Second Break
REO left the stage, and the crew came back out blazing to change sets once again. REO had multi-level fabric-covered risers with Neil's keyboard setup and a grand piano up on risers next to the drums. Most of the risers came down and the fabric came off. The crew brought out a steel gray structure and assembled it in front of the drum riser. It kind of looked like the front grill of a 1940's automobile - very smooth, clean and strong lines. The group of people I had been talking to before were talking without me at this break, because I was sitting up on the back of my seat, fascinated by what was going on up on the stage. These people are amazing. I watched Keith Marks, who I think is their tour manager now, supervising the setup of JY's keyboard area. The crew took an arced pole, same steel gray as the rest of the stage accents, and plugged it into the front corner, stage left, of the drum riser. The pole had a keyboard platform at the end and the whole thing could pivot around. Keith brought a synthesizer up and placed it on the platform, then swung the pole around to place the keyboard at the side of the drum kit.
Then a crew member came up to the edge of the stage, to the monitor (or whatever it was) that was planted right in front of me during the Eddie Money and REO sets. Turns out it is moveable after all. In front of my disbelieving eyes, the crew took the monitor, packed it up and whisked it away, creating the space I remembered at the far ends of the Styx stage. More importantly, they were creating this magical space approximately seven feet away from the spot where I was sitting. They adjusted the floor mike that now stood about three feet away from the speaker tower with nothing in between, and put tape over and under the cables nearby. Across the stage, a guitar tech came out with JY's blue Kramer guitar and walked over to the spot in front of me, turning around a few times as if he were testing to make sure all the equipment was out of the way and there was plenty of clearance to move around in that space with the guitar. I knew exactly where I was headed as soon as the lights went down.
When I looked up, a lot had happened to the rest of the stage set in the few minutes I had been captivated watching the spot in front of me. A back wall of amplifiers had appeared, and REO's piano and green drum set had vanished. Todd's drum kit was being moved in. Keith was helping attach a black curtain over the lower edge of the amplifiers behind the drums, completing the black background of the stage set. Lawrence's spinning keyboard station, which had been onstage under a fabric cover, was unveiled and moved into place. The crew is really slick, moving, setting up, taking down, packing up, taping, placing - they are their own show!