UPDATE - 5/8@4:34PM: Reader sandman saw the first episode and reported the following:
The show focused on two main guys on the crew; that being the monitor tech and the sound engineer for the shows.
They showed how the lights and speaker cabinets were rigged up, some notable stats, one being that they have 160,000 watts of (sound) power at their disposal, of which they do not use all of. Each speaker cabinet is roughly 500 lbs and it's all rigged up in only a few hours.
Essentially they went through a typical concert day, the one on the show was at the ACC in Toronto last fall. Their day is usually about 16 hours long. They start at 9:00 am unloading all the gear and then it showed what they did from that time until show time. The guys in the documentary also said they program all of the monitors etc when the band is rehearsing prior to the tour. It looks like the crew has a great sense of humor, something that they all need due to the stress of the job.
They didn't interview the band members, but it showed them hanging out with the roadies prior to the sound check etc.
One other notable interview was with Howard Ungerleider when he showed them the tour buses. They have FIVE tour busses that are absolutely gorgeous. Much nicer than any living room I've been in. Satellite TV, all leather and of course Howard showed us the bar. In addtion to the five tour buses for the band and crew they have seven semi's to haul all the gear.
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Back in December I'd mentioned that WhistleStop Productions was putting the final touches on a 5 part documentary series which follows various members of the Rush road crew during a typical day out on the road with the band. It was shot in High Definition and Dolby 5.1 surround audio during the Canadian leg of the Snakes and Arrows tour and is called Backstage Secrets. It was originally supposed to air this past February on RUSH HD in Canada but was delayed and is now scheduled to air each Thursday evening at 9PM over the next 5 weeks starting this Thursday, May 1st. In order to receive RUSH HD you need to subscribe to Bell Express Vu and sign on for their high definition package. It's not clear if or when the program will air in the US but I had been hearing it would be shown on RAVE HD. There were also some rumblings that Anthem was working on putting the series together in some kind of box set for fans to purchase. The series features Rush Lighting Director Howard Ungerleider; sound guys Brad Madix and Brent Carpenter; instrument technicians Lorne Weaton, Bobby Huck, Tony Geranios and Russ Ryan; video guys David Davidian and Bob Larkin; and production manager Craig Blazier. Many thanks to David at WhistleStop Productions for the heads up.
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