Shopping with Crosby, Stills and Nash

The Smoking Gun also posted a 2003 concert rider from CSN. Things don’t get too exciting until page 5, "Catering Requirements." And really, it’s not as if these guys are Iggy Pop. But, in order for the talent (or "ARTISTS," as the rider reminds us in capitals) to be content, many riders are hyper-specific, which makes some requests inadvertently hilarious. Take, for instance, the Zen-like balance of temperature requirements for food: "When food or beverages are required to be hot or cold at a certain time, they must be hot or cold by that time, not heating or cooling."

It’s enough to make a person wonder: How much is too much when you can make a living as a musician? Should the life of a musician on tour be one completely free of hardship? How frequently are the needs of musicians moderated? I mean, did the folks in the CSN dressing room, estimated to be 20 people on the rider, reliably power through 66 soft drinks a night? What do you consider to be too much? Not enough?

Better yet, what’s on your concert rider?

Anyways, look around The Smoking Gun’s list of riders a bit and dig up some acts that have performed here. My favorites at the moment are Gnarls Barkley (fried chicken, vodka, Dunkin’ Donuts and condoms) and Red Hot Chili Peppers, who joined the Bark at John Paul Jones Arena last year.