Welcome to Episode four of the Bandhive podcast.

That's right. We've made it to four episodes. Would you believe it? My name is James, and I'm here with your co host, Aaron. How's it going today, man? Awesome. How is it going?

It's good. It's actually like starting to be fall. It's only September. By the time anyone's hearing, this will be probably October, maybe even November. But it's nice out. It's not blazing hot. It's not freezing cold. It's just cool. I'm all about this weather, like September October and then, depending on how muddy it is, maybe March but perfect weather. I prefer march to not be so money because my birthday is in March Weaken. Let April have all the mud like that Zoo E. Yeah, I think if you live in Vermont or anywhere in the north, you kind of have to be ready for cold weather.

And speaking of Yes, I'm glad you picked up on that because we are talking about winter touring today either yea or boo, depending on what you think. But it will happen. And I think we're gonna be talking about a couple of things that will hopefully either make that experience more enjoyable or it's kind of easier to get that whole thing started. Onda keep you guys safe out there. Yeah, definitely. And we got to say, as we were coming up with us, we realized anyone who lives in the North will probably know most of these things already.

But you should still listen because it could be a refresher for you. Or you might think of something that you haven't heard before. If you're not from the North and you're gonna be touring in the North during winter So let's say you're from Florida, Texas or, you know, Southern California or something like that, and you're doing a tour through any colder regions where snow and ice or a possibility this episode is for you. It is not optional because it's so important to stay safe when you're on the road and touring and most of the tours I've done have been spring and summer tours, Thankfully, which is a little more comfortable.

Um, but I did do ah, short tour during November once, and that was certainly interesting. And, Aaron, you were mentioning that you've done several winter tours as well for suburban samurai, your D i Y band. But also, I think, as, uh, part of a bigger tour as well, right? Yeah. I think to date I've probably deal spend trying to think I probably still spent probably just a much, if not probably a little more time. Probably a little more time, Um, touring during the winter months on larger tours just because they were bigger, like, longer projects, each of them.

Um, but if we're talking about just single instances of what one could consider a tour, I've probably done mawr individual, um, tour units. Uh, just because they were short, you know, like, you know, a few weeks at most. Um, yeah, with with my band, which obviously was much different. Uh, you know, production and and, uh, just different. I'll leave it at that, uh, than than what you'd find on a larger tour van and trailer hotels. on somebody sick or when it's ridiculously cold. But even that was a luxury and not one that everybody has.

So, um, keep listening. I think we're gonna have some cheese for you. Some ways to get around, freezing to death or getting sick and dying when Europe here visiting us. Yeah. It's like the Oregon Trail out there. I don't know if you played that game when you're a kid, you probably Oh, please, no. Really. Okay, well, I'm not going to go down that rabbit hole because we're trying to keep our episodes in check. Well, let's get into it. And on that note, Erin, I think we should probably start with something like a small topic such as gear, and then work on up to the bigger topics, like safety and emergency supplies.

So just think of this as, like, an appetizer for your brain. Yeah. So if we're talking about gear, um, I think that the extreme heat and the extreme cold probably does Justus much for your instruments as it does for you. And, you know, it probably doesn't like it s I think, the biggest thing that you could do at the end of the day. Even the larger tours, um, they hold their stuff around in trucks. Um, or if you're getting a rental gear, that stuff's probably hauled to you in a truck or, you know, hopefully sitting in a climate controlled environment at home.

But you never know. So at the end of the day, you could only you could only do what you can dio on. You can only escape the frigid, frigid cold in the Northeast. Um, you know so much, you can only do so much s, I think, the biggest, most no brainer. Easiest thing that you could dio Um and hopefully this is super old and boring news to everybody. But when you transition whatever gear you've got from, uh, called the hot or hot to cold, give it a chance to acclimate, uh, to that new environment.

So if you're bringing it inside three gig from the trailer, you know, let your gear sit there for a second. Um, once it's had a second to sit there, open your case up. I'm a drummer. Uh, even if I don't have the ability, for whatever reason, to, uh, set my stuff up and kind of stage it off to the side. Um, I still will open my cases up even my hardware just to kind of give it a chance to kind of warm up slowly after it's had a second toe.

You know, sit there In the case on Ben, obviously, I'm sure most of you have seen or, you know, have done that yourself with guitars. But I would go so far as you know, drums. That's what Just the same electron ICS. It's not gonna hurt. It might here if you don't do that and you're a little rough on your gear, But s I think that's the most simple kind of easiest thing that you could dio, um, just sort of just take care of your gear, keep a nigh on the changes in temperature and humidity.

Onda when it's winter up here, um, you know, this changes aren't going to be, you know, gradual like they are in August or September or you know, any other time of the year. Yeah, definitely. And since you mentioned Elektronik gear, most electronic devices, no matter what they're made for, will have like a published operating temperature on it gives you a range. So you should always double check that your stuff falls within that range. It should be fine pretty much anywhere you go. But it might be the kind of thing where, if you're playing an outdoor show and it gets to be cold like I mean, it does happen.

