The talk of the town today is the stage setup for U2’s concert yesterday. I was able to speak to some of the production crew today and learned a few tidbits about the phenomenal rigging.

The 4-legged arrangement is called “The Claw”. It was inspired by the Theme Building at LAX airport . Designers were particularly impressed with the light footprint of the building’s supporting structure, and thought the design would translate into better sightlines for an in-the-round production. The idea arose on the Vertigo tour three years ago, and spent two years in the design and production phases.

There are 3 claws, and each has a unique canopy color: light blue, white, light green. Raleigh got the Green Claw, and everyone on the crew has credentials that are colored green. The team of about 300 people is called “Green Steel”.

Green Steel actually includes many traveling, full-time members, but also hires many regional contract workers. Many employees of sheds in this part of the country are joining one of the three companies for 2 or 3 of the gigs. The crew is run by a core of German workers, but the camaraderie has been exceptionally strong throughout the whole Green Steel crew.

The 3 claws are leapfrogging each other in order for the performance schedule to stay reasonably tight with the band. Once crews finish disassembly in Raleigh, The Green Claw will make its way to Dallas for an October 12 show. Crews on the White and Blue Claws are in Atlanta and Tampa preparing for this week’s shows.

The number of parts in the RBC Parking lot right now is stunning. The floor on the field was a series of interlocking plastic parts designed to shine light through to underlying grass. It also has rain channels that deliver water to the grass, hopefully leaving the lawn in reasonable shape.

Carter-Finley Stadium will receive a completely new turf installation starting Tuesday morning. The company that does the turf for the Super Bowl is bringing in the turf on giant rolls, readying the stadium for Saturday’s NCSU game against Duke.

Disassembly of the claw began at the concert’s commencement and continued through the night. The video boards were removed at around 3am.

The stunning video matrix is actually a series of 6’x8’ flat panels. These panels disconnect and get packed into large compartments in three different 18-wheelers.

The concert rigging requires 120 18-wheelers for transport. Remember the impressive Pink Floyd concert in 1988? It only required 50 18-wheelers.

The Claw is the tallest stage design on record. Standing 164’ tall, the design is twice as high as the previous record holder, The Rolling Stones’ A Bigger Bang rig.

Crews used the same technique to construct the Claw as they did constructing the RBC Center’s roof. Four temporary towers were erected to support the structure until all pieces were in place. Then the towers were lowered and stored until last night’s striking of the set.

The Claw was designed and executed in Germany, and its pieces were shipped across the Atlantic in late August. As soon as the 16-city North American tour leg is finished on the 28th, the rigs will presumably make their way back to Germany via the Pacific, and hit storage until the tour commences again in Frankfurt on August 10.

I have to say that after this, the N.C. State Fair ride assembly this year will be rather anticlimactic!

One final thought. Take a minute and look at this tour’s dates and cities . Two nights in Chicago, Toronto, Boston, and NYC, each. Then the tour went to single-night gigs for the south: DC, Charlottesville, Raleigh, Atlanta, Tampa, Dallas before tackling a few dates in the west. Certainly DC, Atlanta, and Dallas are required stops, but if they are doing 6 cities in the south, I think it is incredible that they picked Charlottesville, VA to be in the mix. It is only a couple of hours from D.C. and doesn’t access any areas that Raleigh or Charlotte wouldn’t already pick up. It is extremely interesting that they didn’t just do two dates in D.C. and one in NC. We here in Raleigh are incredibly lucky that we got this gig. That’s all I have to say. Think about it. This tour skipped Nashville, Cleveland, St. Louis, Seattle, Pittsburgh, Minneapolis, San Francisco, and plenty of other larger cities. THANK YOU, U2!!