I was a camera operator on a live DVD recording of a band out of Los Angeles. I shadowed one member of the band (a skinny guy like me and lots of tattoos not like me) for several hours prior to their performance.  It was a lot of squalor and cavorting around backstage – Dressing rooms, climbing over walls to talk to fans, getting a ticket for jumping in the nearby lake, (actually its just a canal, (and a gross one) the city tricks everyone into thinking it is lakefront property to raise the real estate value) even on the tour bus; where one member thought it would be hilarious to pull out his member and slap some other dude with it for the camera. (rule #1 never stop recording).

This wasn’t the only time I’ve been backstage at a show, but together in my experience, I’ve noticed one big thing all bands have in common. Support staff. Various types of support staff. The kind you would expect like venue security, techs running cables, stagehands carrying things, lighting and effects experts, hell even a few sound techs.  Then there are another bunch of people who mostly stand around, get drunk, get high, hang out with the band, get tattoos in random rooms, tell stories and bullshit, snap candid pictures and get in the way of all the people that are actually ‘working’. When I say it like that it seems pretty demeaning towards this group. Yes they do seem useless, or do they?

Everyone backstage seems to fall into one of these two groups: Technical support and personality support.  As the title of this article suggest, at first glance it appears the personality support is a useless group of mostly raging whores. But really, both groups coexist in this sort of well defined preternatural courtship that join along with the band itself, to create this child that is show business.  Left only to be adopted lovingly by the fans.  Part of fans mindset is what goes on off stage. The lifestyle.  The lead singer, ever guy wants to be you, and every girls wants to fuck you (and some of the guys, too) This support system is really the reason for that.  People are drawn to shiny things.  And performers really start to glow when they are the center of attention.  It boils down to no one wanting to buy tickets for, or promote a performer that does not shine.  I can’t begin to imagine how frustrating it must be for managers and other ‘talent wranglers’ to keep the circus backstage in check, and still manage to get a show off the ground.  I think the only way they would put up with it, is if they also knew how essentially underlying it is to the success of the show.  That their job is the success of the show, and humoring ALL of its support.

The final kicker, is that I don’t know how much the personality support really knows about their role.  I can’t imagine these trolls really get it.  Though I don’t know that they really care to or need to get it, to serve their purpose. They love that shine, probably even the music (but doubtful, if you’ve ever been on stage, or side stage, the sound is just horrible up there) and you can get by without convincing them of much else.

-Keegan
(who loves being technical support)
8/2/2009

“Rock show? This aint a fucking talk show, a big gigantic cock show” -peaches
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