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Band Guide

9. ABOUT TOURING

Getting big in your hometown is a wonderful thing. But it has its drawbacks. If you play too often at local clubs, "familiarity breeds contempt" syndrome may creep in and promoters, bookers, and even fans may decide they have other things to do than hear your band once or twice a week. That's when it's time to travel.

Taking it on the road is perhaps the best investment you can make. It can be grueling, and costly, but if you do it right you'll immediately see growth—perhaps the kind of growth that attracts managers, booking agents, radio stations, and even prominent record labels. Once you've established a home base, it can never hurt to develop several satellite bases.

Before setting up a trip, consider the realities of taking the band on the road. Yes, travel can be a blast—rock history is filled with outrageous road stories—from dramatic accounts of The Who wrecking hotel rooms during all night bashes to those guys from the movie Almost Famous singing along happily to Elton John's "Tiny Dancer." What all such descriptions leave out are the countless hours of driving and waiting. Hours and hours of each.

So make sure you're ready. Is this the right time? Are all the band members emotionally—and physically—prepared for a grueling trip? Are you sure you've exhausted your local options? And perhaps most important, will the trip be a boost, from a financial or emotional perspective, for the band? If the answer is yes, or if you can find a quick out-of-town gig perfect for a short, nothing-to-lose road trip, it's time to deal with transportation.

Vehicles

The car (or cars) you've used to shuttle between rehearsal and gig will probably work for shorter trips, but when it comes to more elaborate road trips involving significant distances or several gigs, you'll need to find a more practical means of getting around. Vans tend to be the vehicle of choice for bands on the road, as they can haul a lot of gear with room to spare for several people.

Choose the van carefully, as you'll spend long hours in it.

When you're just getting started, it probably makes more sense to rent a vehicle rather than to cough up the cash to buy one. Besides, until you've tried a couple out-of-town gigs, you won't know whether you'll want to keep doing them.

Read the fine print on the rental-insurance policy. Often it won't cover specific types of property damage or will charge a prohibitively high deductible. And check with your regular auto-insurance policy, which may not cover some trucks. You never know what kind of mishap will happen while maneuvering an unknown highway at 2 A.M. in the middle of a thunderstorm.

Once your band starts making road trips a regular part of its schedule, buying a truck or van may be more cost-effective than renting. Check the classifieds and visit used car lots for the best deals. And don't forget to comparison-shop.

The idea is for you and your gear to fit in a reasonably comfortable way. Be ready to make easy compromises: Do you really need the gigantic Marshall amplifiers? Consider taking smaller amps and, at the gig, hooking them up to the club's PA system using microphones. (Call ahead, of course, to make sure you can do this.) Downsize. Sleeping bags may be handy if you're planning to camp out or crash on a friend's floor—but they might take up crucial space.

Road-trip entertainment is not a trivial consideration. Bring handheld video games and extra batteries. While the band may want to designate a few group CDs for sing-along (or musical study) sessions, headphones are a must for bands whose members have different musical tastes. If you really want to get fancy, battery-powered TVs and DVD players can suck up long hours on the road.

The van will break down. Inevitably, the radiator hose will blow out when you're late for a gig. The best way to deal with this is to have a band member who knows the basics of auto repair. He or she can recognize the problem, take a quick trip to an auto-parts store, and have the van running again in no time.

With the help of your mechanically inclined bandmate, or a friend or family member who knows the rudiments of auto repair, prepare a van toolbox. Screwdrivers, ratchet wrenches, soldering iron, and an extra tire or two are all crucial. But if your van has a unique mechanical characteristic, like an oddball-size fan belt, stuff a spare in the toolbox, too.

Expenses

Once you all pile in the van and head down the road, your costs run up tremendously. Besides the cost of the van, you'll probably have to pay to sleep in hotels and buy your food from restaurants. When you're far from home, you're constantly handing money to somebody. The trick is to plan for those costs and to do what you can to keep them down.