You play shows in the cold outdoors. Your gear might not be working properly because it's too cold. Or, conversely, in summer if it's too hot, I did see a picture of, uh, somebody mixing a show because their mixture overheated from inside. Ah, hallway. It's the beauty of digital mixers is you can mixed from anywhere, but it also means that they overheat because it's a computer. It's not like an analog mixer where you can just use it and it works. You can use it from anywhere, and the downside is you might have to use it from anywhere.

This'd is very true, but that's about it for a year. Just be responsible with your gear. Make sure you're not abusing it, and hopefully you and your gear will have a long lasting and loving relationship Up next we have sleeping arrangements, and this is a beacon of relationships between you and your band numbers. Sorry. Sleeping arrangements? Yes. In winter, obviously, things were different. You all cuddle for heat. Now I'm just kidding. I mean, if that's your thing, and that helps you. Great. But we want to talk about how ah lot of d o I bands sleep in the van, and that's fine, but be prepared in winter.

You can't just think you're going to sleep in the van and have a thin wool blanket over to you or Hoody or something like that. You need to stay warm personally because I'm spoiled. I would always advocate get, like, a not awful but not fancy hotel or motel for the night. It's really worth it just for personal comfort and mental health. Really? Yeah. If you are going to sleep in the van, do it right in winter. You should have a mummy bag which is so called because it's a sleeping bag.

That's the shape of a mummy. And those things will keep you so so warm. I know, Aaron, you were talking about how you did that with suburban samurai. Uh, do you wanna tell us a little about what you guys do during winter to stay warm. Eso substance done? Probably, you know, definitely three or four, um, sort of individual runs ranging from 1 to 2 weeks. Um, you know, kind of in the winter months, Like November through February, Somewhere in there, over the last few years. Um, and I think just a few of the things that we kind of did, uh, to sort of help make that happen.

We don't typically tour for longer than, you know, a week to two at a time. The more recent runs have kind of been closer to two weeks, but definitely in the winter. Um, kind of running is the D I Y band van and trailer. Rarely getting hotels, keeping the runs shorter and kind of hitting the shows where they count on making the shows count. That was helpful. We would at night. Yeah, we would rock the mummy bags we had was a van and trailer. We installed bunks in the back of the van with a cargo van, so we kinda had the privacy built in for that.

And eso It kind of felt like a bus in some ways. Ah, very cramped. Uh uh. Cramped bus. But what it was on dso What? We Yeah, what we did. We sort of avoided hotels anywhere we could to save money. And that's kind of helped us in the beginning, Uh, sort of be able to do what we were doing to continue doing that. And, um, yeah, we just kind of kept the blood flowing year round on dso when it came to winter. Um, we had thesis leaping bags, which helped.

We tried Thio. Uh, you know, everybody had kind of a designated area for where their stuff went. Shoes, that sort of thing, That could kind of get gross in the winter. Um, you know, I think we're going to get into, Ah, a few of these other things a little later on in the podcast. But, you know, generator for heat goes a long way, you know, space heaters, that sort of thing. Obviously, there are a bunch of sort of safety. Another you know, good things just kind of have around, um, that will sort of help make your winter touring experience, especially in a sort of a van and trailer, Um, that much more manageable and enjoyable.

And I think quality of life, Um goes quite a long way. Yeah, definitely. And on that note of safety, if you do have a generator, don't put it inside your van outside your van when it's running. Because otherwise, that's no bueno. No, Just like don't start the car when the garage door is closed. It's exactly you're not gonna wake up. And also do be careful with space heaters because, uh, you don't want them tipping over and starting fires. So winter touring is definitely, uh, more on the dangerous side if you don't know how to use a generator or a space heater.

But in general it is also a little more dangerous. So our next topic and this is the first really happy One is safety. And we have this broken down into a few different things, the first of which is Dr Times. And Aaron, can you talk a little bit about how you would approach figuring out Dr Times for summer versus winter? Yeah, I think we, you know, sort of spoke in one of the earlier podcasts to the effective, like kind of building in, you know, all the time and more that you think you would need to get from a to B. Um, don't drive too fast.

Don't you know if you if you're loaded with a bunch of weight, um, that's that's good for some reasons. But at the end of the day, if the roads are slick or visibilities, you know, totally crap, Um, the fact that you've got something that's, you know, carrying a couple £1000 of gear, Um, you know, for us much control is that's gonna give you in one way, like an icy road like that's that's not gonna help either. So, um, you know, building the time you need to make sure you drive slow and safely.

Yeah, and especially if you have a trailer or even if you just load everything in the back of your van, the more stuff you have towards the back of the vehicle, the further back your center of gravity is, which takes weight off of your steering wheels. And that's just amplified by a trailer because a trailer attaches to the back of your vehicle and all that weight goes onto your rear axle, which again just takes more weight and shift your center of gravity to the back. So be very, very very careful with that.

Loading is something that should also be taken seriously, especially in winter. Definitely. E mean, that could fall onto, you know, another thing that we don't have down here but just kind of quickly glaze over it. Um, you know, No, your pack if you have a van or a trailer. Um, you know, sometimes you find yourself in a, uh yeah, a situation where you gotta put yourself in the band and get out of there or, you know, if but if you got the time, uh, make sure you find a pack that works Well, both for kind of fitting everything in the way that you wanted to go in.

