of the U of M, takes a look at the economic aspects of the situation and can be found here: www.m-f-d.org/article/general/bgzygvg15bv.php)

On this day, though, there is no labour strife.

By 1:15 p.m., the PA speakers begin to rise, and by 1:30 p.m. the lighting trusses are above the stage. At around 2 p.m. the sound techs start testing the audio system, and the ground-shaking rumbles wake up a few rock stars.

Bedheads abound as tattooed skinny guys in tight pants stagger from buses, through the dock and down the corridor to the showers and catering room.

At 2:30 p.m. the loading dock is covered in flight cases emblazoned with band names. A rough tally puts metalcore act (and May Revolver coverboys) Atreyu in second place in the luggage race. The band’s giant white cases are everywhere, outnumbered only by those of the Deftones. The Grammy-winning band has gear strewn all about the dock, including racks of guitars and basses and pieces of staging.

Around 3:30 p.m. the first bands on the bill are getting their equipment set up. Members of Broke, Greeley Estates, Sick City, Silverstein and As I Lay Dying are onstage fiddling with gear.

AILD drummer Jordan Mancino is setting up his kit on a wheeled riser. In front of him, Silverstein’s drum kit rests on a similar riser. Between sets members of the crew will quickly wheel the kits into place and replace the used ones with the next drummer’s gear. The procedure is mirrored on the side stage, over near dimmer world.

By 4 p.m. the crowd barricade is up and the stage is set. A small crowd is gathered at the main entrance to the MTS Centre, and the crew is in its ‘show blacks’ uniform. Red-shirted security guards are in place and merch tables are stacked with T-shirts, sweaters and CDs. Four Nasco members are outside the arena pushing pieces of Atreyu’s gear down Graham Avenue.

The doors open at 4:15, and Sick City kicks things off at 4:20, playing to a small crowd lined against the barricade. They play a loud, 25-minute set, and Broke opens the second stage less than a minute after the group finishes.

Stage Left is full of action as a pair of roadies hastily abandon a Game Cube system featuring Super Mario Strikers. They pause the game, and they’ll be back after the changeover.

Seaver’s crew is down to six guys, and they’re scurrying about the stage, moving instruments and PA. Their work is done in less than five minutes, and they’re sweating as the gear is repacked into the trailers.

Beside the trailers, Smashup bassist Rich Liegey is changing a pick guard on his bass. He says the Brooklyn band is lucky to be here after drilling a moose in Idaho following a one-nighter. The beast wrecked the band’s van, and Liegey says his group had to split up to other vehicles.

Behind Liegey, Deftones singer Chino Moreno spends an hour at the back of the dock by the empty beer kegs, working on a riff with a guitar tech. The lengthy, impromptu session might explain why the new Deftones disc has been so long in coming.

Stageside, Atreyu bassist Marc McKnight is playing Super Mario Strikers just before his 6:35 set. He admits that he lost 2-1 to Peach, then heads up the stairs, where drummer Brandon Saller is stretching and lifting his tiny girlfriend into the air.

Tour manager Ron Chamberlain grabs me and takes me past the band dressing rooms and into the production office, located in the Green Room. Chamberlain, who’s based in Vancouver, introduces me to production manager Greg Dean.

Dean has worked with everyone from King Crimson to KMFDM, but in local roadie circles he’s most famous as ‘the guy who got punched’ during an altercation with IATSE members when they picketed the May 2005 Green Day show at MTS Centre. Dean has been all over the world and believes Winnipeg’s venue is one of the better ones to work at from a production standpoint.

“I like the venue,” he says, “and I like the people that run it. From a production perspective it’s very well laid out.”

He lists features such as pre-hung draperies, stairwell lighting, security and crowd-control plans as features that make his job co-ordinating logistics easier. While Dean says he supports unions, he says the MTS Centre has not been affected by Nasco’s workers — who are locals.

“In no way do I feel that this venue suffers because it’s not a union house.”

He adds: “The guys in this venue are doing a great job.”

John Reese — who founded Taste of Chaos with Kevin Lyman (founder of the Warped Tour) and Darryl Eaton — is similarly impressed by the venue. Reese has run his tour through 17 countries and rates the MTS Centre in the top five per cent of venues.

“You have great amenities,” he says. “You have lots of dressing rooms. It was engineered right.”

Reese, who manages The Used, confirms that another Taste of Chaos tour is in the works for 2007. He says it will definitely come through Canada, which is one of his favourite places to tour.

Back in the loading dock, equipment is piling up as Thrice works through a 50-minute set. The stagehands are cramming gear into the trailers, and Deftones equipment is being shuttled up the ramp at the back of the stage.

The catering room has been packed up, and showered band members are dragging wheeled bags back to their buses. AILD frontman Tim Lambesis takes a moment to answer some e-mail in a hallway, while bandmate Nick Hipa and Atreyu screamer Alex Varkatzas push crates into trailers.

Backstage the Deftones are hanging out, and Moreno emerges from bus No. 10. He turns around while a tech wraps his arms around him and picks him up, loosening the singer’s back. Cheng gets his bottles ready. Guitarist Stephen Carpenter inhales a few smokes.

After Thrice ends its set, the roadies take five minutes to get additional lights in place, and the Deftones launch their set. Members of other bands hang around the side of the stage, giddily snapping pics as Moreno stands on the crowd barrier with security guards holding his belt to stabilize him.

In quiet contrast, a tech sleeps on a crate near the monitor board, out of sight and oblivious to the noise.

And then it’s over — just like that.

No encore, no fooling around.

The Deftones head offstage to the showers, security guards begin ushering fans out of the venue and a housekeeping crew starts cleanup. A larger Nasco crew is dismantling the stage, and wheeled cabinets are rolling about the venue like curling rocks.

By 11:45 p.m. half the stage is down, and the trucks are hitching up to the trailers in the dock. The engines start and exhausted roadies head to trailers. In the parking lot across from Tavern United, low-ranking bands cram equipment into overfilled trailers pulled by sketchy motorhomes.

Inside the venue, the locals stow the last gear and head home as the convoy leaves on Seger’s lonesome highway, headed for an April 12 show in London, Ont. — where the whole thing starts again.