Every second that a band puts into a tour is paid back in much more then cash. After the tour, those irksome little tiffs soon blow away.
The beauty of digital music for ones' iPod is that once it is created and uploaded, the process is over for the musician. Yes, they may have spent countless hours deliberating over this issue and that issue, lost a few hours sleep and sacked a few drummers, but this nowhere near accounts for how much work goes into one live performance, let alone a tour.
I am hoping to share from my own experiences in touring rock bands exactly how much goes into touring as a musician. There will be areas that vary or not apply.
I'm taking it as a 'given' that all venues, dates, times and accommodation have been arranged well in advance by your manager. The availability of band members, road crew and so forth should also be established. It is during this pre-tour phase that, while the manager is doing their promotional and organisational work, the band has their routine down pat. The band should allow a little flexibility re. times but only a little. Once a set list, or lists, is settled it should be firmly entrenched in your head. Any suggestions of deviations in the midst of a tour should be met with firm "No!"
On the day of heading off on tour everyone is abuzz. You should be abuzz. It's exciting stuff. This is a critical point for you and a point where things can go pear-shaped fast. Allowing more than enough time for getting to each venue may be all well and good as you to sit there reading this and nodding your head in agreement but the hours spent hanging around to hit the stage is an easy time for one to be led astray. I don't need to elaborate. If, like me, you found hanging around tedious, go have a lie down. It's much safer and it's legal.
Sound-checks should be done as early as is considered reasonable by the venue. If your sound engineer is worth his salt they shouldn't take long. They may vary in length dependent on the acoustics of a venue. I found that after the sound-check was a good time to try to sleep.
Ideally, instruments should be left on the stage and tuned-up. Your road crew will keep a close eye on them. If guitars are kept in their cases I guarantee that come show-time they won't be in tune and there's nothing worse than waiting for someone to tune-up during a gig.
I found that approximately an hour pre-gig was a good time to wake up. It was plenty of time to get organised and meet with the other band members but not long enough to start getting fed-up. The bands that I played in only did on long set but if your band do shorter sets I'd suggest breaks between sets of ten minutes and certainly no longer than fifteen minutes. Go backstage during these breaks. Again, your road crew will keep an eye on the stage.
After each gig is over, spend some time together as a band. Again, ten or fifteen minutes. Crowd members are inevitably going to want to meet you. This is something that I struggled with basically because I never knew what all the fuss was about. I am very much the same. Insults, I can retaliate to with a barrage of one-liners. Compliments are different. Irrespective, if logistics and time allow it is worth spending time with those who have gone out of their way and paid money to see you.
The majority of the time you will find that it's drunk people but it's worth putting up with as you never know who may be listening in. Be ever-vigilant that sober people are legit and any band-related matters should be redirected to your manager. Any comments not pertaining to music should be dealt with like hot coal; either not at all or carefully at best. Invitations to post-gig parties should be avoided.
After your post-gig socialising your next focus should be your next tour-date. Take this, distance and time into consideration and work your sleeping pattern around that. It takes a
little bit of adjusting-to but not as much adjusting-to as a constant hangover, lethargy, amnesia and insomnia.
Unless you're on Bob Dylans' "Never Ending Tour" it isn't going to last forever. It's a small sacrifice in time for a lifetimes' worth of experience and stories that you can actually remember and live to tell the tale.
Discount Voucher Code For "Redemption": lusty
