The set-up
After REO's set, the crew came out to change the stage, and I went out to get some water and watch the crew carry stuff through the back. I didn't stay too long, and came right back in. On the way back in, I looked over at the cases where REO's gear had been. Some of it was still out but some was being packed up. On top of one of the cases was Lawrence's "Taz" Polaroid camera! That was pretty cool - I stayed and looked at that for a minute before I went back toward my seat.
In front of the stage, people were kind of standing around talking, just casually standing there, trying to look like they weren't attempting to stake out spots to stand in when the show started back up again. Well this looked pretty promising, so I walked over to the stage, casually of course, and just happened, by sheer coincidence, to end up standing oh, approximately right in front of JY's microphone. Imagine that. Well, actually a little to the left of it, since there's this big huge light and a monitor right in front of it that you can't really see over - if, of course, one were going to be standing there during the concert, or anything like that.
After a little while we started to put our hands up on the stage - quite casually, you understand - had nothing to do with the fact that hanging onto the stage is how you make sure you don’t lose your position! Nothing like that. We were just, you know, resting our hands. Piece by piece the stage came together. The wall of speakers was moved into place, Todd's drums were ready, Lawrence's keyboard was up, the grill was placed in front of the drums and JY's keyboard set up, and microphones put into position and tested. Stage trivia: did you know that each microphone has the appropriate band member's initials on the bottom in bright green lettering - TS, JY, GB? These are the things you find out when you're standing right up against a five foot high stage staring straight up!
I kept waiting for someone to come along and say "Okay, show's about to start, go back and sit down," but no one ever did. Right before the show was about to start, Keith Marks, the production manager for Styx, came across the edge of the stage, duct taping the cables down. Why he is the one who does the duct taping I'm not sure, but he does! He came over to the spot between Glen's and JY's mikes, where I was, and the group of us who were there moved our hands so he could work. He smiled and told one girl to put her hand back up, then made like he was going to tape it to the stage! He joked around with us for a few minutes, then when he was ready to go, he said to us, "You guys have the best seats in the house. You're about to see the real deal." I've said it before, but it's worth repeating that everyone on the Styx crew is as sweet as they can be to the fans.