J
Jouni
New member
Hello all!
I thought this might be a place to share your n00b experiences on touring?
Pros, cons, whatever caveats have you bumped into.
Was it fun, or all work and no play?..
etc.
Also comments would be appreciated from seniors?
I just had my first, a 4day mini-tour, with one Norwegian and two Finnish metalbands, where I played bass in one of the Finnish ones. It was put together by a smalltime operator, not heavy on cash or contacts.
Cons:
The buss was small and crammed, with a toilet too small to a 180cm 100kg bassist.. And in a temporary insanity moment, we brought caseloads of beer with us.
While the more experienced bands went straight to their beds, and slept most of the trips, we stayed up drinking and partying...
-You sweat like a pig on inloading, Gig, moshing the other bands and outloading!!!.. Take plenty of change clothes. ..especially drinking beer for the second or a third day in a row... Tha manager arranged a sauna and shower on two evenings, placed before the gig... --> sweaty again.
-The lack of space in the buss made me have all my personal stuff, clothes etc, in the bed I slept in, also shoes were there, not to be kicked around by the traffic.
-The places we gigged, seemed to offer a meal, usually burgers, and a case of beer per band. These were all nightclubs of some sort. We ended up buying a lot of our own drinks.
-Also cigarettes, weed, water and breakfast were from your own pockets.
-Backstages were usually small, crammed with artists, guests, instruments, cases and whatnot. Heavy traffic was usual. access to stage varied, through the audience once..
-Due to 3 to 6 hour travels, there were very little time to see the places you're in.
-A drum was lost, one guitarhead and a basshead was sent to repairs.
Pros:
-Crammed spaces and joined experiences quickly made the different bands interact and bond somewhat, speeding up in/outloads.
-You heard a lot of advice from the more experienced, sometimes even good feedback.
-It was a priviledge to get to know some very good musicians and club-people.
All and all, it was VERY tiring, but fun as hell as an experience, dirty but rewarding... After the last day everyone thought this could've gone ahead at least a few more days... There were handshakes, hugs and hopes of seeing again in the future as the tour disbanded. Our band, as the juniors, got alot of good feedback. At times, nerves were tight, other times my stomach was aching from laughing. Wouldn't change the past days to anything.
Apparently, there seems to be a tradition of making gags to bands on the last gig of the tour!
The norwegian band played "smoke on the water" from the mixingtable between our songs, and some solos on top of our songs, then ran to our stage moshing with the band.
The other Finnish band, dressed as a ninja charged in the middle of the norwegian band and spreaded the insides of couple featherpillows on top of them.
The last performing Finnish band used a couple of bloodfilled pighearts as props, in the middle of the set the singer took'em from the box, let the blood run on him, ripped them apart and threw them around stage.
On the last gig, we swapped the hearts in a couple of bunches of salad!
Which he, after a quick smile, ripped on stage while screaming of blood and gore.
..priceless moment.
I thought this might be a place to share your n00b experiences on touring?
Pros, cons, whatever caveats have you bumped into.
Was it fun, or all work and no play?..
etc.
Also comments would be appreciated from seniors?
I just had my first, a 4day mini-tour, with one Norwegian and two Finnish metalbands, where I played bass in one of the Finnish ones. It was put together by a smalltime operator, not heavy on cash or contacts.
Cons:
The buss was small and crammed, with a toilet too small to a 180cm 100kg bassist.. And in a temporary insanity moment, we brought caseloads of beer with us.
While the more experienced bands went straight to their beds, and slept most of the trips, we stayed up drinking and partying...
-You sweat like a pig on inloading, Gig, moshing the other bands and outloading!!!.. Take plenty of change clothes. ..especially drinking beer for the second or a third day in a row... Tha manager arranged a sauna and shower on two evenings, placed before the gig... --> sweaty again.
-The lack of space in the buss made me have all my personal stuff, clothes etc, in the bed I slept in, also shoes were there, not to be kicked around by the traffic.
-The places we gigged, seemed to offer a meal, usually burgers, and a case of beer per band. These were all nightclubs of some sort. We ended up buying a lot of our own drinks.
-Also cigarettes, weed, water and breakfast were from your own pockets.
-Backstages were usually small, crammed with artists, guests, instruments, cases and whatnot. Heavy traffic was usual. access to stage varied, through the audience once..
-Due to 3 to 6 hour travels, there were very little time to see the places you're in.
-A drum was lost, one guitarhead and a basshead was sent to repairs.
Pros:
-Crammed spaces and joined experiences quickly made the different bands interact and bond somewhat, speeding up in/outloads.
-You heard a lot of advice from the more experienced, sometimes even good feedback.
-It was a priviledge to get to know some very good musicians and club-people.
All and all, it was VERY tiring, but fun as hell as an experience, dirty but rewarding... After the last day everyone thought this could've gone ahead at least a few more days... There were handshakes, hugs and hopes of seeing again in the future as the tour disbanded. Our band, as the juniors, got alot of good feedback. At times, nerves were tight, other times my stomach was aching from laughing. Wouldn't change the past days to anything.
Apparently, there seems to be a tradition of making gags to bands on the last gig of the tour!
The norwegian band played "smoke on the water" from the mixingtable between our songs, and some solos on top of our songs, then ran to our stage moshing with the band.
The other Finnish band, dressed as a ninja charged in the middle of the norwegian band and spreaded the insides of couple featherpillows on top of them.
The last performing Finnish band used a couple of bloodfilled pighearts as props, in the middle of the set the singer took'em from the box, let the blood run on him, ripped them apart and threw them around stage.
On the last gig, we swapped the hearts in a couple of bunches of salad!
Which he, after a quick smile, ripped on stage while screaming of blood and gore.
..priceless moment.