Words: Josh Carples
Josh Carples is a member of the Montgomery based band Hail the Titans, a singer-songwriter, actor and writer, and he somehow manages to work a “big boy” job in his free time. He will be periodically sending dispatches from the road when his band is on tour.
“The tour is booked. Now it’s time for packed venues, screaming fans, after parties, groupies, free-flowing alcohol, drugs, hotel room destruction and daily hangovers. Hashtag YOLO, amirite? Ah, the glamorous life of a touring musician… with a day job. If only that were the case.
Allow me to start over: The tour is booked. Now it’s time to live in a van with three other hairy, sweaty guys for the next however-many-days, shower every two-to-three days (if you’re lucky), sleep intermittently and maybe even grab a meal that doesn’t come from a gas station once in awhile.
When touring, you never really know what to expect, especially if you’re hitting a city you’ve never been to. Playing a hole-in-the-wall venue on a Monday night in a city far from home might mean that you’re playing to the bar staff or to the other band on the bill, and if you’re lucky, the handful of friends that came to hang out with them.
But you load in all the equipment, check levels, mentally focus, and play your heart out. Maybe someone there will like you or you’ll make a friend. Maybe they’ll tell others about you or bring more people the next time you come to town. Maybe… just maybe, they’ll even let you park in front of their house and sleep on their floor.
After four or five hours of sleep on a stranger’s floor, you get up, find coffee, and head to the next city to do it all over again. Sometimes, you get lucky and play an awesome venue or house show with great bands and a great crowd. Sometimes, you play for three people and the sound guy. The key is to give them both the same show.
It’s not fame or money that keeps bands touring independently: it’s the love of music, and the experiences and stories are the icing on the cake. When some random girl wants you to drive her to see her jailhouse boyfriend in another city (the answer is “no”), when you hear a man on a D.C. sidewalk yelling about how his knees are worth $100,000, when you meet family members for the first time, when you experience restaurants you’ve seen on Food Network, and when a bartender, fan or sound guy tells you that your band is incredible and that he hasn’t heard anything like it before and then offers to buy the band a round, you’re reminded about how it’s all totally worth it.
Catch Hail The Titans this May in New Orleans or Atlanta, and AlleyBar in Montgomery June 28.