Well, after about two months of conversations with various friends, I've decided to start a blog to let everyone know exactly what's going on with me. First, I play bass for a touring band full time. I'm writing this right now in Huntsville, Al. at a house we're crashing at. Also, hopefully this will keep my writing chops up as I take somewhat of a break from journalism. I also hope to give some insight into what being an indie musician these days is like.
So, life on the road so far has been interesting. We began with a whirlwind trip to Chicago immediately after the new year. We had a blast, even though the 12 hour trip up to Chicago with six guys crammed into a small van was pretty not cool. Since then, we've played about 30 something shows in 2009. We've been playing everywhere from our hometown of Starkville to Nashville, Kansas City, Little Rock and the list goes on and on.
We're an indie band, we are not part of a record label and have no promotion. We book our own shows, do our own promotion and even recorded our own album. We travel in minivans, make sandwiches on the road to save money, buy two-for-one cigarettes and pretty much stretch every dollar to its absolute minute. We all pay our bills and make our living this way.
I'll introduce you to the cast of characters I'll probably be referring to a lot in this blog. First, there's me Dave. The band calls me Trailerpark Dave, it's just something that stuck. Then there's Big Dave, lead singer and guitar player. John is our other guitar player and backup vocals and his brother, Sim, plays the drums. We're a happy little four piece. Then, on big trips we have our road manager Jason who lives in Nashville.
So, for the first official blog post I'll give you a clue about life on the open road. First, we don't have a tour bus — we have vans. Second, we're lucky to get a hotel room that we don't have to pay for and if we do get a room it's usually one for all five of us. Basically, when we go out on the road there is no certainty as to whether when and where we'll shower, eat or sleep. We try and find crash houses, people nice enough to open their homes and fridges to us, but normally wherever we stay it's usually close quarters. Before this last run that we're on we found a frozen turkey on sale, we bought it, cooked it and have been eating turkey sandwiches for the past week. We made some pork sanwiches for the drive to Nashville earlier this week. Pretty much we try to get as much as we can with as little money as possible, that's the life we live.
Ok, so since I've knocked a little bit of glamour off the rock and roll road life, we do have a good time. We play every weekend and bars most of the time give us free beers, and if we're lucky they feed us. There's nothing better though than free beer to go along with the best job in the world.
We load our own gear in and out of the places we play — no roadies here. That is one downfall of this job. Achieving a good beer buzz after a few hours of playing is grossly offset by the fact that when you finishing tearing down your gear it's like 2 a.m., you're tired and you have to get up at nine or ten the next morning and drive five hours. As a professional musician, I am becoming very appreciative of light gear.
I also have become a not so big fan of motel checkout times. Usually we get to chill at the motel a couple hours before we play, and then drag in in the wee hours of the morning. Getting to bed at three and having to leave by ten sucks especially when three or four guys need to shower.
Anyway, well we're enjoying a rarity on the road tonight. We're crashing at a very domesticated household and our wonderful hosts are going to be gracious enough to fire up their barbeque grill and cook us a real supper. Normally, when bars are feeding us it's typical bar fare — Burgers, chicken wings and the like. Homecooked food, for us, is bad ass. I'm about to get my grub on. Keep on rockin.
No comments:
Post a Comment