Every so often, somebody asks about the blown up roadie. So, in answer to a steadily diminishing number of requests, here is
Summer of '94 found us playing at a rock-fest thingy at the Winnipeg Speedway [now Victory Lane, I believe.] The guy who organized it, Roger Sing, needed an opening act for the mainstage. We agreed to open the mainstage in return for a later spot in the beer gardens. Since Ben drove a little red sporty car, we rented a big white cargo van to get us and all our gear there in one load. Along with the gear, we brought along our trusty roadie, Al.
We got there and got the gear set up, and did the sound check thing, then started into our set. I'd made up a BIG smoke bomb for the show, but all my electrical FX gear was buried in a trunk in the basement after a recent move, so we just put Al upwind of the stage with the smoke bomb and a pack of matches. We'd given him a cue in Nuclear York to set the thing off and let the smoke blow across the stage.
He tried... I should mention that the stuff I made the smoke out of was difficult to light- it needs a high temperature to get it going- if you're lighting it with a match, the match head has to touch it while it's still lighting. Al used up an entire pack of matches trying to light this thing, but the wind was fairly strong, and he couldn't get the match to the bomb before the head stopped burning. The best laid plans of mice, etc... Ben, Bas & I wrote it off as no big deal and forgot about it. Al was, perhaps, a little more obsessed with the failure of the smoke bomb.
Later that evening, we got everything set up at the beer garden, with the van parked just behind the stage area to load into after the set. We charged into our set yet again, and behold! At the cue we'd discussed in Nuclear York, the van starts spewing this HUGE mushroom cloud! I mean, it was BIG! Suddenly everybody is running to the beer garden to see where all the smoke is coming from [Which was pretty much the desired effect, heh heh.]
After the set, we run back to the van to thank Al for remembering about the smoke bomb, and ask him why he set it off in the van. No sign of Al. One badly scorched and half-melted coffee can that used to be a smoke bomb, lying by the side of the van, but no Al. We found him a few minutes later, wandering around somewhat scorched and half-melted himself- no facial hair left, no hair on his arms, and his hairline singed halfway to the back of his head.
He said he figured he'd light the thing in the van, out of the wind, and then run it out to behind the drums, but it flared up way quicker than he expected, so he only got a step or two out of the van when he had to drop it. We sent him off to the first aid tent, where they mummified him. [I can see the paramedics snickering and saying, "Well, we got about a mile of gauze here... let's use it!] I've never been able to find the roll of film I took that day... pity.
-Bob