Darlingside – TOUR TIPS

In this Tour Tips segment, Auyon Mukharji of the folk band, Darlingside, gives you their tips for being on tour. You can check out the feature, after the break.

1. Bring a reusable water bottle. It doesn’t take long to feel terrible about how many plastic water bottles you go through as a band on the road, especially when you’re driving around in a giant, emission-spewing van. It also doesn’t take long to litter the floor of said van with said plastic detritus, which is inconvenient for Don, our guitar, and banjo player, who has large feet. Some other items we find similarly useful are utility knives, camping bowls (some of which flatten into cutting boards!) and sporks.

2. Know what keeps you sane. A big part of happiness on the road is being able to convey what you need to stay sane to your bandmates. The precursor to that step, though, is knowing what you need in the first place. Do you prefer to not to talk during the first hour of a van ride? Tell your bandmates. Do you prefer eating Mexican food every night? Tell your bandmates. Do you absolutely insist on freshly made guacamole? Tell your bandmates, but also, bring your own avocados and limes probably.

3. Bring a rain jacket. Sometimes it rains.

4. Be the same size as your bandmates. Being the same size is a useful trick when you forget an article of clothing since you can easily take stuff from one of your similarly-sized bandmates’ suitcases. This works for all of Darlingside except Don, who is large.

5. Respect your need to sleep. It’s hard to miss out on fun times, but sometimes you need to choose bedtime over pounding seltzers in crowded hotel steam room with your bandmates and maybe some other random bearded guy but it’s hard to see with the steam. Also, you’re not supposed to bring drinks into the steam room.

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