LEVI WEAVER

Hey all! I stayed up til 2am to write this all out, because that’s when …okay, absolutely none of you in Europe are probably actually awake right now, but you will be soon. ish.

Here is the latest update on me coming to Europe. Many of the dates are either booked (or I believe will be booked within the next couple of days.) The rest? Open for business. If you live near one of the cities that is in bold print, and you have a house / church / bar / restaurant, and would like to host a show, shoot me an email: booking (at) leviweaver (dot) com and let’s make this work!

January 18: Bedford, England
January 19: London, England
January 20: Bristol, England
January 21: Birmingham, England
January 25: Belfast, Northern Ireland
January 26: Manchester, England
January 27: Evesham, England
January 28: Plymouth, England
January 29: Tetbury, England
January 30: Lisbon, Portugal
January 31: Tallinn, Estonia
February 1: Amsterdam? Berlin?
February 2: Brussels, Belgium
February 3: Paris, France
February 4: Rome, Italy

If you live close to one of these places in bold, and you think we can make a show work, let me know! I’ve really enjoyed the house shows here in the U.S. and I’d love to bring that experience over there.

See you soon!

-Levi

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I’ve been an awful blogger. I’m not sure how I did it on other tours. I think I’m actually working harder on this tour than on any before. By the time I get to the host’s spare bedroom, I am so exhausted that my blog entries would have just consisted of “I miss the arms of a beautiful girl, and the laughter of a beautiful child”. This is a true sentiment, but can pretty well be encapsulated in a twitter update, and there’s only so many times the rest of you want to hear it.

And while it’s an accurate sentiment, it’s incomplete. There is also a large sentiment of grateful humility that needs to be shared. So many people have opened their homes to me this year… the handful of travel companions I’ve had have all said the same thing to me after just a few days: “Man… you know some really great people.”

It’s true. I’m maybe the luckiest person I know in that regard. I know more great people than I can even list here. So many, in fact, that I feel a little guilty for not keeping in touch with each of you a little better. You deserve more than a passing invite to a show or a music video unveiling once in awhile. Know that I recognize that, and I wish I could sit and talk with each of you about what’s going on in your life. I know great people, and I know interesting people. And the Venn diagram on that looks like one big circle with just a couple of fuzzy edges on either side.

And that, more than anything, is the recap of the first three legs of this tour. I know a lot of great people, and I am incredibly grateful for all of you.

In lieu of trying to explain to you what this fall was like (I’d rather do that in person anyway), here are a few select photos from the road this fall. (note: these are all out of chronological order)

The view of Chicago from the rooftop of the AudioTree studios

This was an actual road sign just outside LaPorte, Indiana

A picture I was sent from home of Lincoln in a shirt I got him in New York City

I could have taken a hundred pictures like this between Phoenix and Lubbock. This one is somewhere near the NM/TX border.

This was between Lubbock and San Antonio. Thought about working out a trade…

A still shot from the “I am Certain I am a Train” music video shoot. This was taken in the mountains between Corvallis, OR and Reno, NV

On the drive back from Cannon Beach, we lucked into finding this old train yard, the owners of which were super cool and let us shoot on their circa-1901 meal car that they had in the back. The speedometer is from an old car, about the same era.

This is in the Chicago O’Hare airport. After staying up (literally) all night packing the old house full of boxes and moving them to the new place, *AND* listening to my Rangers lose Game 7 of the World Series, seeing this provided an inexplicable sense of hope about the upcoming 27-shows-in-26-days leg of the tour. It was probably sleep deprivation, but I appreciated it.

A police car pulled in behind me as soon as I got into New Mexico and followed me for about 20 minutes. Eventually, I just pulled over to see what his problem was. He passed, but as I looked in my rear-view mirror, I saw this.

This is the wall of a bar in Bisbee, AZ. I’m not sure how the holes got there, but I like to think it was an old west-style shootout.

This is the Pasadena City Hall. I saw it when I was having a brunch with my good friend Ben Ewen.

From the old Mission in San Francisco where we shot part of the “Good From Evil” music video (coming 2012?)

I saw some phenomenal sunsets on this tour. This one was between San Francisco and Visalia.

Here is another one. I honestly can’t remember where I took this.

Here is an old house in Montana, by a gas station. I like to wonder who used to live in places like this. The truth is probably far less fascinating than my imagination (because in my imagination it is a family of ghosts who still think it is 1929.)

