The Breton Sound – PRESHOW RITUALS

In this Preshow Rituals segment, Jonathan Pretus, of the rock band, The Breton Sound, talks about what they do before every show. You can check out their rituals, after the break.

Our pre-show ritual is pretty different for all of us. Stephen Turner, our guitarist, plays a lot of hard parts on our songs. So, he usually does some warm ups on his guitar, playing some of the trickier runs over and over again.

John Bourgeois, our drummer, will do some rudiments and warm up exercises backstage shortly before we go on. He generally stays away from too much drinking pre-show too.

Our bassist Joe Bourgeois is kinda the opposite of John. He likes to have a beer or two before we go on. He does some stretches, has a cigarette, and he’s ready to roll.

I try to find a few minutes to do some basic vocal scales. I don’t sing along to a particular warm-up exercise or anything. I just do what works for me. Scales and some goofy mouth/lip movements to get my face loose. I try to go through the show in my head earlier in the day. I like to feel like I’ve already worked everything out when we hit the stage, that way I don’t feel like I’m working on the fly. It gets me out of my own head and lets the music play me, versus me playing the music. I think it makes for a better show and lets me do a better job as a front man.

We used to do a pre-show car bomb shot, but those days kinda ended quickly for us once we understood we wouldn’t be on top of our game after that.

Right before we go on, we’ll have a little pep-talk, going over things we want to tighten up on or do better. We end it with a little inner-band hands in cheer, but if we said what it was, unfortunately, we’d have to kill all your readers. It’s super top secret.

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Did you enjoy this Preshow Rituals segment? Do you think any of these tips will be useful while touring? Let us know in the comments below!