Its show day once more! But its not all about the glamour at the front of the stage for three hours in the evening. There is an army working behind the scenes for hours leading up to the show and hours after, these guys are called the Road Crew.

For the crew behind the scenes of a KISS show, there is far more to contend with apart from the guitars, drums and Gene Simmons’ Axe Bass. There’s fake blood, grease paint and high-tension wires and harnesses that help the God of Thunder fly. And of course more fire power than some small countries.

The main KISS techs are: Mark Newman for Tommy Thayer, Redd Yoachum for Gene Simmons, Fran Stueber for Paul Stanley and Paul Basset for Eric Singer. Each afternoon they set up their respective boss’s gear and make sure everything is ready to go. The KISS production goes on stage first, then the crew does the soundcheck.

The Dead Daisies crew consist of guitar/bass tech Hayden Vassallo, drum tech/bus/tech stage manager Lee Hollister is also Doug Aldrich’s guitar tech and soundman Tommy Dimitroff, but not forgetting photographer Oliver Halfin who captures the whole story every day on tour for all you guys. While the Daisies band members prepare for the show, talk to the press or throw the old frisbee around like Doug has taken a liking to recently, the guys get the Daisies gear up and running.

Lee sets up Brian’s drums everyday without using any markers on the carpet (like most drum tech’s would), he also likes to eat his dessert before his dinner, but then Lee is a quite unique individual. Hayden has to cope every night with a bass guitar flying through the darkness at the end of every show as Marco launches it at him while Tommy makes sure that the audience are treated to a great sound quality from The Dead Daisies coming from the stage. These are the guys that make the show possible, and they deserve a round of applause!

So needless to say, the show in Youngstown, OH went on without a hitch with the band being in full-swing and the new songs off ‘Make Some Noise’ well-known by now. After the Daisies finish their set, they have to take down the equipment quickly to make room for KISS. And of course after the night’s festivities, everything – and that’s a lot – needs to go back into the trucks & buses only to be built up again the next day. Cue Motörhead’s „We Are The Road Crew“…