I think this one was taken just outside Price, UT. 25 minutes later, I was driving through icy snow.

And then I got home to my family in Texas for Thanksgiving. This actually happened. I’m in the back of the pickup, and we’re doing about 7 miles per hour here.

Alright! One more leg to go. Dec 3-11… See you soon, Savannah, St. Petersburg, Orlando, Louisiana, Houston, Dallas, Burleson (TX), Ada (OK).

-Levi

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One of the bands I played with on this last leg of the tour asked me if I had any tips for touring, as they were about to embark on their first one. I was going to write a quick paragraph, and ended up writing a list of ten things I think every band should consider when touring. Ten minimum. I’m sure there are more — bands/musicians; if you have others, please add them to this list. Here goes:

1. http://www.squareup.com/ <- get one of these immediately. Before you even finish this e-mail. Do it now.

2. Make sure you get as many mailing list signups as possible. (I suggest using mailchimp.com as a mailing list manager.) That way, it’s easier to let them know when you are coming back. The whole point of touring is more touring. Impress the few & they’ll bring friends next time. But they have to know when you’re coming back.

3. Never ever ever ever say “this next song” when introducing a song. I noticed this about a year & change ago – freaking everysongwriter does it. it’s like the “ummmm” of stage banter. Avoid it, and it will force you to be more creative with your in-between-song stories, and thus more memorable. Be memorable.

4. Involve the audience if you can. We live in a facebook/twitter world. People expect to be part of the experience. That can look any number of ways, but the more they are involved, the more they will remember the night, which is paramount to Item #2

5. List of things to remember (AKA: Things It’s Embarrassing To Ask The Other Bands For) (AKA: Things Other Bands Will Ask You For)

- 9V batteries.
- extension cord / power strip
- spare strings
- spare 1/4″ cables
- spare picks
- a “bank” of (at least 20) $1 Bills for your merch table so you always have change.

6. Budget
- Figure out your miles (maps.google.com +15%) and know how much it’s going to cost you in gas. Estimate $4/gallon for gas (as of 9/2011). You should be able to stay under this, but give it to yourself as a cushion. (side note: try to never fill up in New York or Canada. Fill up before you cross the state line / border.)

- give yourself $20/person/day for food. Again: You should be able to stay under this, but give it to yourself as a cushion.

- Figure out where you are sleeping before you leave. Unless you are cool with sleeping in your car in the winter (you are not cool with this, I promise.) I couch-surf all the time, it saves SO much on hotels. But figure it out beforehand.

- $0.028/mile for Oil Changes.

- Add up the cost of printing merch and divide it by the number of shows.

Now you know exactly how much it’s going to cost you to play this tour. If you impress, you can probably expect to sell about $1 worth of merch for every person in attendance. In venues, it’s significantly less. House shows and church shows, it’s a little more. If you’re playing a solid mix of these, plan for $1.

7. It will usually take you an hour longer than Google maps says it will. (for a 5-hour drive, so… 20%) Plan on getting there 4 hours early if you can. If you’re early, you can hit a coffee shop and catch up on e-mails. Try to avoid driving anywhere in/near any city between 3-6pm.

8. Get sleep. It’s tempting to stay out late and hang out, but be reasonable about it. If you have to get up early the next day, don’t be out too terribly late. The people the next day deserve to see you at your best just as much as tonight’s people deserve to hang out with you. Don’t just leave from the stage and go home; always hang out with SOMEone (Make friends! I cannot stress this enough) just be reasonable about it. (I am not good at following this advice) Also, this will not be *quite* as important on a 4-6 show tour, but generally speaking…

9. V-8.
Tour eating is difficult. I realized last Thursday that I hadn’t eaten a single vegetable in a week. Fortunately, I’d been drinking at least 1 (usually 2) V-8s every day. You can get them at any gas station, and they have a full day’s worth of vegetables in them. Even if you don’t like the taste, consider it preventative medicine.

10. It’s hard to reply to messages / facebook / twitter from the road, especially if you are the one driving. But get back to everyone that you possibly can on the day when you get back (or the next couple of days after.) It’s part of our job, and it’s good for three reasons:

- it keeps you grounded, reminds you that each of the people that wrote you took time out of their day to do so.
- it keeps you in touch with all the new friends you’ve made
- from a business perspective, it makes you a lot more likely to be able to book a show in that city in the future.

I’m sure I’ve forgotten a lot, but there are the first ten that popped into my head.

Best of luck.

-Levi

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