What are some memories of your tour or being on the road?

[MrYikes]

I'd like to hear about some parts of your life on the road as a drummer.

 

[Woody85]

So many memories... having the van break down (multiple times), being robbed in Montreal, hahaha

I also have some great memories. Traveling across Canada with my best friends, going through the mountains and playing with some great bands. We used to try and go to an NHL game once per tour on a day off. I was very lucky early on in my career and got to tour with some national acts and learned a lot along the way. I do miss it, but I like knowing when I'm going to eat next and where I'm going to sleep at night. I think I'm too old for touring in a van. Tour bus? That's a different story haha

 

[Roadappledrummer]

Sharing flea bag hotel rooms with the bass player, drinking and partying too much, hangovers, lousy unhealthy food, long rides, lots of sitting around and boredom... staying up too late and not sleeping enough. Oh yea and some great gigs! I'd do it again in a heartbeat...for a couple of weeks...I'm too old for that to be a lifestyle anymore.

 

[jptrickster]

See above! One vision that's still clear, the garbage bag liner in the 2nd floor tom always filled with ice and beer. Oh yeah , nothing but groupies and promoters who love you and a pile of dirty laundry by the hotel door. What those road ladies do to you.

 

[Trilock_Gurtu]

Man. Many many memories, mostly great. A few posters above gave some good descriptions haha. I've done the cross Canada/US/van tours. Super tiring, but fun.

My favorite experiences were doing the hotel gigs, overseas. So much fun being on the other side of the world, playing with new people (from all over the world), meeting sexy girls...hotel rooms...etc.

Touring/travel is tons of work. 99% of people don't get that. They think its easy, they don't factor in the travel time (and jet lag), the hardship on the body, moving gear, learning a crap load of tunes in days, playing with a smile while you're sick as a dog (anyone here part of the throwing up on stage club?), on and on it goes.

BUT, there's those magical moments, when the dance floor is packed, everyone is smiling, dancing, having a great time, the band is LOCKED in, etc. That's 10% of the time.

Long live the 10%.

 

[Buffalo_drummer]

Meeting Gary Busey upstairs at The Mint while waiting to take the stage.

 

[markrocks68]

My fav memory is my then girlfriend (& now wife) picking up the band at LAX after a 3 week tour of Europe in 2010 and we smelled so bad she made us keep the windows open in her car the entire way back to San Diego. 2 heavy metal doom bands in a big van with a roadie, driver & record label guy, rolling tobacco & drinking whiskey and not many showers.
But man those kids over there treated us great.

 

[backtodrum]

My fav memory is my then girlfriend (& now wife) picking up the band at LAX after a 3 week tour of Europe in 2010 and we smelled so bad she made us keep the windows open in her car the entire way back to San Diego. 2 heavy metal doom bands in a big van with a roadie, driver & record label guy, rolling tobacco & drinking whiskey and not many showers.
But man those kids over there treated us great.

I had a good chuckle to myself thinking about the fellow passengers that got to sit next to you guys on an international flight from Europe, if your girlfriend/wife made you roll the windows down in her car...Lol

 

[jtpaistegeist]

Noticing Bill Shatner and his wife in the audience playing a jazz gig at a fancy mall. My keyboard player was flailing his arms saying "hey, it's Captain Kirk!"

He was about 10 feet from us seemingly enjoying the Lido Shuffle lol

 

[dale w miller]

All different bands:

1. Having Monica Lewinsky at our show and buying merchandise

2. Not on tour, but strippers getting on stage with my teenage band with my mom and aunt in the audience

3. Had a drunk male vocalist who decided to strip on stage during the encore

4. Singer drunk & angry flipping out on the sound man to the point he turns off the P.A. and starts removing the mics while we were playing. The singer didn’t even notice he did what he did and kept singing

5. Drummer for Janet Jackson John Roberts came to our show and afterwards told me “You rock!” I told him I was glad he liked the band. He said, “No. YOU rock!”

