“This right here will be the biggest stage in history,” said Ken Stahl, one of the hundreds of crew members hired to help build the Stones' stage for their concert at Washington-Grizzly Stadium on Wednesday.
“This is huge,” Stahl said. “It's easily a 500-man call. Crews have been called in from Idaho, from Seattle and Portland to help out.
Stahl has helped build stages for the likes of The Who, Ozzy Osbourne, Jay Leno and “every country act you think of.”
What makes the Stones' stage so remarkable, he said, is that it requires cranes to construct the six-story behemoth, whereas most stages are essentially a jigsaw puzzle of metal scaffolding that hooks and bolts into place like Legos.
On Sunday, three cranes, six forklifts and an army of stagehands swarmed across the stadium floor, laying down a protective flooring over the Grizzlies' football field and building the first layer of decking - the foundation - that will bear the weight of the entire stage complex.
It's a complicated endeavor that is so well planned, each step and the equipment needed are organized into phases, Stahl said.
As the base decking was laid into place, other workers began strapping on climbing harnesses, adjusting their helmets and checking their carabiners.
“Once we go past 10 feet, we have to be hooked into something - that's regulation,” Stahl explained.
Crews numbering in the hundreds will be working three different shifts around the clock, and when the sun sets giant floodlights will be turned on so workers can continue through the night and into the morning.
Most of the crew members are staying in a high school gymnasium. Others are staying in deluxe motorhomes they drove to Missoula.
The off hours are filled with impromptu roadie parties; on Saturday, that included some card playing and a bite of whiskey.
With so much work before them, “it's everything in moderation,” Stahl said.
As the cranes lifted massive steel girders into the air, Stahl watched in amazement.
“This thing is going to be so big, we are building suites into the stage where people can sit and look down at the band,” he said.
“It's going to be a monstrous stage. It's going to be nuts.”
The stage, which is assembled, pulled apart and re-assembled at every show on the tour, is so elaborate it's historic, Stahl said.
“We are making history. This is by far the largest stage that's ever been built that is not permanent.”
Among rank-and-file roadies, he said, “it's the holy grail.”
Reporter Betsy Cohen can be reached at 523-5253 or at bcohen@missoulian.com.
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