Published: July 01, 2008 09:42 am      

The Pump Pinch

Touring acts have the blues over fuel costs

San Marcos — Many local residents will be heading out of town for the Fourth of July, especially since it’s the start of a three-day weekend for most. They may gripe about the cost of fueling their vehicle, but they’ll do it anyway. After all, it’s a special occasion.

But for touring musicians, being on the road isn’t anything out of the ordinary at all. And especially as more and more fans download their favorite tunes from the Internet, making that personal contact is increasingly crucial.

“We can’t cut back. It’s more important than ever to continue to be out there and be present, nationally and internationally,” said Brian Hofeldt of The Derailers. “Bands have to get out there and pound the pavement, remind people we got a record out.”

Hofeldt, a Buda resident, said The Derailers do about 200 to 250 dates a year with an average trip length “probably in the neighborhood of 350 to 400 miles.” While some gigs are close enough band members can go home at night, others are faraway, like the Western states, with “drive days” in between shows. “Then we don’t have a gig at night to defray fuel costs. It’s a significant impact to our overhead,” he said, estimating the band is spending about $25,000 a year on fuel.

And, they’ve switched from traveling in a big diesel bus, which, with its generator running gets only about three miles to the gallon, to a van with slightly better mileage. The bus “was eating our lunch,” Hofeldt says.

Fuel prices “are killing us,” agreed San Marcos resident Big John Mills. “They’ve increased our expenses about 65 percent, because everything else is going up too.”

Mills and his band regularly travel in a Ford Excursion, “the one that’s bigger than a building,” and gets 9.9 miles to the gallon. “Vans are laughing at us when they drive by (because) they’re getting better gas mileage than we do,” he said.

Earlier this year Mills and his band flew to do a series of shows in the Northeast because “it was cheaper to buy a plane ticket than to pay for gas.”

Right now, Mills said, he’s trying to figure out the most affordable way to work a planned tour of Wisconsin. “That’s a long way. We’re trying to figure out the gas and the trip before we say we can do it or not,” Mills said.

He’s also looking into the possibility of getting a tour sponsor, so the band can play more dates up north. “We did really well in Pennsylvania, New York, New Jersey and some other states up there. They just loved our music because we do Texas music.”

Kent Finlay, owner of Cheatham Street Warehouse, said it’s not only the musicians that are being impacted but audiences as well. And when bands perform for a portion of the door, everybody loses.

“There’s a downturn in the number of people showing up from Houston, Austin and San Antonio,” Finlay said. “We normally have people from everywhere. I think (gas prices) are cutting into it.”

Finlay said, “It’s not just bad, it’s terrible.”

Mills joked that he’s already downsized, and may do it again.

When he began doing radio station tours, he recalled, “I traveled in a dooley truck and took my Labrador retriever with me. Then it was in a Nissan with a Chihuahua. Next year I may be back with a bicycle and a hamster.”