The EM Poll

Never Eat in the Hotel

Mar 14, 2008 1:48 PM, By Andy Bassford

           

TIPS AND TRICKS FOR SAVING YOUR MONEY AND YOUR SANITY WHILE TOURING

Food for Thought

Beyond avoiding hotel restaurants and room service, there are other ways to shave dollars off your eating budget.

Play the market. Whenever possible, buy your food in supermarkets rather than restaurants. It's cheaper, it's more like the meals you have at home, you can eat when you want, and if all the restaurants are shut down after your gig, you don't end up going hungry. You may want to invest in a cooler or another form of portable food storage, depending on how much room you have.

Eat apples and peanut butter. I once actually saved money out of a $10 per diem by eating nothing but apples and peanut butter sandwiches on whole wheat bread with orange juice. (Protein, carbohydrates, vitamins, roughage!) The first week, everybody in the band laughed at me. By the second week, people were asking me if they could have a sandwich. By the third week, several of them had their own stashes. Needless to say, I didn't eat any peanut butter for a while after I came home, but my entire salary was waiting for me when I got back.

Leave your cookware at home. I don't recommend trying to cook on tour unless you have really good kitchen facilities in your vehicle. Carrying pots, pans, hot plates, and food into and out of a hotel every day gets old fast. Even the tours I've been on with hired cooks were problematic: either the food wasn't ready when we were hungry, or somebody didn't like what was on the menu that day.

Be fruitful. Drink fruit juice instead of soda whenever possible. A multivitamin tablet every day is a good idea, too, as is lots and lots of bottled water. It's easy to get dehydrated in a touring environment, which is a good way to get sick. Once that happens, everybody else usually gets sick, too, and it's very hard to recover when you're doing four to ten hours of driving a day.

Water it down. When you eat in a restaurant, don't order drinks; ask for water instead. The markup on drinks is astronomical. The soda you get in a fast-food chain is about five cents worth of syrup and carbonated water, for which you will pay at least a dollar. Water is better for you anyway.

At the Venue

Besides the hotel and the van, bus, or car, the other place you'll spend a lot of time is, of course, the venue. Relations with club personnel (especially owners) can be dicey sometimes, so it's important to get off on the right foot.

Call first. It's important to confirm the load-in, sound-check, door, and show times well in advance. Unless you have a road manager, you or someone in your band should call the venue again as soon as you get into town to reconfirm the times. Make sure to honor them. Things often change at the last minute. Always make a note of your contact person's name so you know who told you what.

Carry paperwork. Travel with extra copies of your contract, production rider, and stage plot; distribute the last two freely. You'd be amazed how many times your fax of these important documents never gets from the production office to the people who actually have to set up the stage. In practice, the rider tends to be more of a wish list than a document people actually intend to honor, but it at least tells the venue what you think you need to do your job and serves as a starting point for negotiations. Professionalism, organization, and courtesy go a long way here. Remember that club personnel deal with dozens of bands each week; they aren't awed by your very existence, and you aren't paying their salary.

Scope out the scene. As soon as you get to the venue, find out a few things: the name of the manager working that night, the venue's food and drink policies for the band, the number of guests allowed, and who's supposed to pay you at the end of the night.

Keep your tabs in check. Be careful about running tabs for food and drink, even if you have permission. Paying as you go is infinitely preferable to running a tab. It can be a real drag to play three sets and then find out you owe the club more than they're paying you.

Be nice to the sound person. If the club has its own sound person, treat him or her with respect and consideration (unless you want your show to sound subpar). House engineers deal with a lot of bands and are unlikely to go the extra mile for your act if you treat them like the hired help. It's wise to offer a small gratuity if you ask them to do something above and beyond their normal duties. You should always give them a copy of your CD; it might help them to remember you the next time around.

Use your guest list. Invite people you meet during the course of the day to that night's show. It's a cheap and effective way of rewarding good service, building contacts, and spreading general goodwill for your music. Even if the guests don't show, you can be sure they appreciated the invitation. Once you invite someone, make sure they can get in, even if you end up eating their ticket. Check the list at the door before the show.

Be especially careful about adding “plus one” or “plus four.” If tickets are selling well, sometimes the “pluses” magically disappear and only guests whose names are actually on the list get in. Write each guest's full name clearly and correctly, and make sure you don't exceed the number of guests the venue allows. Few things are less conducive to making good music than arguing with steroid-crazed doormen over an inflated guest list right before you go on.

Keep gear from walking. If you are playing a club for more than one evening and you're leaving your equipment set up, be sure to take small expensive items such as microphones and foot pedals with you after each performance. It's more likely that someone will walk out of the club with your vintage Tube Screamer than with your Marshall 4×12 cabinet.

Follow routines. When you're loading out your equipment, a set routine saves time and keeps the loss of gear to a minimum. Don't forget to check the stage and dressing room for stray items one last time before you go. You don't want to arrive in Des Moines and realize you left your effects processor in Columbus.