Ongoing History Daily: I hate touring
Being in a touring rock band is fun at first but then moving from gig to gig, city to city and venue to venue can get real old real fast. You get lonely and bored and start feeling that you’re a rat on some kind of never-ending treadmill. This explains the vast array of road songs that bands feel compelled to write, such as the Arctic Monkeys’ “Despair in the Departure Lounge.”
Life on the road can even result in a certain type of psychosis. One of the best examples of this is a dude name Luke Haines, a member of the Auteurs and a band called Black Box Recorder. Rather than agreeing to go on yet another European tour, he deliberately stepped off a 15-foot high wall. When he hit the ground, he shattered both ankles. He got his wish: he didn’t have to go on tour but he did spend weeks in a wheelchair.
