How to Make a Baby Elephant

Early on in the process of doing this blog I started keeping a list of what I/we were learning. I don't claim this to be a definitive or authoritative list of tips for touring, just something to add to the discussion, things to think about before you head out, while you're out. I'll try and section it out below. I'll start with pre-tour details, then move to directions, electrical power and gear. Last, and maybe most important, is about getting along as people.

Before you hit the road:

#1 - Advance everything.

Leave as little to chance as you can. Not only payments, load-in and soundcheck times and stage plots. Advance the directions, lodging, parking. Accept you’ll be dealing with people who mean well but don’t understand that for the band, uncertainty accretes.

If every night entails a surprise of some sort, it accelerates the wear and tear of the road. If lodging is a hostel or hotel, check in before or immediately after load-in and soundcheck. Advancing the directions and parking is especially important if you’re playing in an old town, especially a preserved medieval town like Regensburg, with its narrow cobbled and winding and often one-way streets. Advance work is also very important if the club is in the center of town where parking will be tight and expensive. Know the dimensions of your car/van, ask if the underground garage they're suggesting will fit your vehicle.

Use map quest or google maps to print out directions from point-to-point. Make sure to print detail maps for tricky interchanges, and for the start and end points. I put together a tour binder, with advance details for each show and printed directions for each leg.

Bring maps. Make sure you know how to read a map. If you don’t, learn how to read a map. Smart phones and GPS are great, but if the signal’s weak or the maps are incorrect, or the phones get lost, stolen or break, you’re screwed. You never know when you’ll need to make rerouting decisions using a big map that gives you a broad view of the area you’re traversing.

Speaking of smartphones...

There are many different phone options…you can buy sim cards at the airport, but make sure they’ll work in different countries if the tour takes you across borders. Most US carriers offer international plans. Look into how much texts/data you use at home, and estimate upward from there. Smart phones are great tools for navigating unfamiliar terrain, you’ll use them more than you might think.

Make sure the phones charged *before* the driving begins. Don’t leave for a long drive with little or no juice. Charging in the car takes much longer than via a wall socket. And if there’s 3, 4 or 5 of you competing for the car charger, someone’s going to be left short of power, unless the drive is a long one.

Equipment:

If any part of the tour involves flying, you're going to have to deal with getting your gear back and forth in one piece. I asked around and the most common answer for guitars was the Mono case.

It was as good as advertised, worth the investment. My bass flew SFO-Frankfurt, Copenhagen-Frankfurt and Frankfurt-London-SFO. No scratches, dents, cracked head stock, neck...Mono cases are made by musicians for musicians. Even if I don't do another tour where I'll have to fly, it's worth it as a sturdy gig bag if I'll be loading the bass into a trunk or van with amps and other gear.

If you're touring outside the US/Canada you'll need to deal with differences in voltage from the US. In Europe that means 220 volts, twice the 110 we run here. This is not something you want to be ignorant about. Ignorance will mean a blown fuse, in more ways than one.

First, understand that you can run your US 110V pedal, keyboard, laptop, drum machine on Euro 220. But you need to know whether you'll require an adapter or converter. Look at the AC adapter or the appliance itself. You're looking for what it takes as an input. If you see something like "Input 100-240 V", all you need is an adapter so that the US-style plug will fit into a Euro-shaped socket.

If all you see is "100 V" (or 110 V) for input power, you'll need to buy a converter so that the 220 volts get ramped down to 110 and you don't fry your gear. Don't fry your gear.

Buy the adapters or converters in the US if you can. They'll likely be cheaper.

Other things to buy in the US before you go:

* Batteries - much cheaper here and good to have for pedals in case there are power issues. Just remember to take them out of your pedals after the show.

* A multi-USB power adapter. Good for charging multiple phones or iPads at the same time.

* Buy or bring a car charger. Voltage isn't an issue here, no adapter needed.

* Guitar strings, drum heads...you don't want to roll into town after shops close in need of these things. There's also no guarantee that you'll get the things you prefer to use.

Transportation & lodging:

Ok, you'll likely need a van. Unless you're a 2 or 3 piece and can backline everything. Then a car might be fine.

If not, a van it is. Do some research and get a sense of the size you'll need. try and fly into a central airport with a good rental car stock. It'll likely be Frankfurt. But here's the important part...

Do not, do not, do not rent from Thrifty and their affiliates if at all possible. In Frankfurt, maybe all of Germany for all I know, they subcontract to a company named Buchbinder, who are borderline horrible. They'll upsell you on everything, coerce you into unneeded insurance by saying the insurance you might have on a US credit card is invalid . Spend the extra $$ up front and get from Hertz or Avis. And figure out what kind of van you'll likely get so you know the dimensions. For parking garages, ferries and other instances it'll help to know this.

Also, you'll need an international driving permit. Get it from AAA. Thirty dollars, inclusive of the passport photo they take. Fifteen for just the permit if you bring your own passport photos. Easy process. Get maps while you're there.