We recommend setting up a tour budget before you even start. Typical costs on the road include the following:

Food—three meals a day for each person, plus plenty of snacks and drinks
Parking and tolls
Hotels
Gas
Mobile phone bills, phone cards, or extravagant pay-phone long-distance rates
Emergency van maintenance (Yes, you will break down on occasion; and even if you're lucky enough to have a mechanic in the band, you'll still require garage service.)
Extra health and auto insurance if your usual policies don't cover road trips (Check first.)
Medicine, from basic aspirin to a doctor's appointment if somebody gets sick in an unfamiliar city

Obviously, there are ways to keep these costs down. Bringing a cooler and buying bulk supermarket food is cheaper (and healthier) than eating at McDonald’s three times a day. Rather than paying £25 to £50 a night for even the cheapest hotel, perhaps a friend will let you crash on the couch in exchange for free access to the gig or some other favor. Check the map to see if you can avoid the toll roads, and bring lots of quarters to park at meters rather than paying for an expensive garage.

Once you've determined the potential costs, it's time to figure out whether you can actually afford to take the trip. You'd be surprised by how many bands fail to take this extremely important step. Maxing out credit cards will only hurt you in the future, and possibly break up the band someday.

The fairest, most democratic method is for everybody to chip in—but that may not be feasible given certain members' financial situations. Maybe three musicians can split the costs, and the other can sign a payment plan involving future gig proceeds. But proceed with caution: If one musician is financially beholden to another, this can mess with fragile group dynamics. And if one musician winds up quitting (or worse yet, getting fired), the last thing you'll want is for that person to owe money.

Planning

Where do you go? The easy answer is, "Wherever you can get a gig." But there's more to it than that. The process can begin in two ways: You can pick a city within driving distance (which may be just a few hours for some bands with families and day jobs, or a longer summer adventure for band members with no such commitments) and find a club at your level in that area. Or you can find the club first, through connections or simply locating it on a map, and market yourself to that club.

Some bands use an "exchange system" to broaden their markets to other cities. Bands outside your hometown might let you open for them in one of their strong markets.

In exchange, you'd let them open for you in one of your strongholds. Although competition among bands can be healthy, cooperation is often far more effective.

But be realistic. If the trip is a weekend quickie, you may not have the time or energy to play more than one or two gigs. And study the map carefully—don't make a side trip to Bristol if you're making the Manchester-to-Glasgow trip. That can take you hours out of your way and drive everybody crazy.

Being on the Road

Jack Kerouac's classic Beat Generation novel On the Road notwithstanding, the road isn't as romantic as you might think. If rehearsal spaces and local stages seem cramped, imagine stuffing all the same people and gear, plus luggage, into a small van. And on the road, you'll have very little leisure time (aside from long hours staring at the white lines of the highway). The whole experience can make it difficult to keep a positive attitude.

To survive, perhaps the most important thing is to maintain a sense of humor and perspective. Your band is doing a good thing! The out-of-town gig can easily pay off in terms of exposure or even money, but regardless, going on the road with your band is an experience you'll always remember.

It's fine to look to the road as your route to adventure, just don't neglect your health and safety. Shuffle drivers regularly—on a long trip, one driver's shift shouldn't go more than three hours. Night shifts are sometimes inevitable, and someone should always be awake, helping the driver not to fall asleep at the wheel. Make regular stops, not only obvious ones for gas and restrooms, but also for the occasional leg-stretching "Chinese fire drill."

It's hard, especially for young road-trippers, to avoid a steady regimen of junk food. You'll encounter every conceivable fast-food chain and gas-station food store at roadside exits, and it's tempting to load up on chips, cheeseburgers, and coke. Occasional indulgences are okay—even good for morale—but you'll be better off if you make salads and grilled-chicken sandwiches the mainstay of your diet.

"Eat properly on the road!" sounds like the ultimate bossy-parent advice, but it'll pay off for everybody in the long run. If you're in your mid- to late-20s, just as your body's metabolism is starting to change, a steady regimen of chips will fatten you up in a surprisingly short period of time. (It's also hard to exercise on the road—try to squeeze in short runs at rest areas and use hotel workout rooms when they are available.)

Merchandising

Selling merchandise on the road can make for lucrative side income. At the very least, it's a potential way to pay for gas.

Before heading out, check into local T-shirt silk-screening companies. Contact printing companies or local copy shops about stamping your logo onto a sticker, button, or, more creatively, a container for earplugs.

Then pay a T-shirt company to copy off a dozen or two. When choosing the number of designs, determine how much space you have in the van. Twelve T-shirt designs becomes "stuff you have to carry," which means a bigger van and a bigger expense.

Placing merchandise at a gig is an art. During a break, one band we know stacked its merchandise at the front of the stage—a smart move, because people's eyes naturally gravitate to the stage when they're not looking anywhere else. Bring the merch into fans' fields of vision.