In 36 hours I will on my way for a short tour with K, Ray and The Bird to the Garden Route. It's sort of like going on holiday, except you take some music gear along and play in a few venues a couple of times. So I'm going to tell you a little about my packing methods for such a tour.
1. DRUMS
Duh. Not gonna get far without my instrument. Although I have a fairly large kit, I usually take a small one on the road. I'm not yet cool enough to have my own drum tech, and having less drums to pack up on tour can go a long way saving time and energy. Added to that, transport space is normally an issue anyway. I do pack a spare snare, just in case one decides to die on me. And I also pack a third snare head, for worse case scenerios. And then some small backups, like screws, duct tape, wingnuts, and so on.
2. CLOTHES
Call me adventurous, but I pack the bare minimum. I've never seen the point in taking a giant mound of clothes on tour. If anything goes horribly wrong, there is always somebody selling something somewhere.
3. FOOD
I eat badly on tour. Normally, we all do. It's so difficult to stand over a stove and cook a decent meal, and much more social to go out and have a pizza. I did once make a fire and cook some meat. Anyway, I take some Coke and biltong for the drive, and small things to nibble on during the day. And Coke. And also Coke. And plenty of Coke.
4. WIMPY
Rule 1 when Emil goes on tour: don't eat boring breakfast at home. Leave early and stop at a Wimpy for a cheesegriller breakfast. Mmmmmm, cheesegriller...
5. VISUAL AND LITERARY ENTERTAINMENT
I must admit, usually our tours are so busy there's little time for anything at all, other than play, eat and sleep (not nessecarily in that order). But when we do get some downtime that isn't spent dozing off, I like to read, and maybe play some PC games. DVD's are also great.
And that's it. Don't really need anything else. Except money.
I'll keep in touch during the tour. Usually something stupid\insane\hilarious happens and then I'll be first. To post about it.
Stay safe people!
