つっちーの「太鼓奇談」第五回｜夏フェス

Hello everyone. My name is Tsucchi and I am in charge of the JPC newsletter. This month too, it's time to waste your precious time lol
Normally, when we receive a request for a serial, we have some kind of idea of how it will end, like, ``I'd like it to be serialized for one year,'' but this series has continued without any knowledge of its end date from the moment we received the request until this very moment, and it is inevitable that we will be faced with a serious shortage of material in the near future.
Well, I'm living a life with no future in sight, so it doesn't really matter. ’ ` , ,( ‘ ∀ ` ) ‘ ` , ,

Well, I had a really hard time finding a topic to talk about this time.
People around me just say, ``I should just write about summer festivals,'' but I feel like they're writing about it all over the place, so I don't feel like writing about it.
I don't like it. Because it's a sweet potato. However, I thought I'd take a moment to write down some memories from this summer's festivals.

First of all, the three summer festivals I participated in as a backline crew member this year are the Green Stage at Naeba Fuji Rock, the Main Stage at Yumenoshima World Happiness, the Osaka Ocean Stage at Summer Sonic, and the Lake Side Stage at Lake Yamanaka Sweet Love Shower. Many of my fellow roadies also participate in many more festivals. As for what we do at festivals, we are hired by a rental shop as a local musical instrument crew, and we bring piles of rental instruments ordered by each band to the venue, safely secure the power supply, supply power to each performing band, and when their turn is over, we change the set to the next band, disassemble it, and support the preparation of the next band.There are so many things to do.

After all, when overseas bands like Fuji Rock and Summer Sonic perform, we have to prepare a power supply with the voltage of each country, so at least,JapanVarious voltages such as (100v) America (117~120v) and UK (240v) are always prepared on stage, and it is impossible to perform unless they are supplied absolutely safely and cleanly. If there is a potential difference, an electric shock may occur and an accident may occur.

And when it comes to the headliner of the festival, the so-called super major band, they have to bring in everything from one cable to the other. Five 11-ton trucks and over 60 tons of equipment will be brought in from overseas. This includes instruments, lighting, and sound equipment, as well as copy machines for the production team and coffee cups for the dressing room. It also includes carpets to transform dressing rooms for artists. Of course, the crew of about 10 to 20 people who came with the equipment was responsible for assembling everything quickly and within a limited time, and we were busy working on stage alongside the big foreigners. There are some who are wild, some who are really funny, some who are quiet, and some who are very grateful and give me crew T-shirts. Around thereJapanThere is no difference. It's a fun time to meet colleagues from various countries around the world.

Some of them come from countries where their English is not very good.
At times like that, we communicated with each other backstage using basic English and body language, and after the stage was over and we threw all the equipment they had brought into the truck without forgetting anything, we were relieved that the work was done, and I was like, ``Gahaha~!'' We laugh, hug, and promise to meet again.

Come to think of it, this is a bit of a happy story, but the production manager (in charge of coordinating the crew) of a band called Arcade Fire, who were the headliners on the second day of Fuji Rock, said something like this.

“Rather than hiring a crew of 20 Americans, we would rather hire a crew of four.JapanIt would be faster to hire a human crew.”

I thought those words were a great honor. At that time, the band had quite a lot of equipment, and to be honest, I thought, ``This is going to be difficult.''
The lighting and sound engineers felt the same way.
However, when I opened the lid,JapanThe human crew worked really efficiently and quickly.
I think that's why various overseas tour crews say "Japanese Crew is NO1!". Hardworking, willing to do hard work, work quickly and safely. It's important.
However, there are still many areas where we cannot compete with the United States and the United Kingdom, where rock tours originated. After all, most of our equipment is made overseas, and we have a lot to learn from the know-how and equipment we've acquired while touring around the world.
Meanwhile, those who are doing well areJapanIt may be a manufactured drum set. It's always nice to see instruments from domestic manufacturers included in the equipment brought in by big artists.
We often talk about drums backstage with drum techs who have come from overseas.

The preparation period for a summer festival begins a month in advance. Administrative communications such as ordering musical instruments began even earlier.
We are called together about a month before the event, and we hold a series of meetings to decide which stage we will be responsible for. From there, we move a mountain of instruments to a large warehouse, sort them for each stage, check the condition of the instruments and amplifiers, change the drum set to the designated drum head, and check for hardware abnormalities. Once you get used to it, you'll have to replace 30 to 40 sets of heads. I don't want to see the drums lol

When I'm often asked about my work with the local festival crew, I'm often asked, ``Did Tsucchi tune the drums for that band?'' When I'm invited to a festival, my main job is to follow up on all the instruments, so I don't bother with tuning unless I'm specifically asked to do so.

Setting up the drum set on stage

I help with a lot of things, like turning on the power, taking the guitar amp out of the case and setting it up. However, once upon a time at Fuji Rock, Arctic Monkeys' drum tech collapsed from heat stroke and I was suddenly asked to be his drum tech, and when I was assembling Stanton Moore's Gretsch kit without knowing it was Stanton Moore's, Stanton Moore himself came over and said, "Oh! I'm sorry, I was late in coming to help! Thank you! That's perfect! You did it lol."
Something happened lol
It may be a privilege for us to be able to listen to and see the most exciting bands and star drummers play from a close distance, but there is no way we have time to sit back and watch them, so we usually work behind the stage while listening to their performances.

No matter how well we and the tour crew try to do our best, there are times when things just don't work out. One of the things that comes with outdoor festivals is the weather.
This year's World Happiness held at Yume no Shima was the worst downpour I've ever experienced at a festival. It's a wonder it wasn't cancelled. I would like to express my sincere gratitude to the audience who came to see us during the rainstorm, and it was very moving to see that even under the worst conditions, none of the performing artists said ``I quit!'' and put on a wonderful performance.
With the two bands I was in charge of, Yukihiro Takahashi's, it didn't matter because of Yukihiro's strongest sunny man power, but it was a festival that I will remember for the rest of my life.

After that, at Sweet Love Shower held at Lake Yamanaka, I worked as a drum tech for Mr. Eikichi Yazawa, who performed on the first day's tour, while also working as a member of the local crew.
It rained here too, but it was Ei-chan from King of R&R.
If you sing Rainy Way, a song about a heavy rain storm, ``Rain, rain, rain, more...for me,'' the crowd will wave their fists in the pouring rain and get excited.
Mr. Yazawa's live performance was so hot that the cold rain was evaporating from his back, causing steam to evaporate from his body.
The next day, there was Tatsuro Yamashita's LIVE on the stage next door!
The band has an overwhelming performance, Tatsuro's singing ability is at the level of a master, and the special guest is Mariya Takeuchi!
All I can say is wonderful...
All of them will be engraved in the hearts of the customers who were there as memorable and passionate memories.

I believe that when a person completes a difficult task, an unexpected accident leaves a deeper memory in the memory. The two members of PUFFY, who were the top performers at Yume no Shima in the heavy rain, sang "From now on ~ we are ~ feeling good ~" as usual, and performed a completely unfazed LIVE. This is the spirit of ROCK! I was strangely moved.
Once I started writing, this summer brought back a lot of memories. After all the summer festivals where I battled the harsh weather and shared the joys and hardships with various friends, the happiest moment was when I crawled home, was greeted by my family, had a bath, a warm meal, and then fell asleep in my own bed without thinking about the next day. There are only a few months left in this year, and next year's schedule will soon be sent out. Putting aside my feeling that next year will be busy again, I would like to enjoy a fleeting moment of relaxation and the smell of autumn.

See you soon! Hope everyone is doing well!