Touring is both an exhilarating and daunting endeavor, especially for underground alt-rock bands. In the words of BROKEN RECORD and FLESH TAPE, who are about to embark on a West Coast tour following the release of their split 7”, there are crucial lessons to be learned from the road. Their tips dive into their collective wisdom, blending personal anecdotes, tongue-in-cheek hints and hard-won advice to ensure your next tour is as smooth as your fuzz pedal.
Before we get into the nitty-gritty, we also have a sneak peek at their top 5 tips for touring and planning a tour that every underground band should know.
BROKEN RECORD and FLESH TAPE just dropped their collaborative split 7”, and if you’re into JIMMY EAT WORLD, SUNNY DAY REAL ESTATE, OVLOV, or HOTLINE TNT, this release is going to be right up your alley. The energy from both bands is great, capturing a raw, windswept sound that echoes the weird and wonderful sights of the open road.
The split, released on Power Goth Recordings, features BROKEN RECORD’s “Ringer,” a stadium-ready track reminiscent of their 2023 hit “Nothing Moves Me,” and FLESH TAPE’s “Joe Hill’s Last Will,” a heavy, introspective piece rooted in historical labor movements.
Lauren Beecher: “This song is about taking a leap of faith and staying true to yourself, even in situations where it could be easier to stick with a more popular or familiar approach. Ironically it’s one of our more straightforward songs, but we tried to bring the energy and I think it very much has qualities that are unique to the Broken Record sound. Something that was really fun about this song from a production standpoint was getting to work in a bass vi – that’s what I used for all the cleaner guitar parts, and there’s a double tracked fuzzy layer throughout the rest of the song as well.”
Larson Ross: “A great song that Lauren had mostly composed by the time I took a swing at writing leads. Not having much more to add structurally, I was challenged to use more texture, feedback, and slight chord modifications to add more interesting layers, which I hope turned out well!”
Larson: “Stand up and they’ll kill you if they can. Our history and prisons are littered with bodies that were a little too effective at organizing for a different future. As a Swedish American and a labor organizer, I’ve felt a connection to Joe Hill for as long as I’ve known about him. Reading his last will/song in an IWW little red songbook given to me by a friend from Portland, I found it beautiful to see Joe remind us, even as he was about to face a firing squad in Utah, that if you’ve done well, flowers will bloom from what you leave behind.”
Lauren: “Larson had the skeleton of a great song here and I came in and emo’d it up a bit – I played drums and bass on this track. Originally the vibe was a bit slower/more chill, but the drum part you hear on the recording kind of came to me when I first heard the song, and seemed like it might be fun to try. I had the time of my life recording the bass part, which is an instrument I don’t play as often as I should. Thanks to Larson for letting me rock out on that!”
Power Goth Recordings is an in-house operation run by Lauren and Corey from BROKEN RECORD, along with their friend Jay. They released FLESH TAPE’s self-titled full-length in January of this year. Around the same time, Larson from FLESH TAPE joined BROKEN RECORD as their second guitarist. Later that year, Lauren began playing drums for FLESH TAPE. During an east coast tour in April, both bands were working on songs that were outliers, leading to the decision to create the split in time for the upcoming west coast run.
Larson joined BROKEN RECORD on lead guitar for a tour in September 2023. His performance and dedication, especially through the trials of Kansas City and the White Boy Cave, earned him the trust of Corey and Lauren. This trust led to Power Goth Recordings putting out the FLESH TAPE record, and the rest is history.
Both bands are gearing up for a week-long tour across the West Coast, bringing limited edition lathe cut copies of the split, with proceeds going to ANERA to support relief efforts in Palestine. Scrol down to see the dates.
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BROKEN RECORD and FLESH TAPE’s upcoming tour is a perfect case study in how to hit the road with style and smarts. Larson from FLESH TAPE and Lauren and Corey from BROKEN RECORD have compiled their essential tips and common pitfalls to avoid, ensuring your tour is a success.
Here’s what they had to say:
Larson’s top 5 tips for touring/tour planning:
1. Get a bandmate that loves spreadsheets.
2. Make space in your tour route for smaller and out of the way towns, these places often have vibrant scenes, people willing to come out to shows, and interesting DIY spaces. One of BR’s best shows was in Lancaster, PA.
3. Be ready to hear “no” endlessly.
4. Be kind to the other bands at every show.
5. Only do stage banter if you’re actually funny, otherwise just stick to the songs.
Lauren and Corey’s top 5 mistakes to avoid when planning a tour for an underground alt-rock band:
1. Pay it forward – always be willing to help touring bands when they roll through your city. Help out with backlining gear, offer a place to crash after a gig, share a beer out of your six pack. A little kindness goes a long way to support the scene, and you never know who you might want to hit up for a favor in the future.
2. Clarify shared gear before you leave for tour – not everyone is a gear head. For example, you could plan to bring a bass head and borrow a cab for each show. We suggest not leaving the words “bass cab” up to interpretation, lest you run the risk of pitting a 30 watt combo amp with no DI output against the world’s loudest drummer.
3. If you’re not playing at an established show space, make sure the venue or promoter has a PA. Nothing worse than showing up the venue, only to have the show cancelled because everyone assumed the other party had vocal amplification under control.
4. Make sure the person booking your show remembers that it is happening. Specifically, they have not gotten it confused with the show they also booked the night before. They remembered to both announce and promote this show locally. They definitely aren’t going to scramble at the last second, find exactly one local opener who has absolutely zero crossover with your band’s sound and vibe, and show-goers are for sure going to know that your show is happening and will also attend it. There will not be a scenario in which some bar regular feels bad for you and gives you $20 for gas but doesn’t even want any of your merch.
5. If you have any doubts about an area’s safety or you’re in unfamiliar territory, always bring your gear, merch, and all bags inside with you overnight. It’s worth the extra time and effort to avoid the too-familiar tale of stolen stuff. On a related note, gear insurance is cheaper than you might think, and is a worthy investment for those times when you can’t be as cautious as you might like to be. Renter’s insurance can do the job as well!
Larson’s top 5 mistakes to avoid:
1. Make sure you are keeping changing time zones in mind when planning your travel days. Some US states have more than one time zone going on in there (why would you do that, Indiana?).
2. Make sure the person who is booking the show doesn’t go to a different gig on the other side of town on your show night.
3. DO NOT call it a “Philly” Cheesesteak in Pennsylvania
a. If you do want to call it a philly cheesesteak, at least say the word “Cheesesteak”
b. If you do order a “Philly” and get grief in response, ABSOLUTELY do not later tell the bartender that you witnessed a hit and run on their truck. See something? Say nothing. No good will come of intervening in small town affairs.
4. Do not try to make friends with the pop-Metalcore band at the gas station you both stopped at. Not only will this not work, you will feel disgusting later when you look up their music.
5. DO NOT tell the mourning, elderly, drunk cowboys in Bozeman MT who are in town for a funeral that you can play country music.
West Coast Tour Dates:
Broken Record and Flesh Tape:
July 16 – Ogden, UT – Black Lung Society
July 17 – Boise, ID – Mad Swede Brew Hall
July 18 – Seattle, WA – Vera Project
July 19 – Portland, OR – Black Water
Broken Record only:
July 20 – Berkeley, CA – 924 Gilman
July 21 – Fresno, CA – Destructive Warehouse
July 22 – Los Angeles, CA – Redwood Bar
July 23 – San Diego, CA – Tower Bar
