Chapter 16. Touring

[ LiB ]

Chapter 16. Touring

Going on tour with a rock and roll band is about the most fun you will ever have in your life. Here's what you'll know by the time you finish reading this chapter: How to set up shows and make, not lose, money. Promotion. Travel and accommodations. How to book and do interviews. Advancing the show. The show itself. Collecting the money at the end of the night. Getting asked back.

Touring with a rock band is an American rite of passage. Time was when a boy would join the Army and come home a man. Then we realized that in joining the Army, we were just laying our life out to die for the banking interests of fat, old, rich, white men. So nowadays, boys and girls just start a band, put out a record, get in the van, and bring their song to the gin mills and basements of the world.

You can book your own tour. I recommend this. If you wait for someone to do it for you, it may never happen. Sure, on the off chance that someone does do it for you, it may be on a slightly bigger scale, but like I said, it also just might never happen. Do it yourself. Now.

It's also tough. You probably won't make money on your first tour. You'll be lucky to break even and might lose some money. You might lose your apartment. You might come back to find your girlfriend or boyfriend is seeing someone else or has left you. A lot can change in two months. But hell, you're a young, devil -may-care pip and can weather anything.

I remember the first day of my first tour. My band, Bomb, somehow booked a U.S. tour, using contacts from Maximum Rock and Roll magazine. This, um, friend of mine made the calls from payphones using stolen telephone credit card numbers that, um, he bought from crack heads on Sixth and Mission in San Francisco.

We packed four guys and equipment into a borrowed station wagon and set out to cover 10,000 miles and play 30 shows in 29 days in 22 different states.

Our first gig, the car broke down on the way. We fixed the engine with parts from a ballpoint pen and made it to the gig very late. It was an outdoor show at Rouge Valley Community College in Oregon. There had been 500 people, but since the headlining band, us, didn't show, people started milling out. When we pulled up, I ran up the hill and told the soundman we'd made it. He made the announcement over the P.A., and people stopped leaving. We set up in five minutes and started playing to the half of the crowd that hadn't left. After two songs, the police and the fire marshal cut the power and stopped the show.

We got paid 50 bucks and went back to the promoter's house. As I fell asleep on his dirty floor with two teenage girls in a puddle of beer, I thought, "I have never felt so alive ."

I was 22 then. I'm almost 40 now. I still like playing music, but the thought of driving thousands of miles to battle cops and skinheads and get paid in beer does not appeal to me much. But I'm sure glad I did it.

In the time Bomb was together, we played over 500 shows in 35 states and 6 countries . I traveled the world for free; I met a lot of cool people. I have friends for life and a place to stay any time, all over the world. I made music that touched people to the core of their soul, influenced the music on the radio today, found out what I was made of, and somehow lived to tell the tale. And I wouldn't trade that for anything in the world.

So how does a band go on tour and thrive? I'll tell ya .

First, you have to be great. I wouldn't go on tour until you've played a bunch of shows and have a following in your home town. You also have to have some "product," something to send bookers so they know what you sound like. You'll also want to have product to sell at the shows.

Make sure that everyone in the band wants to go on tour and can do it, that is, is able to get away from work, school, spouse, and so forth. If you're underage, you'll need your parents' permission, and someone will have to be over 18 to drive.

When you decide you're ready to tour, decide a time block and start working toward that goal. A good amount is to be gone for a month on your first tour, and book three or four months in advance.

It sometimes makes more sense to do a regional tour before attempting the whole country. Maybe from where you live, a thousand miles away and back. Or in a circle and back. And go for a week or two. Like maybe the West or East Coast. Or the Midwest. Or Texas, Louisiana, and Florida.

[ LiB ]


[d]30 Music School
The Angel Experiment (Maximum Ride, Book 1)
ISBN: 1592001718
EAN: 2147483647
Year: 2006
Pages: 138

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