touring?

JoshuaTSP · #1 01-09-2010, 10:49 PM

how does one deal with it?

makanudo · #2 01-09-2010, 10:52 PM

drink drink drink drink play play play
repeat.

JoshuaTSP · #3 01-09-2010, 11:21 PM

What about your fulltime job and family?

Marcus Johnson · #4 01-09-2010, 11:42 PM

Fulltime job is playing the bass.

My family counts on me to send that $$$ home. But I try to keep the tours short.

MadMan118 · #5 01-10-2010, 02:08 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by JoshuaTSP

What about your fulltime job and family?

Some people tend to disappear but the ones that really love and care about you find that its worth the wait, but when you're home make sure you make time for your wife/girlfriend/kids/friends/mom and pop /whoever. Usually if you're touring playing bass is your job and. As for the long hours spent on the road: read, sleep, watch movies, spend some time maintaining your gear, stare out the window, repeat.

jdieh1 · #6 01-10-2010, 03:43 AM

You could possibly try and "catch em all" to pass time? If you know what I'm talking about...

T-Bird · #7 01-11-2010, 06:42 AM

Hi.

The job/family is a no-brainer IME/IMHO.
Either they accept the touring and adapt to it, or they don't.

Then it's up to You what you decide.

Being on the road is a whole new ballgame for most folks.

The only tour I did back in the day as a bus-driver/stagehand/FOH guy, was an eyeopener for me. I'm highly adaptable, but these short few day stints across the country were sometimes really hard on my nerves. It wasn't so much the tour, but the constant driving back and forth for the free days.

It will eff up Your daily routine completely if the tour is a "normal" one: building at 1600, playing at 2100, tearing down 0200, going to the hotel or driving to the next town.

If You can't adjust to night shifts and sleeping in daylight, forget about touring. A week will kill You and the band is a goner. Or You are replaced.

I also would advice against exessive boozing, womanizing, fighting etc.
Word travels fast and You don't necessarily want to be the guy who "effed it all up".

Promoters and bar owners don't care about Your music, they want to make money. They're not interested in hearing why someone is behind bars, passed out, too drunk to play, getting some somewhere, or any other crap abut why the band's not playing.

If You're new to touring, I'd sugges thet You start softly first.
A two nighter or a weekend tour would be a good way to start.

My 2 months wasn't a soft start, and I believe that the fact it wasn't, has affected my decisions afterwards

.

Regards
Sam

Absentia · #8 01-11-2010, 06:52 AM

Sex, drugs and rock 'n roll?

Hoover · #9 01-11-2010, 08:25 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by JoshuaTSP

What about your fulltime job and family?

Touring is a fulltime job.

For that matter, whoever you're touring with is your family, at least for the duration of the tour. And that includes all the dysfunctional bickering that plagues biological families.

Steve · #10 01-11-2010, 09:29 AM

There are two types of "Touring"

1. It's your job. It's how you earn. You're gone. No different than being a trucker or in the Navy or many other jobs that take you away from home on a regular basis.

2. It's your fantasy, It disrupts your real job, real life, real family and carries with it little real tangible potential to be anything other than that.

Which type are you talking about?

JoshuaTSP · #11 01-11-2010, 11:31 AM

#2

Since I can't abandon my job, or family.

**jmattbassplaya** · #12 01-11-2010, 11:45 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Hoover

Touring is a fulltime job.

For that matter, whoever you're touring with is your family, at least for the duration of the tour. And that includes all the dysfunctional bickering that plagues biological families.

Quote:

Originally Posted by JoshuaTSP

#2

Since I can't abandon my job, or family.

Sorry to break it to you, but that really is how it works out. The life of the musician is one you seemingly have to get into before you have any major commitments (family, real job, etc...). After that all starts if you aren`t already in a successful touring band you pretty much never will be. Of course there`s always exceptions (I believe members of the Police were married and/or had kids when they first broke through) but those situations are even fewer and more far between than most bands that 'make it'.

XtheDeadPawn · #13 01-11-2010, 04:07 PM

I guess you learn to deal with it. Touring is a neccessarily a good and bad thing but, I'd be super pissed if Slipknot quit touring but, then again I don't tour. So I have no idea how the physical and emotional toll it takes to do it. For that bands have my upmost respect and upmost sympathy they wreck Hell on their bodies and families for my entertainment. That is hardcore big Thank You to anybody who tours that read this I might not ever meet you but, you are my heros.

MatticusMania · #14 01-11-2010, 04:21 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jdieh1

You could possibly try and "catch em all" to pass time? If you know what I'm talking about...

STDs?

SpamBot · #15 01-11-2010, 04:25 PM

Syphilis, I choose you!

jdieh1 · #16 01-11-2010, 05:14 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by MatticusMania

STDs?

Ha. Close, but not quite.

Steve · #17 01-11-2010, 05:43 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by JoshuaTSP

#2

Since I can't abandon my job, or family.

Well then, honestly, from my point of view having done it about every way it can be done in a couple of different fields...I wouldn't.

There are plenty of ways to have plenty of fun while making good second income money with music that make it "all good" without having to bring the guilt and negativity into the deal.

But then that's just me and I like my bed. That kind of "Touring" is like going into the woods with just a knife and camping. It's a short term thrill but man, if everything doesn't go your way all the time, it gets real hard, real fast.