To make the most out of the chance of a lifetime, you may have to make some sacrifices. For thelastplaceyoulook that means quitting their day jobs, looking for more affordable housing, and leaving their families behind for six weeks.
Having built a dedicated fan base here at home the band now find themselves preparing for their first national tour. They'll spend six weeks on the road opening for 10 Years and Red Jumpsuit Apparatus playing to new crowds in exotic locations such as Madison, WI and Lancaster, PA.
Financially speaking it's not easy for a band with no major label support to commit to a tour like this. That's why the band has turned to the fans for tour support in the form of a recently announced Kickstarter campaign.
So what does it cost to hit the road for six weeks? Well, according to the budget attached to the campaign it's close to $19,000. The bulk of that is going to go gas, food, merch, and having a place to stay, although they admit they're hoping to find some new friends on the road to help them save some money on that last one.
While all of those things are important, it's the down payment on a new van that may be most important of all. As they explain in the video for the campaign their current van "Big Red" is a gas guzzler and a new vehicle would go a long way in bringing down the cost of the tour.
"It will literally cut our gas costs by 60%," the band tells us.
Add in money for a tour manager/sound/merch person, promo beards, making the new van tour ready, and having some extra cash on hand in case something bad happens and you can see how the budget starts to skyrocket. That said it's not exactly the high life.
"This isn't a tour bus," they explain. "This is the gas-station-bathroom showering, floor crashing, seven guys in a van kind of tour."