Next time I was in town I saw him at the club and I thanked him for being there. He reminded me he was there by saying, “I’m here because you rock.”

I was nervous, played like sheeet, and never saw him again until 20 years later at the NAMM Show. He didn’t remember who I was.

 

[EvEnStEvEn]

In 1980-81 our band toured British Columbia in a converted International Harvester school bus.

Gear inventory included:
2 Marshall full stacks
Hammond B3 organ with Leslie spkr
Giant Ludwig double bass kit including 26" gong and non-collapsible drum riser
2 Ampeg SVT cabinets with SVT heads
5 Gibson elec. guitars + Martin acoustic
Full PA system & Monitors + massive lighting truss + 2 follow spots and dry ice fog machine made from a cut-down metal barrel.
Plus the 4 band members - 3 friends (our crew) + all luggage & supplies for a 4month tour.

Upon arriving at the Washington/Canada border station we were instructed to remove every item from the bus and un-cased so it could be logged for serial # identification & verification. That took about 2 hours and we got to meet Canada's drug sniffing canine staff up close and personal.

First gig there was 5 sets per night 6 nights a week at a 2 story nightclub in Prince George, BC.
Lower level was rock bands and dancing - top level was LIVE simulated sex shows. Quite often those performers would walk downstairs to watch the bands during their show breaks.
Other than high heels bracelets & earrings they were always fully nude with silver or gold body paint from head to toe during working hours.. We'd make casual but awkward conversation with some of those gals during our own breaks and eventually got to know some of 'em during our engagement there.



Like most, I've got several memorable road stories of foolish and restless youth - more later perhaps.....

 

[dangermoney]

A couple that I can still remember ...

Me passing gas while playing on stage one night in a jam packed Huntsville club and having the audience along the front of the stage believe it was the singer and/or guitarists who had zero success in convincing them that it was really me. Priceless.

Playing a jam packed Orlando club and looking out to see Molly Hatchet's management along with a young 13 year old Derek Trucks in the audience near the stage jamming their asses off.

 

[OttawaDrumGuy]

My touring experience is a bit different - for about a decade, I was the tour manager for a professional orchestra. We did tours across Canada, and to the U.S., Mexico, Europe and the Middle East.

Anything that could go wrong did - concerts canceled due to protests in the Middle East, flooding in Switzerland, damaged instruments, lost luggage, broken buses, canceled flights. And sometimes, I got to hear amazing concerts in some of the world's great concert halls. Both the most stressful and most memorable moments of my life were on the road.

 

[BennyK]

February 74 - axle on our trailer broke in the middle of nowhere somewhere past Lloydminster Alberta . Farmer came out on his tractor, towed it back to his shop , welded an angle iron splint onto it, his wife made us a hearty lunch a sent us packing up the highway with the best of wishes .

" Park over there and go inside " - words you don't want to hear at the border .

Whitewater kayaking - a bonus for the band ,on the house .... never again, no thanks .

" Where are my cymbals ? "

" a cheque .... ?? "

 

[burgundy]

it was back in 1968 we were just a club band, a local boy won a singing contest, thought he was a star and asked us to go on the road, had a doge maxie van, offered us transportation, $150. a week, room & meals, now being a bunch of 18 year olds thought we had it made! we wer,nt really that good, but back then it seemed you didn't need to be. now the lead singer got on a health kick, would get out and run beside the van, now we.er sick, tired, dirty and this fellow is jogging, we are going 5 miles an hour, we get to the club, and they put us in the basement, bunch of rooms with cheap paneling on the walls, i'm in a room trying to sleep, I hear running and thump against the wall, goes on for a while when all of a sudden a panel comes flying off and lands on me, I run out and the guys are pissing themselves laughing, what they were doing was running down hall, and seeing how far up the wall they could hit and land back on their feet, well bass man missed the stud, both feet thru the panel, about 5 feet up, hanging upside down by his ankles, all scraped up & hollering help me, no help , all laughing too hard, didn't make much on the trip.

