[00:00:00] Welcome to episode 132 of the Bandhive podcast. It is time for another episode of the Bandhive podcast. My name is James Cross and I help independent artists tour smart. Speaking of touring smart this week, we're going to talk about a boring but necessary episode. So please stick around because this is something you need to hear.

And it's, especially now that summer's starting up, this episode's coming out in early June, but I'm recording this in the middle of a heat. It's in like the mid eighties in may, which is super unusual here in Vermont. it reminded me of let's say the wonderful experiences I had packing for two months on the road when I was planning for Warped Tour and only had a carry on suitcase and a backpack of space available to me due to space constrictions on the bus.

So This week, I'm going to talk about packing for tour, which essentially comes down to being prepared for anything that could reasonably happen. So it's really important to have everything you need, but not take too much stuff out [00:01:00] on the road, because then you're just going to be taking too much space in the van or on the bus, or, you know, on the plane.

If you have a, if you don't have checked luggage, whatever it is, you need to be sure that you have. All the essentials, but no more than just the essentials. So personally, I like to separate my lists out into clothes and personal items and then work items. And typically those will be separate, close and personal items go in my suitcase and work items, go in my backpack with a few exceptions.

And especially like if you're, you know, checking luggage, then that's where you'd want to put anything that, you know, like a knife. You can't take that on a plane. So you would put that in your checked luggage. Okay. For the essentials, when it comes to personal items, I plan on packing a carry on sized suitcase, and that's going to have A week worth of clothes in it. Sometimes it's going to be only five days, but typically I shoot for seven days if I can fit everything. And so for me, that looks like socks and underwear for every day, of course, plus one extra set of each in my backpack.

[00:02:00] Then I'm going to have t-shirts for every day plus another one in my backpack. And then if it's summer, I'm going to do one pair of jeans and three pairs of shorts. Whereas in winter, I'm going to do three pairs of jeans. I wish I could do four, but you know, they take up more space than shorts. So it's down to three pairs instead of three pairs of shorts and a pair of jeans.

Another thing is I'm going to have a hoodie, even if it's summer, I'm going to have a hoodie just because you never know. Some days out on Warped Tour, it would get really chilly at night. It would be like, You know, 95 during the day. And then at night it drops down to 60. So it was always good to have a hoodie.

And then I'm also going to have a flannel shirt if I can fit it just for, you know, a change of pace, if I'm going somewhere nicer or something, I can upgrade a little bit. I'm not going to pack a suit or anything it's tour, but a flannel shirt, you know, I'll have that. Uh, Ironically, I'm not wearing a flannel shirt today, even though I usually do for the podcast, just because it's so hot here today.

I, I could not do that. It would be unbearable. Then the next thing is any toiletries I need personally I'm vegan. So I [00:03:00] try to use cruelty-free products wherever I go, which means. If I'm going to go to a hotel or something, I take my own shampoo, conditioner, all that stuff, because I don't want to use the stuff they have in the hotel.

If you don't mind using this stuff in the hotel, that's less stuff you have to pack as long as you're comfortable with whatever they have. Sometimes it's good. Sometimes it's not, it all depends. Another thing is if it's a tour with outdoor shows, especially if it's the summer festival tour always have a poncho, you can get those little plastic flimsy, fold-up ponchos, get rid of those and that'll fit in there.

No problem. And it's like five bucks. So worth it. And then last but not least a towel and swim gear, because even if it's not summer you're going to go to a hotel at some point and it's gonna have a pool and you're gonna want to go swimming. It's always nice to on a day off, say, oh, the hotel has a pool.

Let's go swimming and just go enjoy the afternoon. That's always worth it. And I say, take a towel because you know, it's never a bad idea to have a towel lying around in case you're somewhere. And you need to tell, and there's not one around where you decide to go to the beach or something and you have a towel you're prepared.

[00:04:00] For me personally, on Warped Tour, they didn't provide towels for the showers. So I always had to have my own towel and then uh, go hang that up. over my bunk and let it dry out overnight. That was a, so many sticky tiles on that bus. But anyway, that all aside, those are the things that I pack as far as personal items go.

And I always have those on tour. the only time that I might address that is if it's winter and we're going to be in a colder area, I'm going to have like a winter jacket with me as well. But that's typically not going to go in the suitcase. I'm going to be wearing that because it's.

