The Smiley Smile Message Board

Essentially, I need a geography lesson, but if you told me the tour went from Arizona to Texas to Louisiana to Georgia in 4 days, I'd call that pretty serious travelling. And I'm not 70. Or Brian. So.... is it? We know Brian has done similar volumes of shows a year, but so bunched together? And iirc, the tour only gets a week or two off in June or July. Are they pushing too hard?

I've been thinking about this, and while I think Mike and Bruce are used to/can handle this kind of schedule, I think Brian might be very uncomfortable performing so many shows back to back to back. 

If you ask me, yes, it looks very heavy.
I play gigs with my band around  the country in weekends and it feels SO heavy.  Granted, I don't have assistants, I'm not staying in luxury hotels, I'm not being driven around, I don't just show up for the soundcheck/gig then immediately go back to the hotel.
I need to setup the stage and pack up and load my stuff then drive back home.  But still, I'm not 70 and I only play in weekends.

I dunno how these guys do it. They must love it or anyway be very used to it.
But the constant traveling around must be so tiring.  Kudos to them.

The tour buses these bands  have these days are pretty incredible.  It's not like they're piled into a van together.

They're flying for now -- can't see them doing 12-hour drives (e.g., New Orleans to Atlanta) otherwise. The road crew on the other hand gets to do all that overnight driving.

good they're flying then.  i'd imagine they're all 3-4 hours.  still, it's a really heavy tour, so i'm glad i'll be seeing them only a month in

I definitely have concerns about the guys (particularly Brian) making it through such a heavy tour.  I would think that Brian and Melinda were consulted beforehand and decided that it could be done, so let's hope they were right.

My show isn't until the end of June, so I'll be seeing either a well-seasoned band hitting their stride or a worn down group of guys who are tired out and need a break!

I'll bet they're using a private jet, so they don't go through the hassles of flying like you and I do, still it's a demanding workload.

Remember, for this tour, Brian isn't shouldering anything like the load he usually does - a few leads, some bvs, no front-man duties. Pretty easy.

And I guess he will have Melinda with him for the entire tour, probably overseas too. As far as I know that hasn't always been the case with his (greatest hits) solo tours. Am I right? He's taken care of, he'll be okay.

Hard to tell. I'm sure Mike and Bruce can handle it like it's piece of cake. David and Alan the same. As for Brian, it may be too much, or it can be perfectly manageable: he's being catered all over America, takes it easy, receives the love while does not have to carry the weight of the show... This time they have bigger support and organization than they normally did. I'm sure they'll go thru it just fine. And I'm sure that Brian's performances will improve significantly.

You know, the tough part of touring is not really sitting on stage for two hours and sing some lines.
It's flying every day/every second day, sleeping every night on a different bed, being away from home, your things and your family.
And then all the engagements like M&G, photo sessions, interviews, etc etc.

9 to 5 jobs suck but at least you get to go home afterwards.

So if they still have it in them to tour so much at that age that's fantastic.
Just hope they won't be too tired at the end of July when I get to see  them.

and sitting for a photo 30-40 times in a row, with different fans for every photo! How will they be able to stand it?

The easiest part of touring is always the performance. My NJ-based band drove up to Maine this weekend to play a show and it wasn't the playing bass for 40 minutes that wore me out, it was the waking up hungover at 9 am and being in the car for 7 hours and then doing the same thing the next day that was tiring.

How are they handling the logistics of the tour? Are they using two road crews as they have in their hay days! One crew would always be one day ahead setting up the stage for the next days show.  It must be really rough on the roadies.

The touring is heavy, but the alternative is that it takes much longer. 

It's the Buddy Holly thing.  The tour he died on was set up to play tons of dates in about 3 weeks or so, so that everybody would get home quicker.  If you're on the road, you may as well play every night, unless vacationing at the Hilton in Atlanta is your idea of a good way to spend an evening you have nothing else to do on. 

BTW, I'd be more concerned about Mike's voice holding up than any other aspect.  Although I suppose he's used to touring heavily.... Al's always a wild card too.... it's possible he'll split, but I really don't think any of them want to screw this up.  Everybody wants to be young again.  Right now, they all are. 

I suppose anything is possible, but Al has insisted from the start that they do this right; that they needed to do serious rehearsing to put on quality shows, and lots of them. He was saying this before we had any thought that this tour would become reality. I have lots more faith in Al than in some of the other possibilities that have been mentioned, such as weakening voices & other physical incapabilities.

So you've been on tour then !!!!

There's not only the question of whether Brian and the others can physically endure this very lengthy(75 show) trek. There's also the question of whether old hostilities between the members(Mike vs. Brian and Mike vs. Al) will re-emerge.

Any hostilities "re-emerging" would have happened when they worked closely during the making of the new album.  Considering they've come out of that unscathed, I think it is safe to assume that all they need to do at this point is simply show up at the gig. 

I think Al will hang in there, but his insistance that they do it right... is all the more reason he might jet if he starts perceiving that they're not doing it right. 

I don't think Alan will split of his own volition.

I think this is a pretty heavy schedule for the guys and those supporting musicians - playing a two hour show is very physically demanding for the younger bands but for the guys over 60 its pretty tiring - its looks as though there are sufficient rest days and I am sure they are travelling well and staying in good hotels with all their needs catered for.

That said its pretty daunting to be on the road doing 50 shows in that amount of time

HATS OFF TO THEM

They sorta answered my question by taking two days off....

So long as they've worked it out so they have a lot of rest days, that should keep it all cool. And no, Phil, I wasn't concerned that Brian and Mike would kick off at each other. And I'm still not.

You're just a little ray of fuckin' sunshine, aintcha ?  ;D

Phil. Its these guys last chance. We have going here what I think will be picked as one of the best tours of any artist during 2012.

This is what they will be remembered by. I know its the BB's but even a dumb@ss will not want to f*** it up this year.

Yeah I always thought it was so stupid when classic bands like this can't keep their sh*t together for 2 or 3 hours an evening.  With so much on the line, I think they'll all grin and bear it if anybody starts annoying anybody. 

I was watching something, and they were talking about... I don't know Bon Jovi and Richie Sambora or somebody and they mentioned how they got in a big fight and didn't talk for 10 years.  People are throwing millions of dollars at you and you're not professional enough to just coexist on stage a couple hours a night?