 

[Treviso1]

In 1980-81 our band toured British Columbia in a converted International Harvester school bus.

Gear inventory included:
2 Marshall full stacks
Hammond B3 organ with Leslie spkr
Giant Ludwig double bass kit including 26" gong and non-collapsible drum riser
2 Ampeg SVT cabinets with SVT heads
5 Gibson elec. guitars + Martin acoustic
Full PA system & Monitors + massive lighting truss + 2 follow spots and dry ice fog machine made from a cut-down metal barrel.
Plus the 4 band members - 3 friends (our crew) + all luggage & supplies for a 4month tour.

Upon arriving at the Washington/Canada border station we were instructed to remove every item from the bus and un-cased so it could be logged for serial # identification & verification. That took about 2 hours and we got to meet Canada's drug sniffing canine staff up close and personal.

First gig there was 5 sets per night 6 nights a week at a 2 story nightclub in Prince George, BC.
Lower level was rock bands and dancing - top level was LIVE simulated sex shows. Quite often those performers would walk downstairs to watch the bands during their show breaks.
Other than high heels bracelets & earrings they were always fully nude with silver or gold body paint from head to toe during working hours.. We'd make casual but awkward conversation with some of those gals during our own breaks and eventually got to know some of 'em during our engagement there.



Like most, I've got several memorable road stories of foolish and restless youth - more later perhaps.....

This entire scenario is part of my touring history as well with tons of band gear (double bass kit, of course!), but the clubs were along the 401 in Ontario, hitting every venue between Windsor, ONT through Kingston, ONT. The club you mention was just like a club we played in Barrie, ONT. The band played on the first floor, the strippers stripped on the second floor and we all stayed at the "hotel" on the third floor. Good times!

 

[blikum]

Back in the late 80's I was in a band and we opened for The Smitereens on a few dates. I had a non ported reso head, I was away from the stage area doing other stuff when I got back there was a huge hole cut in my bass drum head with what appears to be a pocket knife and now had a mic in it. I went ballistic. What type of soundman would do such a thing?! Not only was I pissed, but all the other musicians were as well. We got even the only was we knew how... we trashed the dressing room. Not my finest moment, but I was young. We were all young.

 

[squidart]

Sightseeing Poland through a van window at night.

 

[MrYikes]

Every Monday night we were terrible. Our timing was so far apart it felt like we were playing different songs. By the second set we were getting close again, and we were back together on the third set. The rest of the week was fine.
I drove a 53 Chevy panel truck (think Gravedigger) and carried the B3 Hammond for the keyboard player. We stopped for lunch and I noticed gas dripping out of the carb. Walked across the street to the salvage yard. They said I could go look for one. Started through the door to the yard but noticed something round in the dirt floor. Got a piece of metal and scraped my new carb out of the dirt. Sprayed it with water, then dunked it in a pan of old gas and paid the guy $5. Put it on and drove away.(I didn't get any lunch). True story. The sax player had a wreck and was in a wheel chair so we settled into a 3 night weekly gig until he healed and got his truck fixed. We eventually made it to California and spent the winter in Palm Springs. I had the guitar player come with me to play in the sand with my motorcycle. He went over a hill and off a cliff. He leaned on me while I drove him to the hospital on the bike. He played that night,,but in the back because of all the bandages wrapped around his head. We tired of motels and bought camper trailers. Lost and gained some players and headed out again. I was pulled over in every city I passed through. The state trooper in Iowa followed me to the state line after telling me not to stop for gas in his state. A farmer in Minnesota put me in a head lock in a Sears store and was dragging me to a table with scissors. The bass player helped me dissuade him. The axle bearing froze on the Chicago belt at 7am while towing my trailer. Working on the car during rush hour was a bit of excitement. Got it fixed by 2pm and made the gig on time.

 

[supershifter2]

Walking into a roadside gas station restroom that has urinals and toilets that have not been flushed in years because the flush handles are broken. The smell is so bad I vomit and run like hell. sometimes I have a nightmare about it.