For
Immediate Release
1 March 2005
For More Information
Holly Gleason for Joe's Garage
Wes Vause for BNA Nashville
(615)-301-4300
Kenny Chesney Looking At Bigger, Bolder Stage --
Cleaner Lines, More Fan Access, 125 Individually Controlled Amplifiers & More
Nashville: When you're following up the second biggest tour of the year --
behind no less than Prince's awesome multi-night stand in many cities Musicology
-- you need to really get your game on, so Kenny Chesney's been taking his
Somewhere In The Sun Tour seriously. The stage -- which was trucked in from
Torrance by 15 trucks -- has been erected now for over almost two weeks, the
band began rehearsing on it in the middle of last week. Special guest Gretchen
Wilson will get her turn on it shortly.
The reason for this amount of rehearsal time? The sheer size.
"We're having to play a lot more arenas this year, because the outdoor
venues can't handle the staging and light trusses," says the reigning Country
Music Association Entertainer of the Year. "It's bigger than Van Halen's Diver
Down Tour, which I saw when I was in high school -- and I thought was about the
biggest thing I'd ever seen! But when we got bigger, I wanted to make the lines
cleaner, so everybody could see everything that was going on no matter where
they were sitting. THAT was a really big deal for us."
Built by California-based All Access Staging -- who've done the stages for
all the Lollapaloozas, as well as stages Dave Matthews, Tom Petty, KISS,
Fleetwood Mac, Incubus and Madonna -- the actual design was a collaboration
between Chesney, production manager Ed Wannebo and lightning designer Mike
Swinford. And the renderings were being rendered long before the 1.2 million
ticket-selling Guitars, Tiki Bars & A Whole Lot of Love Tour was over.
"We had pictures of this VERY stage during the second leg, asking ourselves
if we could build it. If it would give us the room to move that we really
wanted," confesses the man whose single-less Be As You Are debuted at #1
on Billboard's all-genre Top 200 and sits at #1 on their Country Albums
chart today. "That's the thing about this band -- and okay, me -- we like to run
around and have fun up there."
With over 240 feet of stage frontage -- due to the extended T which creates
the standing room general admission Sand Bars, designed to get the fans even
closer to the show -- there's 400% more fan accessibility than with the
traditional 60 foot front row. And the unconventional design also allows the
Luttrell, Tennessean to be surrounded by the fans on 3 sides.
"If you wanna see the energy go through the roof, we're thinking this'll do
it," admits the man whose CMA Album of the Year When The Sun Goes Down is
closing in on the same quadruple platinum status as his No Shoes, No Shirt,
No Problems and Greatest Hits. "As hard as we rock, the fans rock
harder. We figured that since we know that going in, let's figure out how to
make the most of it."
In addition, Chesney's employing vertical video screens this year, hydraulic
lifts as part of the staging and all of the primary lighting rigs will be
fully-automated through a Grand M.A. Computer Console. And for the fans who're
very particular about their sound -- this year, there will 125 individually
controlled amps in the sound system capable of generating 280,000 watts.
"I don't know what all the technical stuff means," Chesney allows with a
laugh, "except that we're gonna be able to give the fans the best show ever. I
try to do the kinds of shows I'd've wanted to see, with the best quality there
is; and when you can get that exacting -- and a stage like this -- I'd say we've
got it pretty specific."
With Somewhere In The Sun kicking off with a doubleplay in Green Bay,
Wisconsin March 10-11, following a Houston Livestock Show & Rodeo performance on
March 9 - where Chesney currently holds the attendance record, his "Anything
But Mine" leaps from 11* to 7* on both the Billboard and Radio &
Records Country Singles charts. Not bad for a guy whose "technically" been
off for 6 months.
##############