Um, but you should think of you know what you want to get at first what you are able to, you know, put off and get to last on gun also. You know, James, I think you're pointing out, uh, take it to consideration how big and heavy those things are. Two. And where you know, you don't want to load up one side of the trailer. You're gonna have a bad time. You don't want to load up the area closest to the door or you wanna put all of your weight over one wheel?

Um, that's just kind of, uh I'd say common sense, but I don't know if you know it's something you'd necessarily think about. If you're running your first or second tour and you're excited to go, you wanna put everything in the van, it will be okay. Attitude which that shouldn't exist, by the way. But ah, lot of people have that. And I think a lot of these things or things that can go a long way towards keeping everybody safe on the road. And it's one of those. The one time something goes wrong is when you're gonna wish you would have taken the extra second to think about risk management is boring as that sounds, it is just is important.

Yeah, And on that note, since you're saying, you know, just wanting to get on the road and get there, that's something known as get there itis in the aviation industry. And unfortunately, it is actually a severe thing that has caused crashes in the airline industry. So watch out for get there itis and basically all that get there itis is is that you're so focused on getting to your destination that you ignore red flags or you get distracted and miss things. So, for example, saying, Oh, you know we're late.

We have to get there. Just just toss everything in the van. That's a form of get there itis or saying Oh, you know what? You know it. Z snowing really hard out here. We should probably slow down. But you know what? We're late. So we have to get there saying, Oh, we'll be fine again. That's another form of get there itis. So there, in one piece, I think, is probably the variable there should be. Get there in one piece itis. That's what we really need. Yeah, like I usually think of that like it's sort of like a tear or like in order.

Like what depend us, like order of operations in my brain. It's like, you know, from a little too big it's What am I out here to dio? You know, I don't really have, or at least in my situation with my band. I don't really have an excuse if, like, I wouldn't have an excuse if we were, like show up late and so you know, one would be get to the gig on time, too. Uh, if it's winter and it's a little more difficult and something does happen, you know, if things come up and things happen, um, you know, getting to the gig on time is the most important.

One of the most important things that I think that should be simple Thio kind of knock out on the road. But as you said, if it's like, visibility is like 10 ft Um, making sure that something bad doesn't happen sort of, you know, becomes more important. You want to get there and you wanna get there in time, But you know, you're not going to get there if you're on the side of the road. Um, so I think it's backing up its I guess, just all to say again, you know, kind of being punk is like super cool until you know somebody's dead.

Or until you know, there is an accident or an emergency or somebody sick or, you know, you have a flat tire and you didn't prepare or you didn't. You put all the heavy stuff over that one side of the van, and now you're vans acting up Or, um, you know, it's all all relative on it's all connected. But, you know, you gotta at the end of the day, you really think about your safety because you are out there. Um, you know, in a tour bubble, Andi, it's easy.

I think for some on myself included at times to sort of forget that you're still, you know, biting by the laws of physics and gravity. And, uh, you know, the guy who's like, you know, you're trying to pass on the right is like just trying to get to his work because it's Monday morning, even though you're stoked to be on your second tour and you're trying to fly by him or, you know, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. Um, you know, don't forget that the tour bubble is like an imaginary thing, and, um, that safety should still be kind of the first concern.

Yeah, and I would say on the note of being on time for shows, The Onley exception that I have for people being late is if it's a safety issue, there's no excuse to being late unless it's safety. And then I don't care if you show up two days late. I would rather have you be safe than have you show up and play a show or Robert try to show up and play a show, but not make it. That is absolutely like, if it comes down to safety, canceled the show.

If you have Thio like either you cancel the show and survive to reschedule it or you die trying and too bad like you're never gonna play that show. You can't even reschedule it. That's how I would look at it. Yeah, it's better to have somebody mad at you than Teoh, you know? Yeah. And people shouldn't be mad at you. Like if it's a promoter or something like that, They should absolutely understand that it's a safety issue and you know, if you're the one who left late or something like okay, that's on you.

But if there really is something that is affecting the driving conditions or something like that, that's gonna be all over the news. People are going to know that is a huge storm. They cannot fall you for that. I've seen venues cancel shows proactively because they didn't want fans driving. And you know the band could have made it their The band said, You know, we're ready to play, but for the safety of our fans, we don't want you driving tonight. We're gonna reschedule the show. I think that's a really great move, because these venues and bands are showing that they do care about their fans, and they're worried about safety and then also worried about the safety of the venue staff.

And they also want people to be able to enjoy the show. And that's not gonna happen if 10 people show up like that's not really gonna be a fun experience if, you know, like a four or 500 cap venue has 10 people there because of the storm. Yeah, And I think at the end of the day, like you said, the promoter is gonna get it. Um, you know, depending on the circumstances, of course, like somebody may not have to like it or not. But chances are they're gonna like that.

