The Astronomers – TOUR PRANKS

In this Tour Pranks segment, the indie pop duo, The Astronomers, chats about pranks that have happened on tour. You can check out the story, after the break.

We recently went on our first mini-tour back in March. We had 4 shows in 6 days and for us, that was something we had never done before. Constantly on the road and staying in different cities was very exciting but also very new. We treated this go-around with shows as a practice round for what it could be like in the future. We didn’t anticipate staying in any hotels on this tour because we were trying to save as much money as possible but as the planning progressed Ben and I found it most beneficial to get one for our stop in La Crosse, Wisconsin.

Ben and I have always loved staying at hotels. From school trips in high school to traveling to different states. It was always a time filled with inside jokes and most importantly a time where we didn’t have to worry about cleaning anything up. So after we discussed where we should stay, we decided on going with a nice hotel in La Crosse. We soon realized that we were the only ones who knew about getting a nice place so we immediately took advantage of the situation. We came up with the idea of pranking the other 3 guys we brought along into thinking we got a cheap run-down motel so we could save money.

For weeks we held the secret building up the joke. We would show the guys pictures of the place we said we got, which by the way looked like a retirement home from the pictures on their website, just to add to the prank even more. On top of that everyone knew that we were trying to save money and seeing as we are paying for these places to stay, no one was going to complain. It was hilarious to see the reaction on the guys’ faces after showing them a rundown motel. You could tell they were laughing about it but also on the outside trying their best to be appreciative.

Tour starts with two really great shows in Chicago and Milwaukee. We have a two-day break and then it is off to La Crosse. We brought another guy to the last two shows with us so we could have a photographer. He was in on the prank so we could get it all documented. The best part about this is that the drive is 4 hours from our hometown to La Crosse. So to think that we were going to drive for that long just to get to a crappy motel was really funny to Ben and I.

As we get into La Crosse we head straight to the fake motel. Everyone is just laughing in the car because of the anticipation of how awful this place will be. Ben and I begin texting each other in the car about how we are going to explain it when we get in there. Our plan was to go up to the front desk and pretend to check in to try and deceive them. There was no one in sight when we walked into the motel. We had no idea who to talk to. You could just see the faces on everyone started to get more and more in disbelief.

After about 5 minutes Ben and I walked out of the motel and said, wait, I think we are at the wrong place. The funny thing was we were already running a little behind to get to the venue we played at that night so our tour manager wasn’t really having it. We drove about 6 minutes away to our actual hotel that was on the waterfront and everyone gasped. We walk into our room which has a kitchen, bedroom, and living room all in one. Definitely a prank for the books.

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