Tour:Smart in Action [NEW POST]
Posted in Uncategorized on March 6 2009
Jon Allegreto, singer and guitarist for Chicago group A Friend Called Fire was kind enough to sit down and tell us here at Tour:Smart about what they did to prepare for their “Engulfing the East” Summer Tour. The band are devotees of Tour:Smart (full disclosure, Jon is also a former employee for Invisible Records, but we would feature AFCF anyway) and were more than willing to relay some of what they did to prepare for their tour, which started TODAY! Read about the careful planning that went into the “Engulfing the East” tour (as well as look for dates near you), check out the pictures below of Jon screenprinting tees for the tour AND check back as he updates us from the road.
Full Story Below
[Do you have your own Tour:Smart in Action story? E-mail jon@invisiblerecords.com (no relation to Jon from AFCF) and let him know what you've done!]
UPDATE ON THE ENGULFING THE EAST TOUR FROM A FRIEND CALLED FIRE.
We are on the way to play Public Assembly in Brooklyn right now. I gotta say, so far everything is going really well. Merch is selling wonderfully and all is positive. We are having a blast…this is what it’s about. That and we had three great shows in Ohio and were privileged enough to hang out with some great friends and meet a lot of new ones. Thanks to Whitney for the space to crash and the girls for hanging out all weekend!!
None of us had ever been to Pittsburgh before but we were all pleasantly surprised by how kind everyone was to us. For playing in town where we knew no one on a Monday and Tuesday night we felt like we did great. The reception was phenomenal and we delivered two top notch performances. Even had some people hear our tunes and just show up….. thanks Doug and Dan!
Holy shit! We are definitely looking to rocking that town again! Ben, the soundman at Howlers Cafe put us up the first night. He is in a band called Action Camp (myspace.com/actioncamp) - fucking awesome! Check them out!!
The second night we decided to drive a bit then find a place to park and sleep in the van. We ended up at this “campground” that was more like a yard with some benches in BFE outside Pittsburgh. So we parked at 5 A.M. and slept for 4 hours. Then we woke up and peaced out.This old man in a shiny new black Cadillac chased us! Winding up and down hills for 5 miles we finally stopped, got out and said:
“Why the he’ll are you following us?!”
“You didn’t pay for camping.”
“Camping?? We parked!”
“Well now state police are on their way. It’s $23 for camping.”
“We could have gotten a hotel room for that!”
After deciding we’d rather not deal with state police in bum fuck with nothing better to do giving us a hard time we paid the guy. We gave him an extra 50 cents for being a creep.
It was a fun morning….
More coming soon - Stay tuned… and here’s a vid about the second date of the tour mainly… there will be more. Enjoy:
Jon
AFCF
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A FRIEND CALLED FIRE “Engulfing The East” Summer Tour
By Jon Allegreto
So we’ve got about a month on tour….I’ve gotta make sure I don’t forget this shirt… and do I have extra contact lenses? I fucking hate wearing glasses. Do we have enough peanut butter?? Aw man… It seems like the only thing to do is write a giant laundry list. I did one side for the band and one for myself. It worked pretty well, but would be better if I would stop adding shit!
We definitely built the tour around the Tour:Smart strategy… each of us in the 
band has a copy and reference it often.
We have been playing “weekend warrior” regional mini-tours for close to a year, but this tour will take us further east and will be a route that we will continue to pound. Since I am from Virginia (and Powers lived there for a while too) we definitely wanted to head out that way. We are doing what we call the “Central-Northeastern” route in the U.S. - the A Friend Called Fire “Engulfing the East Tour.” You can just smell the charred flesh and the smoke on the horizon, huh? It’s basically a big-assed oval pattern and we are playing just about every day. The dates we haven’t been able to book we will find a street corner, living room or parking lot to play in for someone!
As far as getting this thing going, we sectioned off responsibilities for each person in the band (there are 3 of us) to take care of, but we all dabble in everything. There are so many things great and small so I’m not gonna hit them all. But here’s a liberal summary:
- Powers our bassist likes to book shows. I think he’s totally crazy. But luckily for the rest of the band he booked almost all the dates himself, local band support and all. Aaron and I did some research for harder areas to help a bit, but pretty much that’s his deal.
