Rackets Share Their Tour DOs and DON'Ts

This weekend Rackets finish up their third extensive nationwide tour with an instore at Real Groovy and a show later at the Kings Arms.  An impressive achievement and one they've been keen to share posting regular updates and videos via the Full Mango Tour tumbler and now sharing some invaluable touring advice including the perils of crumping in Picton or staying at a 'Gummos' house along with tips on keeping your balls warm.

Here are their tour DOs and DON'Ts courtesy of Vince Nairn...

DOs!

- Try have a shower whenever possible. It’s not very punk -  but there’s nothing worse then nine dudes hanging out in a van for 5 hours creating a broth of sweat and feet smells.

- Double pants in the cold. I found out the hard way when I was in the south island. I almost lost my balls to the freezing weather  so I came up with the genius plan of wearing track pants under my jeans. Never lost the wee guys down there again, stops the chill and you don’t need to recycle underwear.

- Triple paranoid check. Always get everyone to check the venue or house you are staying at before you leave on your merry way. It took us five times to make sure we hadn't forgotten anything in Whanganui. People went up and after a few trips even came back with a bass guitar we have left in the venue, not to mention the xl beach pigs shirts that they still forgot after seven trips back.

- Check out small town opshops. If you forget to pack a warm jacket don’t worry! You can buy three for the price of one in Auckland in just about any town in NZ. We found lots of cool hats and jackets and kept up a cool fashionable style at every town we hit up. At next to nothing costs ;)

- Get to know the locals. People will always remember you. We met up with a few people across the country who have seen us before and were friendly and always hospitable. In small towns not many bands go through people are always super keen to see some live music so if you are lucky enough they will welcome you with places to stay and nuggys to smoke. These towns are always more rewarding then playing the tourist hotspots where nobody gives a fuck.

DON'Ts!

- Sleep at a gummos house. Sometimes this is terrifying, especially if they are all on liquid acid. If you are forced to stay at a gummos house make sure you fall asleep before 3am, this is the time a gummo really comes out and shines and shows it's true behaviour. If you find yourself still awake at this time you will be ranted at about saturn and satan for hours, a gummo will steal your hat or you will be unwillingly taken to bed with a mental case.

- Hire a van with windows that don’t open. With hours of driving to be done and a van full of smokers, this is a non-smokers nightmare. It gets pretty stuffy and boring in there so what else to do but smoke? You also don’t want to hotbox out the sober driver. He wont be very happy. 

- Offend anyone on the Interislander ferry. We made the mistake of playing on the ferry at 8am. This wasn’t the major problem though, people don’t really want to hear loud music at this time of the morning let alone offensive language. Remember to keep the ferry performance PG13. You are getting a free ride over at $100 a head so you don’t want to fuck it up. Rackets are banned from the ferry now so next time we go on the Interislander we might need to change our band name back to 'The Funky Souls'.

- Have a crump battle in Picton. It seems the cops have nothing better to do in Picton then getting fights and crumping confused with each other. A Maori member of the crew almost got arrested after a cop thought he was trying to escape a fight.

- Forget a pillow. With many nights spent on a hard wood floors having a pillow makes all the difference. I found I could sleep just about anywhere with my legs stretched out and a pillow. Blankets keep you warm but a pillow saves your neck and keeps you comfortable.

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We have tickets on sale for their show with Beach Pigs this Saturday at the Kings Arms which include a copy of their brand new 7" not currently available outside of shows - click here to secure yours.