Celebrate the Small Wins

After a few years in the production industry, I’ve figured something out. A successful night is a lot more than a great show. From the outside it looks like one big win by the Team in Black. It’s actually a pile of small ones.

The equipment truck showed up on time. Somebody bagged the parking for it. The right gear came off the truck, and a crew of dedicated, knowledgeable techs got it set. The band showed up ready for soundcheck. Heck, even the singer showed up. I’m a singer, so I’m allowed to say that. Don’t come at me. 🙂

Every one of those wins holds up the whole. One small setback and it all comes down, or everything else has to shift to cover it. If we do our jobs right, the audience never sees any of it. But we should see it. And we should celebrate it as a community.

The A2 who found the bad cable. The hand who tracked down the C wrench Travis never returned. The backline tech who tried, very politely, to tell the monitor engineer that the active DI didn’t seem to have phantom power and the keyboard was fine. Those people moved the show forward toward our end goal: the load out.

No wait. I mean a successful and entertaining show for the audience!