Psychostick – TOUR TIPS

Metal band, Psychostick, has written a set of helpful Tour Tips that you guys can learn from. You can check them out after the break.

1. KEEP A MAILING LIST. If you can’t get in touch with the fans whose hearts you’ve won over at a show, why did you even bother going out on tour in the first place? Next time that you play that city, they aren’t going to just “magically know” somehow. You have to get the word to them.
2. MAKE VEHICLE MAINTENANCE YOUR NEW RELIGION. Your tour van is your baby. Treat it well, and it will treat you well. Change the oil regularly, flush the transmission when needed, don’t let the tires go bald, etc.
3. GIVE YOURSELF MORE TIME FOR COUNTRY HIGHWAYS. Country highways that go through small towns will add a surprising amount of time to your drive when you are constantly having to slow down to a crawl every 30 miles to roll through some quiet little town that has a speed limit of 25mph. Don’t trust what Google Maps or what the GPS says if you aren’t taking interstates the whole way.
4. GET LATE CHECKOUT, LEAVE A NOTE. When getting a hotel, call around until you find one that will let you do late checkout (noon). Then put a note on the door saying, “NOON CHECKOUT.” Just because you’ve got late checkout is no guarantee that the hotel maids will get the memo. More often than not, they will STILL wake you up by knocking on your door at 11am and piss you off because they robbed you of an hour of precious sleep… a bad way to start the day. This has happened to us so much that I sometimes wonder if the maids are just playing dumb because they want to wake you up to get you out sooner.
5. HAVE A TRASHCAN IN THE VAN. The amount of trash that 4+ guys can create is not something to be underestimated. Get a trashcan and make everyone use it.

Make sure to check out Psychostick on Facebook, Twitter and Myspace.