Shiraz Lane – TOUR TIPS

In this Tour Tips segment, the Finnish rock band, Shiraz Lane, give you some advice for being on the road. You can check out the feature, after the break.

1: I think it’s really important in touring to be in a relatively good shape. Musicians don’t have to be athletes to do their duties perfectly, but if you’re in a really bad shape, you don’t have the energy to put out a good and entertaining live show night after night. It might not be a problem during the first few days of the tour, but after ten nights in a row, you would be exhausted if you didn’t take any care of your health. And the most important thing concerning musicians health is usually the drinking. If you get hammered night after night, gig after gig, you will end up playing and performing worse and worse. So remember to have some nights off from the partying just to have a good night sleep.

2: This might be stating the obvious for many, but for me it’s essential to have rehearsed our asses off before heading out to tour. During intensive touring, you don’t have time to rehearse anymore and the situations might change – you might want to change some songs on setlists, you might want to play more songs, you might want to do a drum solo or a guitar solo spot during the show. All of the members have to be in a good shape musically so you don’t have to panic if things get changed. And even if you stuck to the same setlist every night and – you still would want every audience to get entertained and get a show worth of the money they’ve spent on the ticket. You need to know how to play your damn songs.

3: A good tip in touring is to try your best to be at peace with situations. This is not only in touring, for me it’s really an important thing in everyday life. Even though it’s really hard sometimes, it’s worth trying. In touring you always will have some unexpected situations or tragedies and if you get stuck too much on minding them, you might end up being really stressed and that affects your performance. Just relax.

4: Usually in touring you need to travel a lot and it might get boring from time to time. You should make sure you have some activities enough with you, many many books, some game consoles etc. And the greatest activity of all if you are having a day off or some extra time : Go check out the city!! How many people has the chance to just travel around from city to city and check out new places? Enjoy it!

5: I recommend to go and meet the fans after/before every show. Even if you wouldn’t feel like it all the time – it will give you strength and energy, after all, to hear about the impact your music has. And it might be a huge deal for them to meet you and to have a small chat with you.

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