Anyway, when it comes to work-related things that I pack, this is all going to go in my backpack or a road case, depending on the tour and what my duties are. But the minimum essential is that I always take on the road are my laptop because I'm going to have to do some kind of work. You know, whether I'm doing merge or.

Something's going to have to be done on a laptop. The next thing is my iPad. That's just really easy to have to pull things up, when you're walking around to have the iPad and you can pull that up and be like, oh, here's the email or here's the stage plot or [00:05:00] whatever. Or if you're doing a merchant, you can use the iPad to sell, which is a lot easier.

And we'll integrate with at venue or merge cat. And that way you can have those tools running on your iPad instead of trying to use a laptop, which is a little more cumbersome when you're trying to be in a fast paced environment and just. Touchscreen and just tap, like so deciding to have them carry you go, this is the money we got, where you slide the card using your square reader.

No matter what it all works out. It's very easy to have an iPad out there. Next thing is a flashlight. I have a great little mag lights. They're pocket flashlights. They're like 35 40 bucks. I have two of them and one of the best investments I ever made, to be honest, they're also adjustable. You can even have little light signals with it.

All kinds of great stuff, really good features, and you can get them with red filters as well. So they're not so bright with that bright light led blue light. So I definitely recommend get a little pocket flashlight. It'll be linked in the show notes at Bandhive dot Rox slash 1 3, 2. That's the number 132 and a, you can check out that exact model because it fits in a [00:06:00] pocket and it works really well.

So I recommend. The next step is earplugs. I have custom earplugs for one of them doing sound. And I typically wear those anytime at my to show, but I always have a pair of just regular foam earplugs with me as well. that way, if I need a backup, I have it.

Or if somebody else is looking for earplugs on the tour, I can say, oh, here, you know, have these they're like 35 cents 50 cents or whatever. It doesn't matter just that way people can protect their hearing. Typically I don't have enough for patrons, but if somebody on the tour asks, yeah, I have them next up is gaff tape.

It's so important to have gaff tape because you will use it for everything. It is like 20 bucks at roll, but it's worth having at least black gaff tape. And if not also white gaff tape. going to use it for marking everything. I've seen. People use it for shipping, which I think is kind of silly.

Cause it's expensive. You want to use shipping tape for that? It's going to work better anyway, but I have seen people use gaff tape for shipping. In fact, just last night I was working a show and we got a banner shipped in and the boxes held shut by gaff tape. So, It works in a pinch. It's not the best for shipping, [00:07:00] but it works next up is Sharpies and pens. You're going to want at least two black Sharpies and one silver Sharpie, and then as many pens as you need, if you're doing merch or any kind of check-in stuff, you're going to want highlighters as well.

So you can highlight. Anybody who has pre-ordered something and you're handing it over. Like, if you're doing VIP packages or you have merchant pre-orders, you just highlight their name and hand over their stuff. And that way, you know, what's been picked up and what hasn't then next up, this is from my background as an audio engineer, I have most of the commonly needed audio converter.

So one quarter inch to one eighth inch adapters, like for headphones, if you're watching on the video version and you can see I'm holding one of these guys up, that is a quarter inch. An eighth inch right there. I'm also going to have a lightening to one eighth inch for playback. So that connects your iPhone to your PA system via another converter. Cause you're going to have a one eighth inch to either dual mono, one quarter or dual RCA or something like that. I also like to carry [00:08:00] a pack of guitar picks because people always need them. And if you're that person who says, oh yeah, here's a guitar pick.

That just makes people happy. So having a pack of guitar picks is handy and it's super cheap. Then I'm also going to have a guitar tuner and a string winder and string cutter combo, just because those are other common items that people will ask you for. and it's good to have.

It's just, it doesn't take up much space and you have. next up. I have my Sony MDR seven five zero six headphones. I've had this pair of headphones for literally over a decade. They've been on every tour I've ever gone on. They've been on every trip I've ever gone on. They're really great.

The foam pads are falling apart a little bit. These aren't the original foam pads, the original ones that lasted like seven years. And then I replaced them and that's been another, I think, five years now. So I guess I've had them for 12 years and great headphones. They're like a hundred bucks totally worth it.

