The Ouro Bros and the Neverending Tour

Jeff: Not that there’s anything– erm, no. There’s definitely something wrong with this guy.

Jeremy: This comic reminds me of so many different touring situations that all revolved around where we were going to sleep any given night while on the road. It really isn’t feasible to stay in a hotel/motel every night when you’re financing your own tour. When I was on the road, often times my band’s modus operandi was asking the audience from the stage (at some point during our set), “Hey, we don’t have a place to stay tonight, so if anybody out there has a floor on which we can throw our sleeping bags and crash for the night, we would greatly appreciate it.”

It can be overwhelming the amount of good will that people will extend in such a situation. We were almost always guaranteed an offer of a place to stay for the night. Sometimes we would be humbled by people cooking us late dinners and breakfasts, and good company with which to while away the hours of the night. Other times, we were faced with quite uncomfortable situations which we either decided to abide, or opted to drive to the next touring stop overnight, finding a parking lot or campsite in which to crash, either in the van, or out under the stars.

When you don’t have a tour bus (and driver), and monetary guarantees, complete with hotel rooms in which to shower and catch a few winks, you improvise. You really have to weigh if it is worth it to crash in some crack house or swinger’s den, wondering what sort of infection you may receive simply from touching the bare floor, or if you shouldn’t just try to shorten the distance between the current town and the next by driving into the wee hours of the night until you are forced to pull over and sleep. After a while, it becomes a sort of an intuition thing. You kind of know when you should opt to sleep in the van. You just develop the mutant ability to sense when an overnight sleeping situation may just cost you your soul…