18th & Addison – PRESHOW RITUALS

In this Preshow Rituals segment, Tom Kunzman of the rock band, 18th & Addison, shares what he does before every show. You can check out his rituals, after the break.

I usually do my best to wake up at a decent hour on show days so my voice is ready by the time we have to play. It’s tough sometimes because when you’re a musician, late nights come with the territory and a good amount of sleep is really important for singers. Especially if you’re on tour and have 5-6 shows in a row, sometimes more. I personally want to make sure that I not only sound the best I can possibly sound, but also feel the best I can feel since I have to sing again the next night. I’m also a self-diagnosed caffeine addict and caffeine is terrible for your voice long-term, but especially before shows, so I have to make sure I’m up in enough time to where I can manage a couple cups of coffee before it’s too late. I really only drink water and coffee anyway.

Usually about 20-45 minutes before a show, I try my best to stop talking to people. Especially in a loud room where I can strain my voice before I even get on stage. That’s usually the time I like to do some vocal warm-ups. I learned a lot about vocal conditioning when I was probably 17 or 18 and it’s helped my voice last longer and feel no strain. Those are extremely important to me. I do them in the shower when I first wake up too so I get a head start. For anyone who knows me, or has heard our band or seen us live can tell you, I’m a really aggressive singer so warm ups are actually essential if I wanna keep doing this and do it my way.

Finally, just before show time, I manage to stretch my legs and arms out since again, I can get pretty aggressive on stage depending on how much room we have to move! But also, one thing we all do now is a simple fist bump with our band or a high five our something. Not like a huddle or anything, but I feel like that really brings all of us into the moment for a second before we have to play and keeps us on the same page so we can all have a good show. There’s only been ONE show that we didn’t do it and it was the worst show ever. Safe to say, we’re fairly superstitious about it now haha. That’s really it. Pretty simple preshow rituals, but they work!

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