Lucas Jack – TOUR TIPS

In this Tour Tips segment, the pop artist, Lucas Jack, gives you some advice for being on the road. You can check out the feature, after the break.

1. Make hotel reservations ahead of time. We were playing in Dallas a few year ago and decided to put off finding a hotel until after sound check. This meant we had to find a hotel using a smartphone (does anyone even use the phrase smartphone anymore?) from the road in the van. We got a reservation at what we thought was a Motel 6 (google listed it as a Motel 6). When we got the to the motel, it looked nearly identical to a Motel 6, except it was called “New 6.” We checked in and went to the room. We were apparently sharing the room with MANY flying bugs, most likely due to the large space of open air at the bottom of the exterior door. We had no time to find other arrangements.

2. Invest in a splitter snake, monitor mixer, and in-ear monitors. This saves a lot of time in sound check, improves everyone’s performances, and saves the singers’ voices since they don’t have to scream to hear themselves all night.

3. Don’t try to cross an international border with “light up Jackets.” Jackets that light up using EL wire look amazing for a festival show outdoors at night. But they look like suicide bomber vests to airport security. Complete with trigger switches in the pockets. I’ll just leave it at that.

4. Figure out how to empty and re-attach a rental RV’s sewage system BEFORE it’s full and overflowing.

5. Make sure you have multiple keys to unlock a padlock on the back doors of your van. We spent a whole tour loading and unloading the van through the side door. Including a piano. This required removing all the benches for every show. Huge pain.

Keep up with the artist on Facebook and Twitter!

Let us know what you think of this feature in the comments below or by tweeting us!