TOUR! Week Two/Leg one done.
I’m a bit behind on my recap, but nevertheless, I’m here writing my update on life as a family man/small-business owner/teacher & performer.
I’m so happy to be home with my wife and daughter. Tour was awesome and wrapped up nicely on Halloween day at 11:30am. I had a last minute booking request come in from a school in Grand Forks and I decided to take it. This meant getting up at 5:00am to make it to Grand Forks for 8am offload, setup and prep.
as in my last post, I wanted to offer up a few thoughts during my time on the road and I’ll say this - 21 shows does not make me an expert in the field by any stretch - but I’m a verbal processor and this is one way for me to enjoy some cathartic debrief as well as hopefully say something that someone at some point will find helpful.
SO here are some things I learned on week two of tour.
Thing One: There is a very slim chance of absolutely crushing every show and the smaller the team, the smaller the chance. I am a one man show. This means that there aren’t as many systems in place to help when “tragedy” strikes. The reasons why the show doesn’t kill every time can very, but in my case it boiled down to three main causes. Cause one would be me. Sometimes, unfortunately I’m just not smooth. Be it my playing or how I’m speaking, I found myself on about 3 of 21 shows that I absolutely bombed my performance My hope is that with more experience, this will become less and less of a problem and with more rehearsal time and effort, I can nail it. Cause two would be tech problems. Every place I play tends to have a different setup and I am sort of at their mercy because I do not have my own sound equipment. I do not have my own sound equipment because I am driving my VW Jetta everywhere and its stacked with gear…so I need a truck. If you know of anyone let me know ;) Cause three is Audience. I experiences three kinds of audiences. One where they are amazing, engaged and locked in. Another where they are excited, tough to control and rowdy. Lastly, The audience is so tame that they don’t interact even when prompted.
In writing these three causes down, I’ve become aware in the last two, I am capable of doing something about it. My concluding thoughts are: I need to do my very best to be “on” at every show, regardless of wether I feel like it or not. I need to be sure to have the right equipment with me in order to retain the best outcome at every show and I must develop tactics and ideas that will draw audiences into the performance no matter what the crowd is like that day.
Thing Two: You can’t please everyone, and you can’t be all things to all people. This one’s shorter to type out, often times harder to follow through on. This is why it’s so important to have a clear understanding of who you are, what you bring to the table and why you’re bringing it there in the first place. Comparing yourself to others just takes the focus off what you could be doing better and making uniquely yours. Trying to be “the dude” for everyone is a waste of time. State your reasons, be consistent and go crush it.
Thing Three: Get as much prep work done as you possibly can before departing. I think this is a good thing with anything, but get those ducky’s in a row before hittin’ the road. Im thankful that I stuck with this pretty well before leaving on tour. Somethings you just won’t be able to account for though and they’ll be learn as you go experiences.
Overall, I’m happy with how things went but I know that for me there is so much room for improvement. Because Im running the Drum Academy here at home, I couldn’t just go crush 86 shows in a row, so this was leg one of 5 legs. Next Leg will happen in January of 2020.
