This article was passed on to us by one of our readers.. Some interesting insight as to what goes on before a show.
ARCO Arena in Sacramento CA was packed to the roof with thousands of people rocking out to Bon Jovi last night. Sacramento was the sixth impede of the band’s The Circle Tour.
According to crew chief Mike Rew, “Till present, this tour is recorded to be the most advanced or state-of-the-art tour by the band.” This performance is in fact a multi-media presentation. For this concert, they required 80 crew members in all, along with adequate amount of equipment to fill 17 semi trucks.
According to Rew, this show holds some special distinct effects which were never used prior to this in any rock concert. For instant, back of the stage, 5 robotic arms are there to hold five giant video screens.
Before the Tuesday show, Rew told FOX40 that “These arms are actually the ones used to make cars and we used these for holding the screens.” Due to organizing this event at an old venue, ARCO Arena, many technical challenges were faced.
Before the commencement of the concert, Rew elaborated tour’s lightning and speaker system by walking up on the stage while pointing those he said that “the great challenge we are facing at old arena is all of this stuff hanging in the air. If we had gone for new arenas we wouldn’t have faced all such issues, still this one is not too bad.”
Richie Sambora’s guitar collection was also displayed by Rew. The estimated worth of this collection is said to be $600,000! According to Rew, Richie carries 36 guitars at a time on the road, and plays variety of sounds and tones by using 10-15 guitars at a night.
The private changing room of Jon Bon Jovi (located under the stage) was well stocked with water, as well as iced tea. It is quite challenging as well as tiring work for the crew to set up all the required equipment, and also to carry it to a lot of cities, until the mid of summers.
But the chief of the crew Rew seems to be so zealous and enthusiastic, and according to him it’s a rock man show and it is the best job in his entire career.
March 12th, 2010 
Trent 
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