Tarnish – PRESHOW RITUALS

In this Preshow Rituals segment, the pop punk band, Tarnish, reveals what they do before taking the stage. You can check out the rituals, after the break.

As a band we are still new to the game only having a handful of shows under our belt. But, Tarnish makes sure to do three things every time before a show. Get drunk, get nervous, and get the crowd HYPED!

One thing is for sure about our preshow rituals; we all get very nervous before our set. Just never at the same time. Jack gets nervous first and begins to drum on the floor with his sticks. The nervousness then floats over to Karl as he stares at the floor and gets into his zone, ready to scream. Once soundcheck is complete it hits Dane all at once as his hands start getting shaky, struggling to plug into his amp. As far as warm-ups go, Jack and Dane don’t do too much aside from playing the songs over in their head. Karl does his vocal warm-ups he learned when he was five as Jack makes fun of how ridiculous he sounds while doing it.

Everything is fair game when it comes to eating and drinking before a show: especially drinking. We like to do what’s called a “Borg”; fill up a large container half with water half with vodka and top it off with some Mio. Chefs kiss. If we don’t borg it before a show we always find a way to get a nice buzz before stepping on stage. Dane is known for preferring shots with no chaser while Jack and Karl would rather have a cold one. If we are playing a show in San Diego we love going to Chicago Fire, which is absolutely the best burger spot in town. 10$ for a burger, fries, and beer of your choice. Ridiculous. We always like to try our best to connect with other bands before our set. It helps tremendously with booking other shows and having people come support wherever we may be playing. We aren’t superstitious intentionally, but odd malfunctions seem to have happened a lot in our early careers. Multiple times Dane has needed to help Jack put his hi-hat together right before the first song, while Karl can never seem to keep his mic stand from falling down. I think that must be a sign we need to perform some sort of ritual before we go on. Or maybe we are just classic punk rockers who don’t know how to play our instruments.

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