Students Get Behind-The-Scenes Look At Bon Jovi Concert

PITTSBURGH (KDKA) -- Bon Jovi will rock the CONSOL Energy Center with a show tonight and another on Saturday evening.

While the band is no stranger to Pittsburgh, it's giving some students their first opportunity to get up close and personal with what it takes to make the music happen.

High above the rafters of CONSOL Energy Center and down below, dozens of stagehands were preparing this morning for Bon Jovi's debut.

Mike Savas, of Bon Jovi's tour management, said setup has been a snap.

"Everything you need from a production element is there," said Savas. Plugs are in the wall where you need to be. Everything makes sense; so, whoever planned this out did it very nicely."

The crew itself had an early audience as students from Carnegie Mellon University had their shot at an up close tour.

"We're at the invitation of the band, and that's unique," said Jeremy Lechterman, a CMU student. "For us, at Carnegie Mellon, we're learning a lot about dance, lighting and things like that. The rock 'n roll is a thing we don't have a lot of exposure to."

"It's a mixed bag. We have some engineering students, we have some drama students and some of my students have worked in the shop that produced this tour's hardware," said Kevin Hines, of CMU's School of Drama.

Organizers are promising lots of bells and whistles; so, with the varied backgrounds of the students, they say everyone will learn something.

"For us, it doesn't matter. We all appreciate the art and the craft that goes into putting on something like this, even if it doesn't mean we're a fan of the band. But at CMU, we have a lot of connections that are responsible for making this tour happen," added Hines.

All in all, it takes crews six hours to set it up, and only two hours to take it down.