The Life and Times of an Indie Band

I've have developed a close relationship with the members of an independent musical band called The Vespers. These four young people, sisters Callie and Phoebe Cryar as well as brothers (not related to the sisters), Bruno and Taylor Jones , are a touring , singer-songwriter band who drive their sturdy van and trailer to venues coast to coast from their home base in Nashville, Tennessee.


Accompanying  them is Caitie Merz,  merch (merchandise) seller, roadie, and assistant to Bruno, who doubles as the band's manager.

They were recently booked to do a gig in Webster Hall, in New York City. When they play close to my home in Jersey, my wife and I open up what we now call The Chornomaz Inn, to them and let them know they are welcome to stay with us while they are in the area where we will feed and house them. When the  NYC gig came up and they asked if they could stay with us for two nights, I said of course, but texted Bruno  back to see if I could drive in with them, in the Vesper van, to get a real taste of what their touring musician life was like.  His one word text reply made my day: "Absolutely!"

We left my house about noon time as the band had a luncheon meeting with a record executive around one thirty, and the venue , Webster Hall, wanted them to set up around three in the afternoon  as the show started at 7 PM. On this tour, The Vespers were performing along with some other Nashville performers, Jillian Edwards, and a band called Caleb. Since the Vespers were going on last ,they might not be performing until after nine. So it was already apparent to me that it was going to be a long day.

I got to ride shotgun with Bruno, who does almost all of the driving. Once we all got settled in the van , Bruno hit the go button the GPS and we were off to New York City. I soon found out that we couldn't take the Holland Tunnel, as trailers are prohibited there...good thing Bruno was aware of the restriction. I was surprised at the lack of talking in the van as we started our journey. Everyone has an I Phone and was either emailing, phoning,tweeting, texting, web browsing or listening to music. There is a DVD player in the van, and many movies and television series have been watched by those not driving.

I asked Bruno if he listened to the radio while driving, and he said no, as he wanted to pay attention to the van's performance at all times. As you can imagine, gasoline is a big expense, as the van gets less than 10 miles a gallon. There is talk of getting a more fuel efficient van once there are funds to do so. The van has a lot of miles on it, and there have many breakdowns along the way, but they have always occurred on a day off, and the band has never missed a gig as a result of transportation issues.

Bruno's biggest concern today is parking, as the van with trailer takes up almost 3 parking spaces and NYC isn't exactly an easy place to park in the first place.
We are lucky today, as traffic is pretty light this Tuesday, and by 1:30 or so we pull up to the venue which is in the East Village area of downtown Manhattan. Bruno is delighted to see that the "loading only" parking space right in front of the venue is available and he deftly maneuvers the van in the spot. He feels we will be able to leave the van there the whole day, as he is certain that the traffic enforcement types will see the trailer and not ticket us. This is a glorious start to the day!
To be continued......