When I look back at having done so many shows and gigs over the course of nearly five decades as a bass player, I am taken aback at the modes of transportation that I and various fellow band members have taken to arrive at the event. I remember early on for me it was buses, big, yellow, and lots of them, to get me to and from the many concerts that I played with my school district’s orchestras.
Traveling within my school district was rather easy; the distances to travel to the district schools were not too far apart from each other. While there was not much travel for the elementary school orchestra that I attended, the amount of travel picked up considerably once I began to attend junior high school. During my seventh-grade year was the first time I heard the term “exchange orchestras” spoken by my elders. They told us orchestra students that we would join together with the other junior high orchestra in the school district to create one large orchestra. We were told that both junior high schools have been rehearsing a few of the same pieces during the school year. I was anxious to hear what two orchestras combined together would sound like.
When the two school district junior high schools got together for the first time during my seventh-grade year, it was my first exchange orchestra experience. We traveled as an orchestra from our school to the other junior high school in our district; it was very different than traveling to another school as a sports team. But we still had our own school spirit, and all of the players in our orchestra wanted to play their best in the presence of another school orchestra. The big yellow school bus was the way to get there, with their firm to hard dark green seats, no seat belts, and so long and cavernous inside.
As I moved on from eighth grade and became a high school freshman ninth grader, the travels that the school orchestra took were numerous when I look back on those days. Those big yellow school bus rides to events and concerts were not without the occasional mishap before traveling. Somehow, the emergency back door on one bus came open and an acoustic bass tumbled right out of it. The bus was parked at the time, and nobody got hurt, but I can tell you that the sound of an acoustic bass hitting and crashing onto the hard pavement in that parking lot was a sound that I will never forget. A sound that is hard to describe indeed!
When I was playing with the high school orchestra, the travel became more extensive, and we did exchange concerts with high schools that were outside our school district with high schools on Long Island. And more of those big yellow school buses to ride around in. They were always an experience to be in. And for special event use, I had the privilege to ride in a station wagon car that was painted school bus yellow and adorned with the requisite lights to identify it as an official school bus. When I was a high school sophomore, a group of five orchestra players, including me, had been granted permission to travel to the elementary schools and demonstrate playing our chosen instruments for the young students. I remember how cool it was to get out of class and go play at the elementary schools that year. Hey, these are some of the perks for playing music well I realized.
Travel by car became the main mode of transport after high school for a while. But soon came the vans, and the trucks that were often rented to get to shows with the band I joined right out of high school. I remember that most of the guys in that band would take turns riding along with the band’s equipment technician in either a van or a truck to the band’s shows. I took my turn in the van mostly and got to see Long Island and New York City from the view of an equipment van. Unique to be sure. But all of us wanted to ride with the band’s manager to the gigs; she had a small two-seater British sports car that we all loved. I got to ride to a couple of the band’s shows with her, she could really drive that car and that car could really fly when you stepped on in. That was fun for me.
When I spent time in Japan in my early twenties, we got to band gigs mostly by cars and vans. The occasional gig there would be an equipment truck or two for the band’s backline and P.A. system. And just when I thought that I would not ride in one again, the band reserved a big school bus that was dark blue in color this time, to travel a long distance to some shows on the north part of Honshu Island. It was winter and cold, but that big bus had a heater that worked and that saved the day for us. And it was nice to travel at the height that a bus seats you. The view was very nice, and the landscape of Japan was beautiful to look at. I never said never again about riding in a big school bus, because, well, it could happen at any time!
Most of the shows that I traveled to in the U.S. as a bass player have been by cars, but vans and rental trucks are included here as well. I would rent a truck sometimes for one band that I was leading in the high desert of southern California; we would make the 200-mile round trip to Los Angeles and do our shows there. The band would try to ride together to save on fuel, and so I would always try to rent a travel truck that had a compartment door leading to the cargo area in the back of the truck. The guys would bring something soft to sit on and ride on top of the backline and P.A. gear. We were all young and having fun in a good band, I enjoyed driving the truck and having a laugh with the band members.