You're thinking, you know about that. And like you said, if it's if it's on you because, like, you know, you were late, and so now you're not gonna make it, um, you know, again, stuff happens, but, you know, don't push it if you shouldn't push it. And if you have, like, as a band, like a track record of, you know, always being on time and and that's, like, the exception. That's the You know, if you're you're calling a guy and and, you know, you're you're saying like, Hey, we're not gonna be able to make it.

You know, this happened that happened. That happened. We're really sorry. Um, you know, depending on, you know, the advance and what the deal is, Um, that person might not be happy, you know, because they're gonna have to figure out what to do on the fly. But if at the end of the day didn't go Okay, well, this is the first time I've worked with this man for two or three years. They've never done anything like it. They messed up, but because it's the first time that it's ever happened, you know, I know that they thought about this before they called me and tried to cancel the show.

Yeah, definitely. And I think we should add to that. You know, obviously a lot of D i y bands when they play shows don't have contracts, which that's fine. But when you do get to the level where you're signing contracts for your shows, absolutely make sure that there's a force majeure clause, which is also known as an act of God clause, which basically says that if there's some disaster or major storm or anything that is beyond the control of both parties, then there aren't any penalties for cancelation.

That's essentially what it says, and it's the same for, like if you buy an airline ticket. And, uh, I'm talking about airlines again, train tickets, whatever in the fine print, it will say like they're not responsible if you can't get to the destination because there's a storm or some other kind of safety issue or the airport gets evacuated because there's a bomb scare or anything like that, because it's not their fault. If that happens, that being said for as much as I feel like you and I are kind of pushing the idea of, uh, you know, don't push it if it's unsafe to do so.

Um, there are a lot of things that you could do to prepare. Chances are, everybody's got a phone with a weather app on it. That's something that you need to sort of forecast and kind of look ahead on DCI check out, especially if you're, you know, not sleeping at home every night. You know, kind of branching out to a bunch of local gigs in a row. If you're on the road going from gig to gig, check the weather. Um, you know, if it's super hot out, check the weather.

If it's cold out, check the weather. If it's kind of cloudy and it's march like check the weather like I've driven through rain, that's been Justus bad as driving through snow. Check it out a couple of days ahead of time on Ben. If you see something kind of coming up, it might be worth contacting. You know whoever you're in bed with, whether it is, you know you're playing a club or something else where, you know you do have a bit of writing that's kind of been passed back and forth between you and the promoter, Um, or it's just a worth your time to do that.

If you're playing a basement venue, um, whether it's, uh, you know, professional courtesy or whether it's something that is, You know, it's in your best interest to contact this person and start talking about this because you might lose some serious money over it, one or the other. It's a good idea to kind of look ahead on communicate, and it just it za about communicating. Um, And again, it's all relative, you know, not saying that if you're driving four hours to play a basement venue, that should matter less to you.

But at the end of the day, you know, place that next to, uh, like any safety concerns for you and your group that you have, I know that if I was, you know, scared to drive through E would be just too scared to drive through a hurricane to get to an arena show as I would to drive through a hurricane to get to a basement show. But I think today, you know, sort of, um, having the back of your head, you know, read the situation, read the room.

You know, the person in the basement venue might be way more cool, especially if you don't have something in writing. Then you know, if you're going to cancel ah, club gig at the last minute, but again, look ahead. Um, you know, as far as you can and just kind of keep the dialogue open. And that way, when something happens, Um, it's a decision that has already been, uh, talked about is having been a possibility a few days out on DSO. That way people arm or prepared to hear or talk about anything, people will be more receptive to bad news and get a move on in just a second and bodies over a few other things for safety.

But I do want to add sometimes proactively, canceling a show is also beneficial. Just imagine your you had three shows lined up and, uh, Rochester, New York, Burlington, Vermont, in Boston, Massachusetts. Let's just say and they're supposed to be a huge storm the day you're going to play in Burlington so you could drive to Burlington and maybe make it in time, maybe not, and maybe have a show because the venue might say, Well, no one's gonna show up through such a big storm or you could just in advance say, Hey, you know what?

They're supposed to be a huge storm. Let's reschedule this. We're just gonna drive to Boston because that way, you know you're gonna be in Boston rather than getting stuck in Burlington. Let's say you do make it, but the show gets canceled in Burlington even though you're there and then you get snowed in. So Boston gets canceled, too, because you can't make it to Boston. So you just lost two shows because you didn't plan ahead and you went to Burlington anyway. Especially if you don't have anything in writing like then you definitely You definitely lost it.

Yeah, but anyway, moving on real quick. Let's talk about staying healthy during a winter tour, and that involves both mentally and physically. Definitely. That's a good point. Yeah, and I think one of the easiest things to Dio is just to make sure that you are physically clean because one you will feel better. You won't feel all Gracie and gross and disgusting, but to if you do have germs on your body from anything, especially if you're touring in winter, it's like flu season. You could just clean your entire body.

So having a gym membership at something like Planet Fitness, which I think it's $20 a month and you could bring a guest any time. That's a great deal. So if there are four people in your band, get to memberships and you can go to any planet fitness in the country or maybe even the world. I'm not sure about that. But surely internationally, that's the least of your worries. But if you're in the states, get that membership, make sure you go to a gym, ideally daily. But if not that every other day, just so everybody can get clean, you can get some exercise, get some fresh air, uh, from you know, the inside of the gym.

