Pre-Tour Tour Diary, August 21, 2023
I am, once again, heading to Europe on tour this fall. I’m looking forward to new and old friends, places and things. But there’s a lot of prep that needs to be done.
Before I go any further, I want to thank everyone that has read and shared my tour diaries in the past as well as the folks that have sent me notes saying they are looking forward to new tour diaries. I have made more progress in terms of curating it and releasing some of it as a book and thank you all for the encouragement on that front.
Being an entirely independent musician is not easy. I have, in the past, been on a label and had a touring agency setting up loads of shows but that is not the case any longer. Now I am the booking agent, the tour manager, the hospitality arranger, the driver, the accountant, the merch guy, the roadie and lastly, the performer.
I hate putting “performer” last but it is always the thing that gets shuffled to the bottom of the deck. Yeah, it’d be great to just show up at a place, do my thing and stroll back out again but I have to have all the ducks lined up way beforehand. Which is why it’s always interesting to me when I get some musician friends that say things like “next time you go, I could come and be your opener.” I’m happy to share everything I know and all the contacts if you want to book it yourself but hopping on for the ride is just too much work for me.
This year is one of the shorter overseas tours I’ve done but it probably has taken the most work to set up and you’ll see why soon.
Short Guitar Geek Warning:
I’m always trying to find ways to make interesting sounds and still travel in a compact type of way. It leads to guitar indecision right up to near the last minute because I can only carry one guitar. This year I have decided to bring my Gibson J-100 because it has the most adjustable on-board EQ system and that bothered me last time not being able to dial in my guitar how I wanted. Since I don’t have room to bring my LR Baggs Venue DI pedal, I have to find other ways to make it work. I’ve got my travel effects board down to 2 or 3 small pedals. (one might stay home) I’m also bringing 3 harmonicas, a clip on Peterson tuner, 8 sets of strings, SM58 microphone, 2 Shubb capos, 1 E-bow, 1 guitar cord, 1 EU One-Spot power for pedals, 1 slide and a whole bunch of picks as well as some replacement bridge pins and truss rod wrench.
I have left some things scattered around the world to help myself when I’m touring, like I have a 4 channel PA system with cables, cords and stands that my friend Heike lets me leave at her place and other touring friends like Nico, Emily, Simon and Todd have all used. I used to have more guitars and mandolins overseas but some have been broken, others stolen, it gets hard to keep track of what is where.
/end GGW
As far as merch goes, I’m bringing about 20 SeaGreenNumber5 cds and (hopefully) 30 October cds. I say “hopefully” as my order is running behind, it was supposed to be done last week but now it may barely be done before I leave and I only have like 8 of those cds left. This might not sound like a lot of merchandise to bring but I am carrying them with me everywhere on my back - so bringing 50 cds is a lot when you realize they’re on your back. I also bring USB sticks shaped like little guitars with me and they have 6 of my solo albums (and a mix tape!) that sell pretty well too.
And now, a preamble of what’s to come:
August 26-Sept 5: Vacation with Tracy in Ireland. I am excited about this as typically Tracy and I traveling means playing shows and she has to stress about bringing clothes for shows as well as for vacation and what bass is she going to use, is there a PA and all those sorts of things. But this is going to be a great, albeit rainy, vacation.
Sept 5 - I fly from Dublin, Ireland to Amsterdam, Netherlands, sleep, take a train from Amsterdam to Mechelen, Belgium.
Sept 8 - take a 6 am train from Mechelen to Bremen, Germany. Arrive at about 1 pm. Rest, play a show at Bootshaus Verden that night. Stay at Heike’s
Sept 9 - Play show at Shakespeare Theater Pub in Weyhe, Germany 10 pm.
Sept 10 - Day Off
Sept 11 - Play Sparkasse in Bremen, Germany
Sept 12 - Drive 2 hours north, play show at Tonfink in Lubeck, Germany. Sleep at hostel.
Sept 13 - Drive 2 hours south, play show at Kirchweg in Ostenholz, Sleep there.
Sept 14 - Drive 3 hours north to the Baltic Sea and play Tillmann Hahns Gasthaus. Sleep there.
Sept 15 - Drive 3 hours west to Bremen to hotel and sleep.
Sept 16 - Perform Open Stage Verden at noon, return to Bremen, return rental car, go to Heike’s and play Garden concert. Sleep at hotel near train station so I can...
Sept 17 - Take 7 am train to Copenhagen, arrive at 1:30 local time. Find my friend’s flat, drop off stuff, take train or bus to gig. Perform at Literaturhaus Nørrebro then go back to his flat.
Sept 18, 19 - Days Off
Sept 20 - Perform a show in Copenhagen at Tjili Pop, go back to the flat to sleep.
Sept 21 - Take 7 am train from Copenhagen thru Hamburg to Herdecke, Germany. Arrive in Herdecke at 5 pm. Play show at Shakespeare Pub at 7:30. Sleep upstairs on the couch.
Sept 22 - Day Off
Sept 23 - Take train to Dortmund, perform at Wohnzimmer im Piepenstock. Sleep somewhere.
Sept 24 - Take train to Frankfurt.
Sept 25 - Fly home to California
Sept 26-27 Sleep.