thePULSEHey Worcester Bands – Get In the Van!
By Alex Kantarelis
I have a goal for Worcester bands who’ve been around for more than a couple of years. Be proud that you’re from here, never forget the local club owners who booked you and the people who came out and supported you before you really hit your stride, but stop limiting yourselves to being “just Worcester bands.” Stop worrying about how many people you can still get to see you play in Worcester, and starting thinking outside the box a bit. There seems to be a certain disconnect when it comes to the subject of touring. Bands always tell me that they’d like to “…someday go on tour.” WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR? Get in the van and go! Book a string of shows going down to Florida and back, take a week off from work, rent a van if you have to, and just do it.
Black Flag didn’t get big by playing Ralph’s. They got big from touring relentlessly. The fact that a punk band from LA can make it all the way to Worcester to play a show is pretty awesome, and they did it before the internet. Those guys booked their own shows and played in living rooms and basements (and Ralph’s, of course!) and got there under their own steam. They paved the way for bands like Nirvana and Green Day to set up their own tours, which led to their eventual mainstream success.
Bands booked their own tours for years without the help of the internet, so why can’t you? With all that social media stuff we’re all addicted to, setting up a tour can be done in an hour on a smartphone. Trust me, I’ve done it. Book a show in a city. Book the next show in a city that’s not too far from the first city, and so on. Some shows will be terrible, some will be amazing. Either way, it’s worth it.
Now for some cold hard reality. Imagine waking up on someone’s floor in a random city in Kansas and driving 7 hours to your next show in Texas which is on a Tuesday night in front of 17 people, followed by doing an all night 18 hour drive so you can play a show in Arizona for 22 people. That’s how touring is. It’s horrible and wonderful all at once. You’ll sleep on people’s floors, and you’ll probably eat one meal a day. Getting a cut of the door money is not enough to support a touring band, so you’ll have to sell T-shirts, CDs, posters, etc. to make a majority of your cash. At the end of the day, it’s not about the money, though, right? Well, that’s what everyone says, anyway.
The truth is, touring is tough. But so are most jobs, and if you’re in any way interested in making music your job, then you have to get out there and tour. So back to what’s important here. Please, stop being just Worcester bands, and start being touring bands who got a great start in Worcester.