But as I moved on to Los Angeles as a bass player, the modes of travel began to include airline travel to and from shows. Traveling with the band on an airline is one of the fun experiences to have as a musician, I think. There is nothing like knowing that reason that you are riding on this aircraft is because you practiced at home as a musician, and you rehearsed very well as a band. I thought about the major label artists that I saw early on in my musical career and how they often traveled by air to their shows. I thought that it was a real privilege to travel by air to shows, and I felt that I would do so for as long as the opportunities presented themselves.
Once I made the move to Europe and to the Netherlands, it became surprising at all of the modes of transportation that I took to get to shows. I traveled to shows in cars and vans when they were long distance from where I was living in Amsterdam, which was normal. And the travel by air to get to the concerts in Italy and elsewhere were special indeed. To travel by tram or bus in the city was easy once I learned the city routes. But what set apart my mode of travel once again was my use of a bicycle while I was living in Amsterdam. I walked around Amsterdam and used its public transport system during my first year living there. But once I got a good touring bicycle, that was how I got around for most of all of the remaining years that I spent there. You see, there is a very real bicycle culture in the Netherlands, and people there take their bicycle system and infrastructure quite seriously. It is possible to ride your bicycle safely from one end of the country to the other there, clearly marked bicycle paths that include traffic signals are everywhere, in every small village or town to every big city there is a place to ride your bicycle.
And people who decide to drive cars there know that the person on a bicycle has the right of way, but things do happen. I did get hit by a taxi one day while I was riding my bicycle, I was not hurt too badly, and I was much angrier than hurt. I shouted at the driver, he knew what he had done, but he and his passenger stayed behind locked doors and rolled up windows as I shouted at them. When I was done, we went our separate ways.
I thought to travel to as many shows as possible on my bicycle in the city of Amsterdam would be my way of getting around. I had purchased a touring bicycle that had a rack on the back wheel and a slightly smaller rack in the front wheel. These came in handy as I could wear my bass travel bag with my bass inside of it gently on the back wheel rack of my bicycle. On the front wheel would be my backpack that had cables and spare parts and sometimes gig clothes for the stage. Keep in mind that when on a bicycle, you’re out in the elements. The winters are very cold in Amsterdam, so I would dress very warmly to make sure that I would not get too cold on the way to my shows. And dressing properly afterward to make sure that I would be warm on the way home after a very late night/early morning gig when it was really cold outside.
I also keep in mind how many people got around by boat in Amsterdam; there are more than we think. I always loved a boat ride on the canals in Amsterdam; each one was very special to me. It is the most different way that I have seen a city anywhere I have lived. So, I think that the shows that I played on the canal touring boats were just great. I met a guitarist and his sister who were doing a duo show on the touring boats and they asked me to join them. I did, and I must say that to ride my bicycle down to the dock with my bass and get on board the touring boat and play music for the entire 90-minute tour were some of the most memorable experiences that I had while living in Amsterdam. I really liked doing that and I am so thankful to that guitarist for inviting me to join him and his sister.
I enjoyed my mode of transport by bicycle during my years of living in Amsterdam. I finally wore out the first bicycle that I bought, and I went back to the same bicycle repair shop that I bought it from and got another one. I rode that second bicycle until I left Amsterdam, and funnily enough I went back to the same bicycle repair shop and sold it back to the shop owner. We both laughed about this, and he was happy that I had taken good care of that bicycle so someone else could use it.
Returning to the States, it has been back to cars and vans to travel to shows with along with the occasional airline mode of travel. It was strange when I sold my bicycle in Amsterdam; I went back to walking and using public transport to get around. But when I see the new driverless cars beginning to populate the roads here in the U.S., perhaps it is just a matter of time that I will get the privilege to travel to a show in one. And that will be a story in itself indeed. Happy trails to your next show and stay safe out there!
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