On the Road Again

The years of practice and hard work have paid off, and you get a call to go on the road with a well known band. You readily accept the tour; now its dates beam out from your desk calendar. It is great to tell your network the good news about your upcoming gigs. After all these years, I still love touring. I've heard lots of road stories and told my own share as well. I've had some great experiences but others still haunt me. Touring has been a character builder and my free ticket to world-wide travel. I've never met a musician who didn't romanticize the road and all its bumpy glories. However, there is a lot about touring that I wish someone had told me about before I signed up. Chances are, these issues will not disappear, and we may as well protect ourselves as professional musicians. SURPRISE, SURPRISE! The calendar shows that you are in the middle of your tour. It's going well, except for the many surprises. Surprise #1 - TRAVEL. This is a good one. There are only two methods of tour travel-ground or air. Air travel is really only necessary in situa­tions where it's too far to drive by bus. Seems obvious, right? Brace yourself. Many tours will make you take the bus for great distances anyway, if there's enough time before the next gig. For instance, if the tour is slated to begin in Idaho on Friday, manage­ment may try to get the band to leave on Monday, from New York, ON THE BUS. This can become frus­trating when you find out that the star artist isn't on the bus, because he's flying straight to the gig. When you can say, "No way!" and fly instead. MEN WITH A VAN I used think that travelling on a tour bus was living large. That was until my first tour on one. Later, I'll tell you what I don't like about bus travel. But first, let me tell you what I do like about touring in a van. Actually, I love touring in a van. No, I'm not talking about a tour where the band, crew, gear, and a dog are packed into something like a "Cheech and Chong" vehicle. I prefer the adult approach. And here's why: the van gives everyone in the band mobility. A van means that just a few people (usually only the band, and let's hope that it's a five piece band), can fit into it. The tour man­ager and crew ride separately on a bus. The gear, the P.A., and the merchandise are in separate trucks. As a matter of fact, the crew actually needs to be on a bus because load-in at most venues is early in the morn­ing. They can't possibly sleep after the previous night's show, wake up, and drive 300 miles, all by 10am the next morning. The band, on the other hand, doesn't have to get to the next city until 5 o'clock for sound check. So, here's a perfect van-tour day on the road: this day, in fact, really begins the night before, when I look in my room and find the "daily info sheet" that the tour manager has left for me. Every evening, one of these is put under each band member's door. It contains everything we will need to know for the next day; destination, direc­tions, important phone numbers, hotel specifics, etc. It also tells us what time we should meet in the hotel lobby for departure. On this perfect day, I wake up early around 8 am. Am I nuts? After a show that didn't finish until 1 am? No. I'll have plenty of time to sleep during today's six-hour drive to the next town. This way, I have a couple of free hours before we leave, and I can exercise by jogging or going to a gym. After breakfast, I check out of my room, and meet the band in the lobby. We pile into the van and are on our way. A fifteen-passenger van has three bench seats and two club chairs up front. If there's only five guys, that means one to a bench and one to a club chair. This makes for a very comfortable ride and allows everyone to stretch out and relax. Who's driving? One of us. To have a professional driver would just take up valuable space. I love it when band members take turns driving (unless we have some scary drivers among us). On the road, we can stop for lunch and maybe a few sights, as long as we're on time. The guys on the bench seats can lie down and sleep. For me, this is a great way to tour. We do what we want, when we want, and stop as often as we please. Some of my favorite towns and restaurants were discovered like this. If we get to the next town early, we can check into our rooms and relax. If the hotel is close enough to the gig, we are also able to go back for a nap before the show. Want to see a movie on your day off? You can borrow the van. With this set up, the band is really independent from the rest of the tour crew. Many times, I'll only see them at the gig. Unfortunately, this is not the way a bus tour operates. More on bus tours coming up.