But, you know, get your blood pumping and make sure that you're getting some cardio. And while you're on tour, because that's incredibly difficult to dio, especially on a D i y, toward when venues don't have, like, exercise equipment available or just giant arenas that you could do laps around. It takes you, like 15 minutes to walk around the whole thing sort of tying into. I mean, it's all quality of life. But like I'm just picturing I was on the road, I think it was a November. You know what I think?

It was June but I'm going to say it was November because it's better for the story. You know, I'm just picturing myself, You know, if I was sick on, you know, like dead a winter, December, January, something. Um, you know, I could just I mean, just picture yourself if you're sick, especially if you're, like, advantage trailer tour. I just picture somebody sick in a bunk in a van, which is great because you have a bunk, but you're in a van. Your you know, your close quarters with other people.

Even if you're in a bus, I think what you said just in terms of like getting fresh air, even if it is three inside of a gym. You know, hopefully if you're super sick, you're not doing that. But like, you know, kind of gauge gauge where you're at, like on don't be past, you know, splurging on, like, hotel room. If, like, if it's a difference between, like, you know, Timmy surviving the night or not, you know, on, you know, a bed could go a long way. If if you're in a band that doesn't, you know, that tries to sort of stay away from that for like, you know, kind of mining the budget.

Sort of a thing that could go a long way. But, like, even if you're not Yeah, staying clean. Like you said, the gym. Um, eating right. That probably is, You know, difficult, I imagine. Especially if you're sort of trying toe, uh, you know, either not spend your own money or pay yourselves out on the end of it or something. Um, but like you said, if it's flu season, like you know what goes in, you know matters it all feeds into itself. Stumpy gross. Brush your teeth, E No. People who Unfortunately, it's just, you know, cleanliness.

Yeah, and one thing I would add to that is, you know, you always see people from typically Asian cultures like China and Japan, and when they're traveling, you'll see some of them wearing face masks. And it's very taboo in those cultures. If you're sick to not cover your face with a mask. So if you are sick, those masks, they're super cheap. You can get them here like hardware store Walmart get a couple of those and wear them. Yeah, they're not really comfortable. But that will help your bandmates from getting sick and obviously, you know, take it off when you go on stage.

But if you feel well enough to greet fans, put the mask on and just say, hey, like I'm sick. I'm sorry, I don't wanna get you sick. And, you know, if you really are worried about getting sick, you could wear a mask for that as well. Obviously, it looks kind of silly to do that. But if that's something you're really concerned about, do that. And also, obviously, any time you meet your fans and I don't mean this to sound bad, but like after you meet your fans, wash your hands like you do not know what all those people have touched.

If you like a cashier somewhere, you wouldn't. You know, it is kinda just if you're doing a bunch of stuff, chances are you got something exactly and same thing, too. If you're handling merch money, you know, wash your hands. That should be anytime you handle money. Even if it's been in your wallet for a while. Just your wallets. Probably gross. Yeah, your hands. Definitely. So that's another thing. You know, I feel bad saying, wash your hands all the time because there are people who say your immune system is better off.

But I would just say wash your hands like that, Zatz safer like Okay, maybe your immune system is not a strong, but at least you didn't get sick in the first place. So your body doesn't have to fight everything off. Don't touch your face. Like if you've been doing something, you know, And I'm guilty of this, like old scratch my face or rub my eyes or something. But touching your face is like how you get sick. You touch something gross on a door knob or you shake someone's hand and they had something on their hand.

And then you touch your face like you have your nose, you rub your eyes something like that. That's how you get sick. So don't do that. Moving on because we're in Vermont and we have lots of cows here. Emergency supplies for winter touring. You wanna take this one? Yeah. Again. I think this is one where you know, if you're from the north anywhere in the north, this is probably old news to you. Um, or if you're just, like, you know, kind of traveling. Um, it's not old news, but I think there's sort of an aesthetic.

Maybe on again, I think of everything. Like through punk rock lends. Um, there's definitely, you know, I think an aesthetic, uh, to that where ah lot of this stuff can be for gotten, um, but don't forget it. It's It's all the normal stuff. None of it's really above and beyond, but too much, You know, space blankets or emergency blankets. Um, you know, I think you've got the ones that you can sort of, uh, cover your windows and sort of keep the heat in or the heat out.

Um, yeah, you can. I mean, use those over and over again. If you take good care of them. They have thicker ones. I mean, heck, if you're playing outside, like the sons you know, abusing all of your gear or console or something, you could do that. Um, you know, if we're talking about emergency supplies, you know, things like hand warmers again, if you're, like outside and it's colder, um, you know, Or if you're in, uh, punk rock venue, which is an insulated a swell as you wish it, it was I've definitely done that hand warmers address appropriately, who didn't even have that down.

