Worth Taking – TOUR TIPS

In this Tour Tips segment, the pop punk band, Worth Taking, give you their tips for being on tour. You can check out the feature, after the break.

1. Most importantly, Baby Wipes.
This is not coincidentally #1. Let’s face it, touring is a serious tax on the body. Do as many favors for yourself, physically, as you can while you’re out there. Stay clean, stay hygienic, stay healthy and hydrated, eat (relatively) well, get as much sleep as you can when you can, use the potty anytime there is a clean one close by. It might sound stupid, but seriously, you and your bandmates will be so glad for it. Healthy bodies and good moods make for better shows.

2. Keep a very open mind and be outside yourself.
You are a visitor in (basically) every town to which you tour. You will see strange things, happy things, sad things, all walks of life, and everything up down sideways and in between. Some days will be out of this world, and the next day might be a whole lot of nothing. Hold all judgment, be in the moment, and find something to enjoy about every single thing that happens while you’re on tour. Be gracious and grateful. Watch as many of the other bands’ sets as you can. Meet the locals, meet your audience. You’ve already built a whole tour centered around yourself and you want to pull in as many people as possible, but the best way to do that is to engage people and bands about what THEY are doing.

3. Plan to be everywhere AT LEAST one hour before you need to be.
Sometimes, planning for the extra hour won’t even be enough. Pretty often you will find yourself with a routing from one city to another that barely seems possible to make in time. When you factor in that there WILL be unexpected delays (for a million different reasons), then you find yourself in a pattern of being rushed from place to place and being very stressed out constantly, which is no fun for anyone. Being in a band has been, and always will be, a “hurry up and wait” situation. Come to terms with that fact, and do everything you can to be the most punctual group of the tour.

4. Stay busy, and contribute.
On tour, there is ALWAYS something that needs doing. Be around for load-in and load out. Help pack and carry the gear. Take turns driving (if you are doing that yourselves). Work on band media. Sort the merch. Maintain your instruments. Organize and repack your suitcase and personal items. Wash the windshield at the gas station. Etc Etc Etc. Seriously, make your tour a well-oiled machine from all aspects. If you are sitting around doing nothing, you are definitely being “that guy.”

5. Play EVERY show like it is the last one, ever.
No explanation needed.

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