They hold up forever. Aside from the air pads and replacing the air pads with better ones from uh, I forget the name of the company, but it will be linked to the show notes as well. I got them on Amazon that was like [00:09:00] $20 and they're more comfortable than ever with those. next up, I have chargers for everything.

So for my iPad, my iPhone, my Mac book, all of that chargers. And then I have a battery bank. I use an anchor model that works really well. I've had it also for about five years and it's still going strong. That will also be linked in the show notes. Pretty much everything I'm mentioning here will be in the show notes because like, these are all things that I use personally, and I stand behind.

So just go to Bandhive dot Rox slash 1 3, 2, if you want to look at any of these things and you can see exactly which items I recommend and then last but not least, I have my passports ID, all that kind of stuff in my backpack as well. You know, I'll keep my license on me in my wallet, but anything like a passport goes in my backpack just because it's too big for a wallet or my pocket or whatever.

I do have like a little foldable passport wallet, which works really well. Shout out, thank you so much to Bandhive, editor Leland for getting me that for my birthday, it works super well. And he actually got me two extra power banks too, I'll link those as well. I use those for when I'm flying.

because they're a little smaller, [00:10:00] they fit better in a, like a small little flight bag. Another good power bank. That'll also be in the show notes. anyway, power banks passports, all that kind of stuff goes in my backpack. And I know. All of these things, add up a ton, but it's kind of a good balance of what I found that I commonly need and what I never use, because I don't want to carry a bunch of items that I'm never going to need.

So I've over the years, refined it to, these are the things that I actually need. And then these are the things that maybe I don't need, or won't find a need for during the tour. And depending on your role on the tour, you are going to have. Different needs. It's like, obviously if you're playing in the band and you're the guitarist, you're probably going to have extra sets of strings.

You're going to have your guitars. Obviously you're going to have an amp. All of that is going to be road cases for the most case, except maybe the strings might be in your luggage or backpack. But whatever it is, make sure that you take this list as like the basics and then adapt it for your specific needs, because it's really important to just [00:11:00] be able to handle any situation that is reasonably expected. So this list should give you some ideas, take this list and then go the next step and adapt it for yourself. That is how you're going to make the perfect tour, a packing list for your.

That does it for this episode of the Bandhive podcast. Thank you so much for tuning in listening. I really appreciate it. And I hope that this episode will give you some ideas on what you need to take out on the road. So you're not driving down the highway thinking, oh, I really wish I had brought this.

Or even at a venue is saying, man, I need something to make changing my guitar strings easier. And there's no guitar center. Well guess what if you had that string wander or string cutter that might've made it easier for you? I also, I do recommend buying a strings in bulk, at least the three packs that you find on Amazon, because you'll get basically three packs of strings for the price of two.

I get Ernie ball strings and they're like $18 for three sets versus like $9 a piece at the local shop. So I know Amazon [00:12:00] is not great, but. If you're looking at a 33% discount, that's a big chunk of change, especially when you're on a tight touring budget. So be sure you're always looking out for the best deals because ultimately you are a business and you want to be a profitable business, which means cutting costs wherever possible, as long as you're not damaging your sound or your reputation.

That all said, Turing is a massive subject. And it's one of the biggest things that I see independent artists struggle with either. They're not getting the shows that they want, or they're getting bad deals and they're not getting paid or they just find it incredibly stressful to plan out a tour. If any of those sounds like you, please go to https://roadready.band, and you can check out my new course called road ready. It's all about teaching you how to book more shows, get paid and love your next DIY tour. And this works for anybody who is starting out up to about the 200 to 300 cap range, where you're not going to have the budget for [00:13:00] a tour manager.

And that means you are your own tour manager. It's really important to have somebody who understands the aspect of touring that need to be put together in advance. So you don't lose a ton of money. You don't sign bad deals with venues or promoters. you really need to be on top of your game.

And this is the level where artists are getting screwed over the most by promoters because they don't have cloud. They don't have experience and promoters know that and try to take advantage of that. So again, that is road ready.band. That's the website. You can go there and learn more about road. Ready. We'll be back with another brand new episode of the Bandhive podcast. Next Tuesday at 6:00 AM. Eastern time right here in your favorite podcast app until then, I hope you have a great week stay safe. And of course, as always key per rock.