7 Lessons My Band Learned From Our First DIY West Coast Tour

westcoasttour Photo courtesy the author

Three words on the first-time DIY tour experience: exhilarating, difficult, and rewarding. Sandwiched between the positives – between the thrill and the sense of accomplishment – there's the reality of what it takes to get it done. If you don't understand DIY is going to be difficult, you're coming at your first tour with expectations akin to fantasy.

When my band embarked on a three-week West Coast tour two years ago, we had no idea what we were doing. We weren't rich, but we didn't even look at advice on inexpensive touring. And we were at each other's throats. But we survived. I'm here now to impart some of what I learned to you, so you don't make some of the same mistakes we did. I can just hear you now, saying, "Thanks, Dad." You’re welcome.

1. Find the right tour manager

No matter how excited he or she is about doing so, don't assume one of the band members can manage the tour. By the same token, don't simply rely on a friend who's stoked to roll around with you guys. This isn't a road trip. It's a tour with appointments to make, gear to maintain, and most importantly, a stage to take. As a former tour manager for Nirvana told me, "The tour manager's job is to make sure you play the gig every time, period." My band's tour manager was resourceful in some ways, but her driving skills were spotty (meaning our van took a beating). Find someone with a solid driving record and a hearty, dependable soul who won't take any crap.

2. Prioritize communication

Bring some walkie talkies with you in case you have to caravan with another band or a host, you get separated in a city like Oakland, or you need to camp out. The problem with cell phones is you'll be using them constantly for things besides talking to each other and to the people you're staying with. Cell phones are great for mapping, emailing on the fly, and messaging on Facebook, but batteries run out quickly, and it's a hassle to have to charge them all the time. Walkie talkies as a backup means being prepared.

[6 Tips to Keep Your Phone Alive While on Tour]

3. Don't limit your shows to traditional venues

This goes more towards the booking end than the in-tour advice, but don't exclude looking for nontraditional shows as you're going along to supplement what you've got booked. In LA, we were able to snag a show at Permanent Records; in Oakland, the Totally Intense Fractal Mindgaze Hut, which was a hybrid warehouse recording studio/venue before it recently burned down. These were some of our favorite and best shows.

[How to Play Nontraditional Venues to Promote Fan Engagement]

4. Take advantage of independent radio

In Tacoma, we had a really fun experience at an independent station, NWCZ Radio. They did a whole show in which they interviewed us and played some of our songs during some programming that fit well with our sound. There are independent stations in any of the major cities up and down the West Coast, so get the word out to them about your tour. A radio show is good publicity for upcoming shows, and yet another way to get your music out there to people.

5. Don't eat at iffy dives in Oakland

I won't name the place, but our tour manager picked up a serious bacterial disease at a burger joint in the heart of Oakland. She had to drop off the tour. Save money, eat out as little as possible, and avoid the possibility of seriously gnarly food poisoning. Take a box of nonperishable foods with you on the road. (And in general, be careful in Oakland – don't leave anything in your car, politely acknowledge the homeless if they say something, but no more than that – the city is crime-ridden as all get-out.)

6. Make a stop in San Francisco, even if you can't get a show there

The subtext for this one is: start your booking efforts in Frisco ASAP. It's pretty hard to get a show there unless you're established or you have a long time to try different avenues. But if you can't get a show there, it doesn't hurt to stay in a dive motel or with a friend and explore the city purely for the experience. We ended up meeting and staying with some locals on Haight who assured us taking care of itinerant, poor musicians is still at the heart of the gentrifying city.

7. Email, social media, Craigslist: be on it

In terms of booking, we used email and Facebook pretty much exclusively, and we ended up with a total of 18 shows in 21 days. Not bad, huh? People respond. In Eureka, our '87 Dodge Prospector van broke down, for good. Our tour manager hit Craigslist and found us a '78 Chevy Van for $200. Yep. The Chevy got us the rest of the way, from Eureka to Huntington Beach, then back up the way we came. Internet resources, including sites like couchsurfer.com, are priceless.

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Daniel Matthews is a writer and musician from Boise, Idaho. Feel free to check out his band’s Facebook or find him on Twitter @danielmatthews0.