The AC/DC Load-In Nightmare

On the day of the AC/DC show, we arrived at the club at our usual 2:00PM load-in time to set up. AC/DC's crew was already there, setting up their gear. As an opening act, I knew we would have to cooperate with AC/DC's wishes and needs...that's just what opening acts put up with for the opportunity to open those kinds of shows...and get that kind of exposure...but the Australian crew were rude and abrasive...and this was something nobody, not even Annie, had prepared me for. The stage at the club was large, but it was a club stage. When we had played there the previous three times, we barely had enough room for all of our gear. What I thought would happen for this show, was...we would play our set, quickly wheel our gear offstage, and AC/DC would quickly set their stuff up. I expected there would be a 45 min. stage change time between bands. But AC/DC had other ideas. They had roughly almost as much gear as we did (we actually had more), but what they insisted on was that they set up their stage (taking just about all the available space), and whatever was left over...we would have to make do with. It was ludicrous. And the AC/DC roadies were totally rude, and completely indifferent to our needs. I was convinced that they were doing everything they could, once they had seen what kind of a band we were, and what kind of gear we had, to sabotage our show...any way they could. As much as I wanted to cooperate with them, I believed that cooperation was a two-way street, but no matter what I asked them, no matter how small, the answer was just a flat "no." They made it very clear they didn't care if we had to set up in the bathrooms...they were not going to budge an inch. I was pissed. Every other band we had always worked with had been great with us. These roadies were assholes. We waited at least another two hours for the AC/DC crew to finish their set-up, and they made sure they took it very slow. It was well after 4:00PM before they were finished...and as I looked at the stage, and the very tiny amount of room that they had left us for our gear, I knew we had our work cut out for us...