Fallstar – TOUR TIPS

In this Tour Tips segment, guitarist Bryan Ratzlaff, of the rock band, Fallstar, gives you his tips for being on tour. You can check out the feature, after the break.

1. Shave everything. Everything. No matter what time of year it is, how hard your A/C blows or even if you’re waiting out a blizzard on every single mountain pass in or out of the North West, you will be sweating. And if you’re sweating, you can bet the dirty little hairs on your chinny-chin-chin that your band mates are too. The less hair that is on your body, the less those grimy little dust, poo, and mud bunnies can cling to you. I can barely find time to shower when I’m at home, much less when I’m on the road. Before we hit the dusty trail me and all my boys make sure to take a Norelco to our skin suits.

2. Pack light. It’s rock n roll, not a week in Cabo. Unless you are doing a week of shows in Cabo. In which case, you can pack your whole freakin’ wardrobe. In fact, if you’re playing (no less than) seven shows in Cabo, feel free to pick yourself up a whole new wardrobe on top of the one you already have, and two more rolling suitcases and bring it all. Otherwise, be as minimal as possible. I pack two shirts. One for shows, and one that I tell myself I’ll change into after we play but ultimately ends up getting in the way of finding the pair of underwear having the least amount of stink. You don’t need a mini fan, you won’t use your Gameboy or your “Big Book of Sudoku”. If the item you are considering needs a clothes hanger or garment bag, you need to leave it at home. I try to stick to the one bag rule. If it can’t fit into one backpack, ya probably don’t need it.

3. Always have a co-pilot. Whether you’re driving in the middle of the day or the middle of the night a co-pilot makes sure you don’t accidentally, although narcissistically, catch up on your beauty sleep while banging out a 33 hr drive from Huston to Portland. But really, knowing that there is somebody just as tired as you sitting by your side listening to that same Dave Chapelle stand-up, chewing sunflower seeds and thinking up ways to get celebrities to tweet back at you, makes all the difference in the world, and really could keep all your butts alive.

4. Be cool with everybody. There’s no need to have any sort of ego on the road or even ever actually. Maybe this is more of a life tip than a touring tip but it helps on the road. You never know who is going to want to help you out by giving you a place to stay, buying your meals, stocking up your band’s pantry or fixing your van when it inevitably pops some sort of woo-ha and starts spraying car juice everywhere. Maybe you think you’re just touring for exposure or to make tons of money, but people are freaking awesome, and you can get a lot of good stuff from peeps from different area codes. Everybody has a different perspective on life and most people are worth hearing from. Sometimes there’s a woo-ha spraying people juice everywhere and maybe he’s got some gems of wisdom but I personally don’t know if I would try too hard to find em. Most of the time it’s not hard to make friends when you’re touring. Remember this little saying, “Always be cool.”

5. Hustle. Unfortunately, things cost money. Fortunately, you have a van or truck, or Honda Prius packed full of CDs, tee shirts, hoodies, stickers, patches, tapes, LPs, LaserDiscs, 8-tracks, and Atari cartridges. Your product is awesome! You worked hard to make it happen and people want awesome stuff that somebody poured their life energy into to create. So tell them about it! Occupy your merch table, talk to everybody, bring a music player with your jams and show everybody. If somebody doesn’t have $20 for a shirt, give it to em for $15. Your boys will thank you when you’re at the gas pump and you actually have money instead of 30 duffel bags full of merch you didn’t sell. If that lady at the gas station in the middle of Montana asks why you all look so weird tell her that you’re in a band, and you’re on tour. Guarantee she’ll want a CD. Even if she hates your music, who cares? She’ll be stoked on meeting a band, you’ll have made a couple bucks. Plus her kids are gonna probably dig your stuff, come to the show next time you come through, and buy a shirt and a sticker each. How cool is that?

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