But I think that that should be a no brainer. Uh, communication like portable phone chargers. Um, you know, I think we already spoke to the effect of, like, a bring a generator. Um, you know, I think James, you just introduced me to the idea of an electric tire pump, which totally sounds like something I should have already been aware that it existed. But I just learned about that being a thing today, it is a magical invention. I haven't had to manually pumped my tires since I got my car like sauce.

It was like $13 at Wal Mart. Maybe I got the slightly better one for, like, 20 but so cheap and it plugs into, like the ox charger port of your car formerly known as the Cigarette Light. Yeah, so it's just again all like, super basic things, which, you know, like a blink 1 82 songs like, Oh, I like I should have thought of that, but I didn't. But that's totally yet. It's I think there's aesthetic, maybe around at least punk rock touring. Or maybe you know, metal touring rock and roll touring where, you know, you're kind of just like, but like, be smart about it and be prepared.

And I mean half of those things you're gonna fit in your glove box. Um, yeah. First aid kit, That's that's a big one. You know, spare tires and a jack We used thio or what we used to. We still dio thank God we haven't had to use them ever. But, um, the one time that sub Sam breaks down somewhere, we're gonna be super happy that we have spare tires already mounted on rims. Eso all we're going to need to do is use, uh what? We ended up, unfortunately, being a very expensive jack.

But, you know, Jack up the thing, take one tire off, put another one on, and we're good to go. Yeah, and obviously, full size tires is what you're telling me earlier. That's really important. Most vehicles come with a doughnut which is not made thio go very far. They usually say you can go up to 50 MPH and you have a maximum range of 50 miles, and that's probably would like a car not loaded right. A bunch of people are stuff that's just made to get you to the nearest repair shop, and something that we don't have on this list also is a Triple A membership.

Your personal Triple A membership in most cases will still cover any vehicle your driving. I don't know if it would cover vehicles with commercial plates, but I've totally helped friends out before because I have Triple A and they like, locked the keys in the car or something. And I'll call Triple A and say, Hey, you know, it's my friend's car. But I'm here with them. I have a membership and they'll show up and they'll do it and just charge it to the membership, Um, which, you know, it's like you.

You pay for the yearly membership and you don't actually pay when it's used. But you have a certain number of service calls that you could make. So it didn't cost me anything extra. Just meant that I had one less breakdown call to make, but it's so infrequent anyway, that is like whatever. You know, um and I just looked up on Amazon. Yes, Unfortunately, you know, I support the big corporate conglomerate that is Amazon. Yes, this is true way. I think we've said Walmart in every single episode, which is absolutely awful, and I do my best to not support Walmart at all.

But last year I ordered an emergency roadside kit for my car, and it was 30 something dollars. Right now it's listing for 34 70. I think I paid a little less than that. But it has a nice little carrying bag, one of those reflective triangles, a tow rope, jumper, cables, a windshield or glass breaker so you could get out a, um, dynamo flashlight, which is the ones where you squeeze the trigger so it doesn't even need batteries. It just you're powering it. Ah, set of gloves and a small first aid kit, which I think just had, like gauze and bandages, like the rap that holds the gauze on and instead of band aids.

So nothing super extensive, and I would definitely get a bigger, better first aid kit. But as far as emergency equipment for your car, that does a very, very good job. I think it had a high viz vest as well as some like, um, rubber gloves. I'm just looking at the pictures to see Oh, a poncho, That's what that is. So yeah, there's like cloth gloves with a grip and then upon Trow and oh, an entire gauge, which is always something good to have, which I had that anyway because of the tire pump that I got, which again was a super great deal.

So yeah, that will be linked in the show notes. If you want to go check it out, just go to Bandhive dot rocks slash four, and that will be in the show. Notes. Uh, that particular kit thankful I've never had to use it. But as far as I know, it's a good kit, and we will also link Thio some sort of electric car pump. Don't know if the exact when I have is still available, but we'll figure that bit out later. But that about covers it for emergency supplies.

I think we hit every single thing on here except for the portable phone chargers. To do you mention that I'm going to say no. Okay, But I don't know a portable phone charger is very important because if you get stuck on the road in the winter. The last thing you want to do is leave your engine running because snow will build up and cover your tail pipe. And then all those wonderful fumes will start building up and potentially get into your vehicle. So if you get stuck, you don't want to use that.

But you do wanna have your phone's charged so you can use an anchor battery or any other brand. I personally like anchor. I have one. That's what I use, but whatever works, ideally, you can charge your phone at least twice fully with it. You know, it's it really doesn't matter as long as you can charge it in some way, shape or form just so you could make a phone call and they're pretty cheap. I think the one I got was like $30 is Well, speaking of the big box stores like E u goes far with that is, you want, like you could get like a huge brick and, you know, charge your thing for the whole tour or, you know, uh, have everybody plug into it.

I mean, definitely. I think what we're trying to get at is, you know, here, like there's some basic supplies that it would probably not be a bad idea for everybody Thio have on them at some point. Um, but, you know, do some research like that. That's, you know, we on enough again. You know, we had WiFi in our van. It wasn't a nice van, but we had, you know, they're they're your gadgets available today that, like, will enable you to do a lot of different things. And they'll make a lot of different different parts of your experience on the road much easier.

