Behind the Scenes by John Miller – June 2025

No, it’s not the next winning Powerball numbers, but if they are, I want a cut! It’s Hairball by the numbers!

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We got lucky! Hairball was originally scheduled for September 2024. But the September date conflicted with a radius clause for another of their concerts, so they asked to reschedule. A radius clause in a contract prevents an artist from performing within a specified distance of another concert during a period of time before and after the other concert. What that meant for us was moving the concert to May 16, 2025, which so happened to be their 25^th Anniversary Tour! Hairball has been a Minnesota favorite since their early beginnings playing dive bars around the Twin Cities. Now, they play gigs nationwide, but they have a special affinity for their fans in the Midwest.

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I’m fanatical about doing business through email. I like to have information in digital form, if you tell it to me – I forget, if I write it down – it will get lost in the pile of papers on my desk. Send me an email! On January 30th, 2024, I received an email from Jeremy Dewey, Reif Production & Operations Director, stating that we needed to reschedule Hairball. In the 15 months since then, I was a part of 470 emails concerning Hairball! Because we were using the West Arena at the Yanmar arena for the first time, many of the emails were about making sure the venue would work for Hairball’s extensive electrical, staging, rigging and pyrotechnical needs.

The venue needed to have a 200 amp service for audio and lighting power. To take advantage of the arena seating in the West Venue, we decided to place the stage at the south side of the arena. Unfortunately, there was not adequate power within reach, and so we had to arrange for the installation of additional power.

Hockey fans are very familiar with the Yanmar Arena and the stunning wooden ceiling of the West Arena, recently replaced during renovations. We needed to hang around 8000 pounds of lighting and sound equipment from those beautiful new beams—could they take it? The city had the structural engineers from the recent renovation look it over and they gave us the go ahead, as long as we protected the beams from being scratched or marred.

Which brought up another issue I spent quite some time on… Hairball is known for their authentic arena rock concerts with lots of pyrotechnics. Their tech rider says for a full pyro show they need 22’ over the stage. After installing the stage, we weren’t going to have the clearance. Many emails and a few phone calls later, we worked it out! Hairball performs in all kinds of venues, so they can control the height of the pyro effects. Even with that solved, we did end up cutting another of their special effects—we decided on a “no confetti” show for the ease of cleaning up afterward.

We also needed some barricades and cable ramps for security and safety. In the past we’ve used wooden traffic barricades at concerts. That wasn’t going to work in the arena, so we purchased new all metal barricades. The good news is we have them now for future events, and we don’t even have to find room to store them! The city is going to store them for us; in return they can use them for other concerts or crowd control needs.

We’ve been needing cable ramps for a couple of years as it is a much safer way to cover cables in audience traffic areas. They are very visible and create less of a tripping hazard, along with protecting the cables from damage. We will be able to make use of these at many other events to come!

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Green Room Hospitality

• 3 cases of room temperature water
• 1 case of Coke Zero or Diet Coke
• 1 case of Coke
• 12 sugar free Red Bull energy drinks
• 1 case of Diet Mountain Dew
• 1 case of Bubbly Water: Lime, Orange, or Berry
• 1 Lime Perrier Mineral Water
• 1 S. Pellegrino Sparkling Water
• 1 12 pack of chocolate Muscle Milk Protein Shakes
• 1 Deli Tray with bread and condiments (individual packages of deli meats preferred)
• 1 jar of Peanut Butter (Perf with ingredients list of only peanuts or peanuts and Palm oil)
• 1 jar of jelly
• 1 loaf of bread wheat
• 1 package of Mission Carb balance Wraps (or low carb wraps)
• 1 variety pack of individual chips
• 1 Veggie tray with dip
• 1 Fruit Tray
• 1 jar of whole dill pickles
• 1 package of Emergency plus Vitamin C with D
• 1 pack of Liquid IV (Any Flavor)
• 1 pack 5 Hour Energy
• 3 Rolls of Paper Towels
• 1 package of paper plates
• 12 Clean Hand Towels Black
• 24 Clean Bath Towels

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Friday, May 16, 2025
Day of Show Schedule
10am – Purple Hat Productions Load In (Reif Crew, forklift)
11am – Hospitality in place, Anthony arrives to check things out12pm-4:30pm – Hairball Load In/Sound Check (Reif Crew, forklift)
4pm – Northwood’s Band Arrival4:30pm-5:30pm – Northwood’s Band Sound Check
5pm – Hairball Dinner
5:30pm – Doors Open
7:15pm-8pm – Northwood’s Band
8:30pm-10:30pm – Hairball
10:30pm-2am – Strike (Reif Crew, forklift)

I know a 16-hour day sounds like a long day, and it was, but sometimes the numbers don’t always tell the whole story! I have a great crew that backs me up and sometimes I get to sneak away. For Hairball I wasn’t needed to run sound or lights, and I knew I wouldn’t be very useful during strike, so I let my crack crew cover for me. This was my view for Hairball!

I don’t keep track of my daily steps, but Reif Crew member Crystal does, and she made 26,632 steps during Hairball. That’s over 10 miles! Crystal is also famous for the fantastic banana bread she bakes for visiting artists and crew. So, let’s add 47 mini-loaves of banana bread for Hairball artists and crew to our numbers!

This time-lapse video makes load in and load out go much faster, cue the Benny Hill music!

https://youtube.com/watch?v=DQOt0Yexs3s%3Ffeature%3Doembed%26enablejsapi%3D1%26wmode%3Dopaque

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It takes an army of people to put together an event like this!

• 29 Volunteers
• 14 Reif Center Crew
• 15 Hairball artists and crew
• 1 Opening Act – Northwood’s Band
• 4 Production Company Crew
• 9 Reif Center Staff Members
• 1 Emcee
• 2 Electricians
• 2 Fire Inspectors
• 1 Yanmar Arena Manager
• 2 Forklift Drivers / Yanmar Staff
• 3 Food Truck Vendors
• 1 Beer Truck Vendor
• 2 EMT First Responders
• 6 Security Guards
• 8 Local Police/Reserves

Bonus: Lost and Found Report

• 2 drivers licenses (returned to owners)
• 1 cell phone (returned to owner)
• 3 pieces of jewelry (not claimed)
• 1 hat (not claimed)

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And finally, our audiences are number ONE! Our official number was 2,104 ticketed patrons. We couldn’t put on amazing events like Hairball without support from the community! We’ve had a lot of great feedback, and we are already hard at work on future events just like this!

[Editor’s note: This article was written by John Miller, Technical Director at the Reif Performing Arts Center in Grand Rapids. It is part of a series of monthly articles titled “Behind the Scenes”. All of his articles are available on the Reif Center’s website at https://www.reifcenter.org/reif-behind-the-scenes/. MACT would like to thank John and the Reif Center for allowing us to reprint this article. The Reif Center will be the location of MACT*Fest 2027.]