What Goes Into Setting Up A Big Tour?

[TSJMajesty]

Probably won't gain a lot of traction, but I was fascinated in looking at Dream Theater's tour dates.

It made me wonder about all the things that have to happen to set it up, and keep it running smoothly.

I mean, where do you even start? Like, how do you know which size venues to choose? Getting the dates locked in at the same time as you set up an itinerary that doesn't have you backtracking too much... (which I did see in DT's tour.)

And the economics of it all..., working out all the costs, setting ticket prices, negotiating with the ticket sellers has to be a huge task in and of itself!
Getting paid; Paying everyone; Etc.

Making sure you're covered for every possible contingency, because tens of thousands of people are all planning on being at a certain place, on a certain day, at a certain time, to see YOU perform. "The show MUST go on", no matter what!

In thinking about it a bit, I guess I can understand why JP has FOUR JP2C's in his rack case!

Anyone here even been personally involved in a large touring production, on any level? I'd love to hear about it!

 

[likitlikeyoulikeit]

I worked in sound reinforcement for a couple years ... but nothing in that level. Big stuff.....with multiple stages at once......but nothing touring. The logistics and planning, along with the unions and other controlling interests....no thank you.

I would say....at some level......there are mass amounts of stimulants involved....legal or otherwise......crews don't get too much sleep.

 

[Aelred]

No idea, but fwiw...

 

[cragginshred]

my nephew graduated with a sound degree from Belmont on Nashville a few years ago and has been on the main board for Little big town tours and most recently Pink. He just posted pics of all the gear, crowds and rack mounted wireless set ups. Not sure what the guitarists are using but I'd assume Fractal

I asked him about the gear more specifically and starts in with physics equations while setting up subs and 3 sentences in I'm like dude you lost me

 

[TSJMajesty]

No idea, but fwiw...

WOW! That U2 production is unbelievable! 120 TRUCKS!!

And I thought Muse's was huge!

 

[DrewJD82]

I’d love to hear how bands of different sizes handle this stuff, because I’d imagine it’s vastly different depending on what the band can afford.

IE— Dream Theater can hire individuals for each task, rather than getting one guy doing multiple things. With smaller bands, the tour manager is often playing double/triple/quadruple duty as stage manager/production manager and sometimes soundman. When Devin Townsend was touring the Devin Townsend Project, he had his keyboard guy handling all the lights and video while he was performing.

I’m sure on DT’s tour they’ve got a tour manager, stage manager and a production manager all handling their own shit, with teams of people working under neath them.

A buddy’s of mine was the singer/guitarist in the now-defunct Jolly, who were signed to Inside Out, they got an offer to buy onto Devin’s tour 10 years ago for $10K. They pay $10K up front which, for that particular tour, bought them use of the lighting rig and I believe spots on the tour bus. Not sure what their cut of ticket sales would have been. It was for a EU tour and they couldn’t afford tickets/shipping their gear over plus the buy-on, so they passed.

As for venue sizes, my assumption is that once a lineup is decided on, booking agents put notice out to promoters that they’re trying to book this particular line up between certain dates and probably have some kind of estimate on what size venues they want to get the band into, then the promoter gets back to them with a venue option and guarantee of what they can pay the band for each venue. Ticket costs are probably squarely on the promoters to come up with, since the tickets have to cover the fee for renting the venue, the band’s guarantee and the promoter’s cut.

I know with DT’s last tour with Devin and AAL, they were mostly booking arenas/bigger venues than previous tours. I wouldn’t think promoters would be jumping at the chance to book DT for an arena show since that’s not their usual draw size, my assumption is the band’s management/booking agents pushed for it and might have been flexible with the guarantees in the event the promoter was unsure they could fill the venue.

And then you got guys like Joe Bonamosa who do everything internally, not relying on promoters and booking the venues with his own money up front.

 

[TSJMajesty]

If you're even slightly interested in this topic, you HAVE to watch this video of U2's 360 production.

I picked my jaw up off the floor, only for it to fall again, several times!! It is astounding what they accomplished here!

 

[cragginshred]

When I saw Last in Line -Vivian Campbell's Dio era band. They had 2 guys driving a van. One guy set up the drums the other amps and guitar. Low overhead 2,000 seat venues. Not sure what viv made but likely just took care of the guys as he gets PAID on the Leppard tours.

 

[SymphonicDischord]

Here’s a video on The Ocean’s live setup rundown. I imagine this is probably what you would see for a lot of midsize smaller bands.

 

[DrewJD82]

When you need the space to rehearse lights and audio for a Floyd show, aircraft hangars do the trick!

 

[TSJMajesty]

Man I just watched Trainwreck: Woodstock 99. Kind of a reason I started this thread. That main promoter Michael Lang was a pure idiot.

To me, when I think about all the details you'd have to be on top of to have any chance of successfully pulling off an event of this caliber, it's kind of fascinating.

Just something like figuring out how many portajohns are not only needed, but how important they are, and covering everything about them, including making sure you have enough people on-hand to keep them clean, and even having a contingency in place for the ones who will say, "Fuck this job, I'm quitting and going to enjoy the show,"...., you just cannot get that shit wrong!

They did. And so many other things too.

Yeah, let's ask the bands to try to calm down the crowd. Bunch of morons in charge of that one.