- I’m more into contacting press and online promotions. We put together a spread sheet with contacts (a few friends helped with this, which is awesome!) and sent, sent, sent! I also make most of the shirts, including the tour shirt. Powers text messaged me in the middle of one of my screen printing days asking me how I was doing. My response: “Drinkin mad Red Bull jacked up crankin Dave Grohl gettin it done!” I think we have 150 shirts right now, with about 40 already in the merch case. I got pretty high on fumes when drying them too. I’ll bring a screen and some paint just in case we run out.
- Aaron is the Myspace, Facebook whore. He’s likes to talk to people through the Interwebs so you give him some gummi worms and some “Go Girl” drink and he’s good to go. He also scored some a bunch of AMP energy drinks for the trip. We love that stuff.
- There’s also making CDs, making prints of photographs I’ve taken to sell at shows, following up with press, gettin posters up at venues and around each town, and keeping in touch with people out there.
- Since we didn’t want to pull a trailer, and it was about time to get a band
vehicle (Aaron’s truck got a pretty good run-through in the past year, lemme tell ya), we decided on a 15 passenger van. We got a really good deal too. Hmmm… I wonder why those things aren’t moving too fast these days?? Since there are 4 rows of seats, the back two come out and gear and bags go there. Powers rigged up some plywood for the ground with carpet and a piece to block off the gear from the second seat. I’ve heard stories about road cases flying through van cabins and killing people, so yeah, fuck that. We’d like to live through the tour - especially the way our drummer drives! That leaves us two bench seats to sleep on if we need it, but we are scheduled to stay with people throughout. You never know though. We put up black curtains too. I think we need some Febreeze.
- Everything is on spreadsheets - estimates on gas, projected pay, contacts, press, bands, liquor stores, sex shops, etc… We have mobile Internet, a Club, and mini-fridge. The merch is set up with a pretty nice spread. Men’s and women’s with 4 different designs in 6 different colors. CDs, posters and photographs are available too. I think Powers will be knitting in the van too. Isn’t that cute?
- I feel like I could go forever with this, so I’ll save more for some postings when we are out there. Thanks to Martin and the Tour:Smart family for all their help! We’ll be documenting… Check out the tour schedule below and if we are coming to your town, carry your ass and spread the fire!
A Friend Called Fire is On Tour Now!
6/25/2009 - The Elbo Room - Chicago, IL (going away party, no AFCF performance but FREE BEER!)
6/26/2009 - Murray’s Refinery – Tiffin, OH (18+)
6/27/2009 - Whiskey Dick’s - Columbus, OH (18+)
6/28/2009 - The Treehouse - Columbus, OH (acoustic)
6/29/2009 - Howlers Coyote Café - Pittsburgh, PA
6/30/2009 - Smiling Moose - Pittsburgh, PA
7/01/2009 - Public Assembly - Brooklyn, NY
7/02/2009 - McGuinns Place - Trenton, NJ (acoustic)
7/03/2009 - McGuinns Place - Trenton, NJ
7/04/2009 - Private Event - Baltimore, MD
7/05/2009 - TBA - Baltimore, MD
7/06,7/07 - TBA - Washington, D.C.
7/08/2009 - Canal Club - Richmond,VA (ALL AGES!)
7/09/2009 - The Spot - Williamsburg, VA (18+)
7/10/2009 - Gil’s - Virginia Beach, VA (ALL AGES!)
7/11/2009 - The Half Shell - Virginia Beach, VA (18+, under 18 w/ parent or guardian)
7/12/2009 - Zakk’s Coffeehouse - Murfreesboro, NC
7/13/2009 - DIVEbar Raleigh - Raleigh, NC - (FREE SHOW!)
7/14/2009 - Longbranch - Knoxville, TN
7/15/2009 - TBA - Nashville, TN
7/16/2009 - The Melody Inn - Indianapolis, IN
7/17/2009 - Metro - Chicago, IL (ALL AGES!)