Eso just figure out you know what sort of situation you think you could sort of see yourself getting into and then ask yourself, You know how you would solve that? And chances are there's something you could you know, nothing. I'm a fan of throwing money. It's something that that I'm able to do that. But if you're talking about 20 or 30 bucks, um, you know, that's that's what worth it. Wow, what a great segue. Because our next category is General, get things toe have Oh my God. Well, you've clearly mastered the art of podcasting because under this, I'm gonna add something, and I'm going thio mess with our outline.

Ah, power inverter. Technically, the first thing we had in here was two way radios, just cheap ones that you can use. But I think a power inverter which wasn't on here at all, is more important because it means that you can work in the van. And this is all because you mentioned WiFi. But, for example, having a power inverter what you charge your laptop up to a certain extent, you want to make sure that you're not over drawing either the inverter itself or you're vans Power supply.

But being able to charge some kind of device other than a phone so you can do work is really important. And obviously, you know you can do most of your work on your phone or tablet these days. But sometimes it's just easier to have a Mac book or chromebook or some kind of PC whatever and use that. Just so you have, you know, an actual big screen and a keyboard and just nice toe have that comfort and have a normal outlet that you can plug into phone microwave.

I think we're talking about that earlier before taping like just hell, a mini fridge like I'm not gonna claim to know how this works. But I'm sure I've seen vans Sprinters with, like, a second secondary battery. That's Yeah. Sole purpose is, you know, to kind of pretend like it's a generator while you're Yeah, And on that note, if you do, we use a power inverter through the regular, uh, cigarette lighter ox port thing. Make sure you unplug it when you park the van. Not all vehicles cut off power to that port when you part the smart ones dio.

But some don't. And I can understand why you wouldn't, because it's nice to be able to use it still. But it also leaves you open Thio just running your battery dry. But if you have a second battery like what Aaron is saying, or if you have a generator in the trailer like Pickwick Commons does, then you're pretty much all set because you can use an inverter for that. And Pickwick Collins actually has, like a big inverter hooked up to that generator. I'm just talking about little ones that plug into the cigarette lighter.

And it has, like one outlet in a USB or two for charging your phone, but those really handy. The next thing is two way radios, which you know, people might say. Those guys, they have radios, but it really is so useful. One of the things it's useful for is backing up a van without a backup camera, which doesn't happen that often anymore because all vehicles made after, like, 2016 or something and required to have one. But if you do buy like a 2010 or earlier van, most of them didn't even have that as an option.

And you have to get them after market 2010 to 2016 or so may or may not have it. And obviously the new ones do have it. But being able thio have a two way radio and someone directing you while you're backing up, rather than sticking your head out and having them yell at you. It's just so much easier to be able to look at your mirrors and focus on driving and have that voice right next to your head rather than trying to strain. And you know what the other person is saying and they're incredibly cheap.

You could get a set of good Motorola two way radios for, like, $30 and chances If, like, if you're just thinking about, you know, radios. Now, if you're like, yeah, why gigging You're probably not gonna be to spread out from one another. So you're not going to need them to be all that powerful, you know, like what a mile or two is probably all you're going to need like more. I'm gonna ask what the heck you're doing If you need toe talk to somebody a mile away. Yeah, I I would be concerned if you were using them for something like long range.

Uh, the FCC does actually limit how much power you can use. And these little radios have so much power that you could only use certain channels. Otherwise, you're technically violating FCC policy because I think the ones I was just looking at, for example, were 16 miles. And so the low power ranges more like half mile. But the high power, If you have an FCC license, you can use that and get a really good 16 mile range at the expense of battery life. Of course. Um, yeah, but I did do a tour and e did a tour.

I did do a tour where we had some cheap radios like this and we were at a shopping center. And some of us wanted to go grocery shopping, and others needed to go to Home Depot to get a spare key made for the van. Long story. They're not going to go down that rabbit hole, but so we each took one of the radios, and that way we could figure out where to meet up, like at either store, back of the van. And this was a pretty big, like shopping mall place with a huge parking lot.

And we communicated. Using the radio is just fine. And, you know, yeah, obviously we all had our cell phones, but it's just easier to be like, Hey, we're going to the van like you don't have to call them or tax them and wait for reply. All that kind of stuff, like, Okay, we're gonna be the van. Great. So two way radios, $50 or less, I recommend Motorola. But look for something that has good reviews, um, or just go to Walmart and buy something. And if it doesn't work, take it back. Sorry.

I'm mentioning Walmart again. I really Jeez, sorry. I'm just so used to on the road touring Walmart is like Ugo to stop. And I hate that I'm that guy now who keeps saying Go all the way You say it, I'll back you up and say most times that I've heard the word Walmart cut out of your mouth. It's Wal Mart s. So it's Yeah, but with the radios, it's like all about, you know, it's whatever you're doing. It's I mean, there's a reason why larger tours use them.