As for lodging, if the promoters or club can hook you up, great. Or maybe you'll crash on couches. If hostels aren't an option, AirBnB is a good option ahead of time or on the fly, so have an account or two set up. But whatever you do, advance this as much as possible. Know where you're going to sleep. It'll save some stress.

The human element:

You may be great friends before you head out. You may be casual friends. You might be a hired gun...friend of a friend of a friend who had a couple weeks off and filled in for the drummer who just moved to LA to be a studio musician.

Regardless of what your relationships were before you left, what you don't want to be is at each other's throats on the road, or leave as mortal enemies. So you'll have to get along together.

Accept that your band mates are human and dealing with whatever life situations they brought with them on the road. Jobs, relationships, other life concerns...you may be 9 time zones away, but those things don't get left at the airport.

Day after day of close quarters, late nights, long drives, being out of your comfort spaces…this can fray the nerves. You'll see each other at your best and your less flattering behaviors and personality quirks will come out. Try not to take your moods out on your mates, and try not to take it personally when that’s done to you. Make sure to get some time away, even for short spells for a walk, finding a cafe or park to sit, or even a nap in the van. If something flares up, try and deal with it right away, or as soon as makes sense. Above all, communicate clearly and effectively, Don’t be afraid to express your needs and desires, just do it with respect and be respectful when your band mate is telling you what she needs. The tour should be fun, a great adventure. You're in it together, so make sure you take care of each other as well as taking care of yourself.

That's enough for now. If I've left anything out, feel free to leave a comment.

Conversation 16

“So how was the tour?” she asked as they settled in with their drinks at the table out back. The fog never really hits this part of the Mission, but still there was a chill in the air. The kind you get in July in San Francisco, even with the sun shining brightly.

“Well…”, then he paused. “It was great. Tiring at times. It was essentially work. But it was a ton of fun. I mean, we did it just about on our own. Got lots of advice and help booking a couple of shows via promoters we met. But it was a real indie operation.

Yeah, it was hard at times…10 shows in 16 days. The last stretch of 7 shows we did in 9 days. But to get to work at your craft like that, in so concentrated a time. I mean, I’ve prepared for albums with intense periods of rehearsal, but I got to sleep in my own bed and didn’t have to get up the next day and drive 500 kilometers. But that kind of sustained playing…I mean, we started playing well, in that professional sense. We knew the songs, we’re good at our instruments. But over the course of the tour we got good. “

“Tight?”, she asked? “Yeah, tight. Funny about that…in college, freshman year. I had a professor who used that word to describe a band. It was from some student comment card or something. We were asked to submit comment cards or whatever after lectures. He read it aloud. I forget the name of the band he associated it with, but I’ll never forget the way he said the word. Straight at first, then sort of, uh…incredulous. Or wondering how in the hell you can describe a band as tight. But I understood immediately, even though my own musical education was still in its infancy.

So yeah…we got tight.”

“Are you sad it’s over?”

“Yes. I mean, it was great to get home, back to my own bed, my friends. A routine that didn’t involve packing a van, driving for 3 hours, loading equipment into a club and staying up until 2am. That’s the romantic version of touring, and it is fun when you’re in the thick of it. But...and maybe this is because we're all working adults who've gotten used to creature comforts of home, not under-employed 20-somethings...you need a break from it. You need to sleep well and eat a bit healthier. Have a couple fewer drinks per day.

The funny thing is, by Copenhagen we were all tired. Relieved in a way that it was the last night of the tour, looking forward to life again. Scott would be traveling around Europe for a few more weeks with his wife. Geoff and Jules heading to New York for the summer. That was Saturday night. We hung out again Sunday, heading up to see the Louisiana Museum, then Kronborg Castle. But we didn’t talk too much of the tour, as we had a few other folks with us.

But a couple of days later, Tuesday…after we hadn’t all four been together by then for a day and a half. We sat at this bar, watching the US play Belgium in the World Cup. And we all agreed, after Geoff or Jules said it, that we wished a second leg of the tour was going to start soon. Maybe in Amsterdam, or Paris. Or Spain or Italy. Somewhere…we wanted to keep playing. A few days of rest, showers, laundry, the same bed for more than a night…we were ready to get back at it.”

“You missed it already?”

“Yup. It’s easy to see why it’s addictive. The endorphins or whatever is released in those 30-45 minutes on stage each night. And the anticipation beforehand. Especially as you feel yourself getting better. As our drone outros became more than just parts that we were trying to make fit in, but parts that fit in because we were listening to each other, playing off the repetition and variation. All that. We wanted more. “

“Are you going to do it again?”

“We’ve laid out ideas for more touring. Maybe some US dates in late spring. Festival and other dates back in Europe in the summer. We’ll see…I hope it comes together. I’d love to see what we can do with some more time playing, knowing what we know about how to take care of ourselves and how to pace a tour.

Yeah, I’d love to get back out there."