Have you traveled to follow a band on tour?

I started really following U2 on the Vertigo Tour (I believe I saw 11 shows that tour). On the 360 Tour I went a bit all out, saw them everywhere from Argentina to Moscow, Boston to Melbourne and many places in between. The # of shows I saw was 34 I believe. Who knows what'll happen next year when they're touring again...

Last year and this year I saw Pearl Jam 6 times when they were touring Lightning Bolt, in three bursts of 2 shows.

 

As best as I can recall, I saw the Grateful Dead as many as 15 times on one tour. 8 were "on tour" and 7 were in NYC where I lived (Sept 1988). I had tix for 17 shows that tour, but sold the tix for two NYC shows, as working every day and going to shows every night was getting to be too much.

 

Yep, the Dead. When I was a frequent business traveler I'd plan my trips to coincide with spring or fall tour. Plus made the trip to the '87 NYE run with my future wife & her sister.

 

Saw Ween on consecutive dates in Fayeteville, Tulsa, and KC a few years back. That was a blast.

 

Travelled a bunch of times to see Bela Fleck and The Flecktones, but not necessarily on the same tour.
Travelled from Toronto to South Carolina.
From Toronto to Boston.
From Toronto to Cleveland.
From Toronto to Buffalo a couple of times.
Countless local shows whenever they came to Toronto as well.

Saw the Stones Tour of America's in 1975 ( I think).
Toronto, Buffalo and Montreal.

Glen

 

We follow Bob every year for a bit.

 

When Ethan Iversen (pianist from the Bad Plus) interviewed Keith Jarrett he mentioned a guy who travelled to every Jarrett solo concert around the world. I'd like to have that kind of time and money.

 

A couple times I've done 3 or 4 shows but that's about it.

Neil Young & Crazy Horse - 4 shows on the fall '86 Rusted Out Garage tour (Rochester, Toronto, Buffalo, Detroit)
Peter Hammill - 3 shows on his 1990 trio tour (with Stuart Gordon and Nic Potter...RIP both of you) (Toronto, Montreal and Quebec City)

 

I saw The Dead for 9 shows at Madison Square Garden in 1991. I did have to travel to work and to my house in between shows ... so that kind of counts. I saw 13 shows of Dylan's "Interstate '88" tour, but they were all New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, and Pennsylvania, so I was never really "on the road" with the tour.

 

I would like to follow LUNA a bit next year if they do some shows in the US.....miss them so much

 

Living in Oz sometimes it's the only way you'll ever see your favorite bands so I've done it a few times...often catching a few gigs by each band and some other gigs while I'm in the country;

In 2005 I travelled to Europe to see UFO three times including the taping of their dvd Showtime - while i the vicinity I saw Europe twice in the UK and San Francisco band Vain 5 times

In 2009 I travelled to the UK and followed Vain again for their enite 7 date UK tour...also managed to catch WASP and The Answer while I was there.

2010 went to the US and saw Cinderella 3 times and Scorpions twice

2011 I went to the US to catch 3 shows by Japanese band Loudness and while there caught 2 gigs by Accept and 2 UFO gigs in New York

2013 I went to the US and saw John Waite twice

and finally this year I went to Japan and saw TNT 3 times, Primal Fear 3 times and saw Loudness again

 

I have travelled playing in bands but never followed one any distance to see them.

 

I started my Radiators count......
353 shows between 2002 and 2014. I'm countaing backwards....but a lot less travel from 1987 - 2001.
I've never been to Jazzfest.........too overwhelming for me. I preferred going to NOLA during non-big event weekends......especially when they played the Maple Leaf their last few years.

 

Stones - No Security - 5 shows - March/April '99. I mainly pulled the weekend warrior route - D.C., Philly, Hartford, Boston, and Chicago.

I saw 5 R.E.M. shows on the Monster tour but they were in clusters and far apart - 3 on consecutive nights in June in Mansfield, MA and then Hartford and Boston back-to-back in early October, so that doesn't really constitute much travelling, per se.

 

Spring 2002 - I followed Bob Dylan to Scandinavia and saw a few shows, after seeing him the preceding October, and I kept on going to see him up and down the West Coast for the next year and a half. What a band he had then--the musicianship was just out of this world great.

 

Rush - 3-6 shows per tour. I once flew to Toronto from Denver to see them play in their home town. Other tours it is Denver/Vegas/Salt Lake City/
Illinois type road trips.

 

Back in the 80's a friend of mine used to follow the Dead and came up with a great idea. While everyone else was selling domestic beers in the parking lot for a dollar, he decided to sell import beers for 2 bucks. He went on the summer tour and came back with more money than he had when he left. I sold beers with him in Philly after the show, it was a lot of fun. Now he owns a very successful nonprofit org - smart guy.

 

only the Grateful Dead 1985-1989, but I guess that's common...

 

I went to Mastodon twice this week does that count ?

 

I've seen Heart on three consecutive Canadian tours. Twice in 2010 (Victoria and Vancouver). Six times in 2011 (western Canada in winter). All thirteen shows of the 2013 cross-Canada tour (again in winter!). Plus a one-off show in Vancouver in the summer of 2013. Twenty-two times in all there.

Crazy part is that Heart is not my favorite band of all time by a long shot...

I think my left testicle is still frozen in Manitoba somewhere! It was cold on the road in February / March on the prairies!

 

I've seen the Drive-By Truckers 9 times in 3 different states in 2014 so far. Though that pales compared to one set of friends who've seen the band 161 times over the past few years.

 

I saw The Sword 5 times this year within a 8 week period.

 

Yes.

In the U.S. I've hit the road by car to catch multiple shows by such artists as King's X, Nils Lofgren, Wishbone Ash....a few others that escape me at the moment.

I've also hit the airways to catch multiple shows by The Who or Pete Townshend.

Most shows I've seen on a tour have been Wishbone Ash though. Used to take my vacations for 2-3 weeks at a time in the UK and travel all over the country (Wales as well) catching as many Ash shows as I could, helping out with setups & selling merch, doing sightseeing in the days, writing about my adventures for the US fanzine.

 

Grateful Dead

 

In addition to the above, I flew from Canada to Venice Italy in 2006, to see David Gilmour, two nights in a row. What a memory. Priceless.