Red Wanting Blue – TOUR TIPS

This new set of Tour Tips comes to you from the rock ‘n roll band out of Columbus, OH by the name of, Red Wanting Blue. They have done some touring in the past and want to share some wisdom with you. Check out their tips after the break.

1. Food Bags & Water Bottles.
-These are very important to us.  This is a way to pack a bunch of the necessities that you can’t live without (or help you become comfortable out of your comfort zone) while being out on the road getting you to the next trader joe’s, whole foods, natural market or grocery store.  These can help a bunch and help keep your costs down while on the road.  Also a good idea for vegetarians/vegans as well.
Tea & Personal Water Bottles
We all like to take advantage of our water bottles and water/ice from gas stations.  Drinking bottled water has its downsides and drinking other sugary drinks can really bump up the cost of travel when going through 10 vitamin waters in 2 days.  We like to take advantage of water fountains and Ice machines, and always fill up during and after shows at the venues, and drinking water is never a bad thing. We also like to just grab some ice and drink the tea (stored in food bag) that we brought with us.
2. Bunks
If you have some sort of a bus, or larger vehicle, it’s nice to have bunks.  Now that we’ve had these, I don’t know how we’d get along without them.  The bunk is the one place on the bus that allows us to be alone.  It’s your safe area.  It’s your telephone booth, movie theatre, listening station, and bedroom.  When we are stripped of our individual space for so long, this becomes a very beautiful place.  This also allows others to sleep while driving into the next town.  Saves on hotels as well.
3. Listening.
We do a lot of listening in the bus.  A lot of individual listening to past recordings, new records that we like, bands we are about to play with or play with on the reg, podcasts and some Howard Stern from time to time on sirius.  We also frequent the library to get music that we wouldn’t normally listen to just check it out.  Helps keep the long trips interesting and opens our eyes to a lot of new things.
4. Bus Cleaning and Recycling
We find that a clean bus is a happy bus.  We do a routine cleaning before we leave for tour and also when we return from a lengthy trip as well as every morning while on the road.   Usually while we’re waiting for everyone to check out, we take the trash out, empty the recycling, sweep the carpet, and wipe down most of the bus with a disinfectant.
5. It’s our Job.
This might be the most important of all touring tips.  A lot of bands like to party and live it up while on the road.  We have a simple rule that is followed by all.  When we’re at a show, we have a job to do.  Although it’s an extremely fun job, it’s still a job, and we’re working.  People have a few drinks, and let loose, but until every last piece of gear is put away, no one is getting out of hand.  Most of our days, start very early and end very late so everyone usually wants to get some rest anyway. It’s hard to be a team of 6 and have 4/6 working or 2/6.  This is pretty self explanatory, but it breaks a lot of bands (that we’ve seen.)  It’s cool to have a good time, but get your job done first.

(BONUS TIP)
Bring a Sound Engineer.
This is your 6th man, and the guy that is in control of making your sound consistent, every night.

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