Stories From The Tour Life: Grayson Erhard and Morning Bear Western US Tour Summary

Tim Wenger | March 1, 2015

by Grayson Erhard

Starting off the tour was a surreal experience, knowing that Morning Bear and I were about to be on the road with no breaks—just nonstop music and driving for 20 days. Like tour kickoffs are expected to be, the show at the Aggie in Fort Collins was awesome. It never ceases to amaze me how selfless and passionate people are towards music and how much it moves every single one of us. This show was special, not only because it was my album release and tour kickoff, but it was the first time Morning Bear or I had headlined a 650-capacity theatre as a singer/songwriter.

John Runnels (aka Morning Bear) and I drove approximately 80 hours on that trip together in a Honda Civic. That car is definitely not designed for personal space, but we made due by showing each other music and listening to a pretty sub-par audiobook about a fantasy Egyptian archaeologist. The most grueling stretch of the drive was between Albuquerque and Phoenix. Imagine seven hours of desolate rangeland with highway patrol eyes behind every corner. It’s like the patrolmen knew nobody wanted to be stuck on that road driving the speed limit.

California was my favorite venue-experience on this tour. In Hermosa Beach, we opened for The Iron Maidens at Saint Rocke on a Saturday night to an almost sold-out crowd, San Diego was spent playing in the “Gas Lamp District” at The Tin Roof, and in San Francisco we played a fancy apartment concert befitted with wine and cheese. We marveled at how expensive the San Francisco apartment’s rent was. These girls were paying over $5,000 for a four-bedroom apartment and they had to pay $300 just to park their car in the complex. Ouch!

After San Francisco, we made the mistake of booking a black metal coffee shop in Eugene, OR. I didn’t even know that type of coffee shop existed! Coffee was constantly grinding and the employees were blatantly slamming doors while running in and out of the back of the coffee shop. They were working, which is understandable, but we realized instantly that we could have picked a better-suited venue to play. Needless-to-say, we cut our set short that night and retired to a hot tub that our hosts graciously provided.

In Seattle, WA, we took a tour of Sub Pop Records where the receptionist ate an entire box of wheat thins before finishing the tour. After the tour, we headed over to play a cool spot called El Corazon, that was just north of downtown. It had awesome sound and a lot of people came out. The only downside was that three bands straight out of the 2000’s hardcore-pop scene played before us and blasted our audience’s ears out. The next night made up for it because we played at an underground, global film and music organization called Sofar Sounds. The best experience performing is when you have an exceptionally attentive audience. That’s exactly what Sofar Sounds is like—a unique experience for artists and music-lovers alike.

Leaving Seattle, we knew we were going to be playing some odd gigs in Boise, ID and Salt Lake City, UT. In Boise, we played the Crazy Horse, which is a skull/death/necromancer-type bar that had a bunch of younger acts playing before us. That was one of my first experiences realizing that you don’t really have to be an accomplished musician to tour. This saddened me.

We ended the tour performing up and down the streets in Park City, Utah during the Sundance Film Festival and we were photographed by all of the major networks. We were initially invited to perform outside a jewelry store, but that went south as we kept getting shut down. We took down our PA and started walking the streets and people kept giving us tips! Again, the local police shut us down. So we put our names on our backs and walked up and down the main festival street performing originals and covers to strangers, not asking for tips, and ended up gaining quite the posse following us around.

Morning Bear and I sold over 200 albums, 20 shirts, made countless contacts, and we were able to afford being on the road for 20 days. Because of how successful it was, we’re planning another Western US tour kicking off April 17 in Colorado Springs and ending May 17.

Here are three things I’d do differently:

Take more breaks. We played pretty much every day for 20 days straight; we were exhausted at the end.
Have a larger variety of snacks. I’m sick and tired of granola bars and PB&J’s, and I won’t eat them for another three months because of that tour.
Bring a bigger water bottle. You’d be surprised how much water we consumed. Especially being two singer/songwriters. Water is essential. We ran out halfway through the day, every day.

Here are three weirdest things I experienced on tour: