Well we're hitting the road - south; need words of wisdom.

T

Tucci

New member
I am planning to book a mini tour for my band at the beginning of September. The plan is to play our way south to SanFrancisco and back (to Olympia, WA). I'm shooting for about 10 days or less round trip.

The thing is, this will be the first time on the road for all of us and my first time attempting to book a tour...that's why it's going to be a short one. Also; we ain't rich. I think we're going to have to do a little bit of camping.

Do any of you battle-hardened veterans have any free advice you're looking to give away?

I'd like us to play as many college shows as we can on this trip...this seems like a good idea to me as college shows we've done in the past have seemed to pay fairly well.

Besides colleges; which places should I call first?

One problem we have is that only two of us are over 21. This disqualifies us from many clubs.

We're a six-piece band with horns & congas. We play original pop-rock with some ska, folk, and funk influence. The two horn players also sing.

Any tips about where to sleep, what places not to play, how to make teen-age horn-players behave themselves, etc. will be much appreciated.

Tucci
 
some clubs will let you play .but the under agers will only be aloud in when its time for you to play and have to leave right away afterwards.
are you renting a van?if so get a maxi van.(its the longest)and will end up costing the same on gas with a smaller van.tell everyone to pack one backpack each nothing more!bring one big cooler.one portable chef.(32$at most campstores.)its a single burner stove with the fuel can consealed in the stove.fuel is a dollar a can.3 cans will be plenty for ten days.
the van-get a maxi CARGO van.it has two windows-nobody can see in, there are no seats clutering up the space.get some of those folding camp chairs($10 each)they fold out of the way easily when you dont need them or when you need to load and unload.sleep in the van (grocery store parking lots(open24hours)or at dennys(24hours)be sure to buy something at dennys though.no hotels are needed if you do it this way.get 3 spray bottles.one with soap and water.one with just water.you can wash your dishes and rinse them veryeasily with this as well as your face and armpits.bring shampoo(ofcourse)and keep the hair clean.if this doesnt appeal to you you can find rv parks or campsites that have showers.but you'll have to pay,and just getting to them will throw you way off your route usually wasting gas time and milage.

so here is your bill:
van rental??
gas??
campstove- $35
campstove fuel $ 3
cooler $20
daily ice x 10 days-$10
spray botlle X 2 - $3
soap/shamp/food for 10 days $35 per band member
camping folding chair$10 per back seat band member
thats atotal of 266 not including the the gas and van rental.
i am guessing at least five members in your band
so thats 55 dollars per band memeber to travel ,sleep,eat,for ten days minus the cost of the van and the gas.see not so bad huh.
this is the cheapest it will get with out sleeping on your friends couches .
you can usually cook inside on top of the cooler as long as you cook next to one of the small windows.we did it in grocery store parking lots with no problem.we washed our dishes,faces and hair in a plastic bin and dumped the dirty water out the side door while driving on the freeway.doing our part in keeping the freeways zestfully clean!we had cd's to sell so we were making more money than we were spending.

We then bought our own van and styled it all out with bukbeds,and two batteries for tv/dvd/videogames/recording equipment.we still use a cooler because a fridge kills the batteries too fast and then we have no power for the computer or tv! ice does much better.we made a 5 foot long beanbag leather couch.ther is so much room in our van for storage because of the bunks that we dont even need a trailer for the equipment.its all behind a wall in the backwith the bunks..we dont even have to look at it .we have moved up to two stoves because our meals are becoming more elaborate.and with a laptop with mobile wireles service we are very happy.besides the internet service ,our bill still is the same as before.
hope this is useful to you.
 
very helpful

Thank you sir,

That is very helpful. One problem that I didn't mention: we have one girl in the band and five guys - that's six total. Still, most of the things you mentioned will be very practiceable for us. I personally don't mind the spray-bottle showers...but I have a feeling that a couple of the band-members would balk at that. We'll figure out something.

Tucci
 
area510studios said:
campstove- $35
campstove fuel $ 3
cooler $20
daily ice x 10 days-$10
spray botlle X 2 - $3
soap/shamp/food for 10 days $35 per band member
Click to expand...
A "groupie" who's willing to screw each band member every night of the tour.... PRICELESS!!! ;):D:D
 
Be warned of a growing policy in CA called "Pay to Play". The clubs will make you purchase a bunch of tickets to your own show and then selling them is up to you. The easiest way to unload them is to stand outside and sell them for a buck under the cover charge. The clubs dont want you to do that so be sneaky about it.
 
Be warned of a growing policy in CA called "Pay to Play".
Click to expand...
I've only experienced this stupidity in L.A.; more specifically Hollywood; even more specifically, the Whisky. The owner's son dug our band and was staggered by the fact that my band drove 26 hours (from LA...as in Louisiana), so he let us slide every time we played there. So, if you run into this, tell them you're from south Florida or something, and you drove all this way to play this one show. ;)

I don't know what you're budget is like, but Motel 6 is the shit. Sure, you can get a cheaper hotel room, but do you really want to? I'd rather run up credit card bills (which I did while on tour) than sleep in some ultra-sketchy filth ridden hotel.
 
Area 510,

You rock! Very cool info. and thanks for going out of your way to explain some very good road solutions.

Cheers!--Stinky
 
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