By Benjamin Joe
It’s no easy task to bring a band on tour. Between the scheduling conflicts with work or school, family and obligations, and the sheer newness of the endeavor, many bands balk at making that step.
But nothing is easy, right?
“You’ve got to have your priorities,”said Sidney Flanigan, lead vocals of Starjuice, and now a veteran of the band’s first tour.
Flanigan sat down in late June with her drummer Spencer Eck, to tell the tale of how in February of 2022 the two of them, along with bassist Corey Wilde, Jeffrey Colson on lead guitar, and a documentarian named Jake Metzger, broke the orbit of Buffalo based bars, house parties and other venues to bring the group’s “dream-punk” melodies out of the greater Buffalo-area and into the world as a band on tour.
“The first one is the hardest,” Eck said of the experience in a wry tone.
Neither Eck or Flanigan had been on tour before, despite being involved in the Buffalo-music scene for years, but were ready to go by the time the pandemic began to loosen its grip. Flanigan, also an actress, blacked out her schedule for the month of February and started to make arrangements for shows.
As Eck described it, the band was sitting on material for a long-awaited album for at least six months, but with no time to get it done, the dates to record kept getting pushed back.
But that was to end.
During Flanigan’s allocated time, the band, with former lead guitarist Jake Mauer, recorded “Growing Pains”, a 10-song strut of the band’s abilities with such gems as “Spare Keys”, “11/11” and “Empty Sheets”
Shortly after they were out-of-the-state.
“It was a lot of work,” Flanigan said. “I started booking it out in September of 2021 … for a tour in February 2022! You have to get started months in advance, and I had virtually no contacts.”
After reaching out to people she knew in other places, Flanigan also described “digging around Facebook groups”, finding threads on bandcamp and rifling through Instagram hashtags for more information and opportunities to play.
“It was a lot of emailing and getting no response,” she said. “And then getting in touch with people and asking, ‘Please, please, please, … I’ll play any show!’ “
But it did work out. The band travelled southward and looped back to Buffalo within two weeks of playing every night with only one day off. They stayed at fan’s houses and sometimes, if it was a house party, they’d bed down in the venue they just played. Only once did they splurge on a hotel room.
They did not need to sleep in the van.
The requirements to be a touring band is simple, according to Starjuice. First, have enough material to play a thirty to forty minutes set of all original songs.
Second, have transportation.
“This can be a lot of things. I once knew a guy who did a tour, he was a solo artist who did effects pedals and played electric cello,” Eck said. “He went up the Erie Canal in a canoe.”
Third, don’t depend on making money.
“We broke even … we technically profited 20 bucks,” Flanigan said. “But that is still really good.”
And fourth, keep track of the people you meet for future tours. That part was easy.
“What I always wanted to go on tour for was just to meet people,” Flanigan said. “Exposing myself to different (people). I mean people are people and there’s that quintessential thread that we’re all connected by, but when you go to new places, people are all so different in their own right.”
Unfortunately, a sudden sickness (not COVID-19) in the van cancelled Starjuice’s first tour a few days before the end, but the damage had been done. Starjuice had made their mark.
“Starjuice is a band that will play anywhere you want us to go,” Eck said.
As of the writing of this article, Starjuice is on their second tour playing gigs in New York state, Pennsylvania, Atlanta, D.C., and Chicago until September. More information can be found at starjuiceband.com.
Buffalo Music Players 