Evan Pierri – Tour Manager for Four Year Strong & Whitechapel

Meet Evan Pierri: former Tour Manager for pop punk rock band, Four Year Strong, currently managing metal heads, Whitechapel. The New Jersey native has been on the road, following the band in and out of trouble, for over two years now. Evan has traveled through the U.S. on multiple occasions, plus ventured in the United Kingdom too.

Does touring with a band bare any similarities with Travel Geeks? Let’s see what Evan has to say:



Touring consumes a lot of your time. What are the biggest challenges being on the road with a band?
Time is the biggest restriction on the road. Traveling in a van with long distances to drive can be tough. Lately I’ve felt too rushed along the way. But the biggest limit is not being able to be in one place for more than a day or few hours usually.

What do you do during your downtime on tour, when you are not setting up on stage?
I try to maximize my free time on the road by wandering around cities and towns. When I first started touring I took out my camera almost every day and snapped a shot of something. I would say bands have more time to explore than crew sometimes, because they are paying us so they DO have time to run around the city, go shopping and explore.

How do you like to explore a new destination when you’re on tour?
Start by finding some kind of coffee (most touring bands/crew head for Starbucks). I like to research stuff online sometimes and then head for fun spots. But my favorite way to see a city is with friends I’ve made along they way who know fun spots or great places to eat.

Toronto Sunset – photo by Evan

Ventura Pier – photo by Evan

Driving through Montana – photo by Evan

How do you see the connection between touring and traveling?
I definitely feel a connection between tour and travel. If I had never left on tour I would have never seen the United States. Most people do not have the opportunity to experience everything the United States has to offer as far as geography, beautiful cities and interesting people along the way. I’ve always been someone who has loved to travel (my parents had me on a plane at 3 traveling to California and the travel bug has stuck ever since). I would say the difference between a touring musician and avid traveler is that the traveler is heading to a destination with the purpose of exploring and making time to see exciting things and events. Touring bands/musicians don’t really have a choice; they’re heading to a city with the main purpose of performing and sight seeing – adventures are secondary.

What is the best part of being a Tour Manager?
Meeting new people every day. I have made so many new friends and contacts in the last 2+ years that will remain friends/contacts for life. Meeting these people has given me the chance to travel back to some of my favorite places that I might have only had a few hours to see the first time and now get to experience them entirely along with the company of great people.

How do you keep track of your travels?
Haha funny you should ask. My dad has a giant map of the U.S. in his office and he marks off every day I’m on the road, changing the color for each tour. It’s interesting to see how many times I’ve been through certain areas and cities by how dark they are now, and how many tours have gone through the same city or exact venue.

So you were bitten by the travel bug at age three. Do you think you’ve become a Travel Geek now?
Yes and no, there are still so many places I really want to see. I’ve seen 49 out of 50 states (unfortunately I haven’t gotten to tour to Hawaii yet, but I have visited) with Alaska as the last one to see. I want to save that and take a cruise there some day and just be able to really enjoy its beauty for what it is and not be rushing around on a tour. I also really would like to travel to Australia, Dubai and Mainland Europe. Hopefully touring will take me to some of those places in the future.



Keep up with Evan on the road on his Twitter where he frequently updates on Four Year Strong’s tour, foodie adventures, and sports games!

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This entry was posted on Wednesday, December 2nd, 2009 at 1:06 PM and is filed under Feature. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.