It's, You know, if you're with a group of people who end up splitting up doing two different things, it might be useful. Yeah, and you know, you don't need to go get the super expensive like $500,000 radios. And that's not 500,000. That's 500 to 1000 chest. In case you're like, Oh my God, they spend 500,000 on radios. No, no, they don't. But you don't have to get super expensive radios for something that you're going to use a small portion of the day. The second thing, though that you should use them for is when you're loading your vehicle and this goes back to what Aaron was saying earlier about packing your van and trailer safely.

You should have them, especially if you don't have a pack that remains consistent. Exactly. So what we did on this tour is that it was a four piece band and one person would be at the van, one person in the venue and two people carrying cases and we would trade off. So it was fair. Everybody carried at some point, but essentially the person at the van would get on the radio after looking at the van empty and say, OK, bring me this and this. Now this and this and the two people running stuff would get the items that the person inside with the radio had gotten ready for them and take them out to the van, where the person would pack the van.

And that way we always made sure we had stuff that would fit together and that it would be more or less evenly balanced so we'd be safe on the road. But I think even if you do have a pack figured out, I mean, if it's super crappy outside, you know what I mean. It's you know, you had to park around the corner. So the person who's bringing the van around, you know, can be like, Hey, I'm here, you know, start bringing it out or, you know, it's I mean, it could be used for loading.

Like you're saying, I imagine just probably situation where your broken down somewhere now cellular service. So somebody's got to go, you know, walk a quarter a mile to try and find it. That might be a cool thing to have a radio for their I mean, yeah, or even. You know, those radios, since I do have, like, a 16 model range not to speak for the FCC, But I'm pretty sure if you're calling for help in an emergency, they wouldn't care that you're doing that without a license. Like if you're just going through the bands being like, Hey, we're stuck, come get us.

Like, can anyone here as help like somebody's gonna pick that up and hopefully want to help you? We have two more items under general. Good things toe have, which obviously there are a lot more things, but these are items that we really think are vital, and these next to actually are vital to sustaining life. The first one is having snacks. This is in case you get stuck. But also, just so you have something to eat and you don't get hang gree and yell at your bass player and tell them to go, like jump off a bridge.

And then all of a sudden you don't bass player anymore. I was just thinking of those. Like, what is it? The Snickers commercials? Oh, boy, I don't watch TV, so I wrote okay. Yeah. Yeah. Murder is not a good thing. So if you don't want if you know, that guy in the band gets angry. Yeah, exactly. Especially like be self aware to like, If you get hungry, make sure you have some food ready. So just having snacks on hand that way. Like if you don't stop somewhere, you still have something.

So this should be like, you know, the emergency snack stash, like, you know, you could call it the hungry stash Or that, you know, we're stuck in snow stash or the Oh, my God, really, we're going to die stash something like that. But either way have snacks. Ideally, not something super salty that gets you dehydrated because then you'll need even more of this next thing, which is bottled water. Personally, I like to get the big square gallon jugs and leave them in the foot well of any 3 50 because they fit right there where the door where the doors close.

And it's like just the right size for a gallon jug. And it works wonderfully and personally. I also I always use a reusable water bottle because I like to save the environment. And so those gallon jugs use less plastic than the like little individual water bottles that you get it like 24 pack of. So, yeah, and you know, if you're three or four people in a band, you can each have your own personal gallon drug and, ideally, backups just in case you do get stuck somewhere. And I think that's sort of a sort of actually aesthetic thing of, you know, rock and roll or punk rock, you know?

I mean, like, you can't live off monster energy drink, nor should you try to live. This is true, but what you can live off of is monster tour water. No, we're not sponsored by monster. But warped tour was. And did they have that one back in 2011? I'm sure they have definitely drink out of a drink water out of Kansas. It's looked like monster cans. That's exactly I wish I was the guy who thought of that because that's it's Jean. You know, it's Yeah, it's such a good idea like, yeah, like maybe a little ethically, uh, interesting, but like super smart.

And I don't want to think about what that did for, like, you know, the monster energy tents sales. I'm sure that somewhere, but, um, yeah, don't try to live up Monster. Yeah. In fact, I had a friend who was watching less than Jacob Warped tour and thought they were all drinking monster until he saw one of the guys, I think, Roger the bass player, dumping it out of the can over his head because it was so hot out. And at that point he realized it wasn't monster, because who would dump monster on their head When it's like 100 degrees out, That would just be, uh, so wrong.

Anyway, that about wraps up our episode on winter touring. Thank you so much, everyone for listening. Okay, Okay. If you have anything to add to our list of what you would recommend for winter touring, please feel free to let us know in our Facebook group. You can find it by searching for a Bandhive on Facebook or visiting Bandhive dot rocks slash group. You can also find the show notes page for this episode at Bandhive dot rocks slash four. That's the number 41 Quick ask is if you're listening in Apple podcasts or iTunes.

Please, please, please leave us a review or rating if you haven't done that yet. It's so helpful for podcasters, tohave, more reviews and ratings in iTunes. It's really amazing. If you could do that, we'll be back with another episode next Tuesday at 6 a.m. Eastern time. Thanks again for listening. And, of course, until then, thanks again for listening. Until then, stay well. And, of course, as always, keep rocking